Direction for next 50 years to be set at coming election
PM Lee Hsien Loong speaking during the National Day Rally 2015. Photo: Don Wong/TODAY
SINGAPORE — What Mr Lee Kuan Yew did — plan beyond his term in political office and beyond his lifetime — is what Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong aims to do at the next General Election.
This is why the coming polls will be “critical”, said PM Lee, who has set his sights on reinforcing his current leadership team to take the country into the next phase — not only the next five years, but also the next 15 to 20 years and beyond.
In his National Day Rally speech, the Prime Minister said the election would be called “soon” and asked Singaporeans to choose the team that would work with them at this “turning point”.
“We have just completed 50 successful years. Now, we are starting out on our next 50 years of nationhood,” he said. “You will be setting the direction for Singapore for the next 50 years. You will be determining the future for Singapore.”
In the same way that the late Mr Lee and his team had nurtured the next generation of leaders and taught their successors to do the same, PM Lee wants the next team to be ready in the wings.
“The nucleus is there — brought in at the last election and earlier,” said the Prime Minister, who pointed out how they had taken charge of “important programmes” such as Our Singapore Conversation and SG50.
However, he needs to “round out the team to give Singapore the best possible chance of succeeding into the future”, noting also that members in his current core team are in their late 50s and early 60s.
PM Lee also posed questions about the future of the Republic: “Will Singapore become an ordinary country with intractable problems? Slow, even negative growth, overspending, heavy burdens for our children, gridlocked government unable to act?
“Or will Singapore always stay special for our children? A multiracial society strengthened by diversity, not splintered by divisions. A rugged society where everyone strives to do his best, but looks out for his fellow men.”
To this end, he called for Singaporeans’ support in order for his team to do a good job and “keep Singapore special (for) many years to come — another 50 years”.
“If you are proud of what we have achieved together and look forward to the future that we are building, please support me and my team,” he added.
On whether Singapore can still do well come SG100, he said nobody could be sure.
This was a question posed regularly to the late Mr Lee while he was alive, and friends would often talk to him about this during meals.
The Prime Minister read out a letter from one of those friends, which told of the late Mr Lee’s last response — in January — as to whether there would be a Singapore in future.
Previously, the replies had ranged from “maybe” to “yes, if there is no corruption”.
However, one evening, Mr Lee finally said: “Of course there will be ... even better!”
The Prime Minister said his father would have been proud of what he had built if he had seen the National Day Parade (NDP).
“At the NDP, we showed the world what stuff Singapore is made of,” said PM Lee, citing the unity of Singaporeans singing the song Home and the high spirits of the children who performed, whom he met on the Padang after the parade.
