Singaporeans warned about competition<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE (AFP): Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew warned
\nSingaporeans in a speech to guard against complacency amid
\nintensifying competition from neighbors Malaysia, Indonesia and
\nThailand.<\/p>\n
The 73-year-old elder statesman, who was prime minister from
\n1959 to 1990, also told university students that \"primeval
\nforces\" underneath the city-state's multiracial harmony remained
\na danger to social unity.<\/p>\n
Lee, speaking late Thursday, said \"the going will be tougher\"
\nnow that Singapore had achieved a per-capita gross domestic
\nproduct of more than US$25, 000, making it Asia's second richest
\nsociety after Japan.<\/p>\n
\"Furthermore, policies that we adopted which have made for our
\nsuccess are now followed by our neighbors Malaysia, Indonesia and
\nThailand,\" said Lee, who led Singapore to independence from the
\nMalaysian federation in 1965.<\/p>\n
He singled out Malaysia -- with 20 million people compared to
\nSingapore's three million -- as the city-state's closest economic
\nrival.<\/p>\n
\"Whether it is in container ports, airports, airlines,
\ntelecoms or IT (information technology) services, we will face
\ncompetition from Malaysia with its new container ports, new
\nairport, new highways and high-speed railway and new high-tech
\nmultimedia corridor,\" Lee said.<\/p>\n
\"In 10 to 15 years, Thailand and Indonesia will follow in
\nMalaysia's wake and give both Singapore and Malaysia
\ncompetition,\" he added.<\/p>\n
He said \"the best way forward\" for Singapore was to invest in
\n\"fast growing and stable\" ASEAN countries as well as China and
\nIndia, while maintaining its competitiveness at home through
\nbetter education and training of its workers.<\/p>\n
ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
\nSingapore, Thailand and Vietnam, which have collectively posted
\nthe world's highest economic growth rates for two decades,
\nalthough some, like Singapore, are currently undergoing a mild
\nslowdown.<\/p>\n
Burma, Cambodia and Laos are currently seeking ASEAN
\nmembership.<\/p>\n
\"If we lose that focus, dissipate our energies over fringe
\nissues, we shall go the way of complacent societies who assumed
\nthat they had arrived at the stage of self-sustaining growth,\"
\nLee said of the need to remain competitive.<\/p>\n
\"What we have achieved is not enough to see us through the
\nnext 30 years.\"<\/p>\n
Lee cautioned Singaporeans against regressing to the racial
\nand religious discord that tore the island in the 1960s. The
\nisland's population is 77 percent Chinese, 14 percent Malay and
\nseven percent Indian, with other races making up the rest.<\/p>\n
There have been no communal riots since 1969 but \"it will be a
\ngrave mistake to believe that these dangerous primeval forces,
\ndriven by religious and racial feelings, cannot erupt again.\"<\/p>\n
\"If we ever forget this, we put our future in peril,\" Lee
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Lee, whose People's Action Party (PAP) has kept a firm grip on
\npower since 1959 and faces general elections by April 1997, said
\nSingapore still needs a strong government.<\/p>\n
\"Weak political leadership that postpones the tackling of
\nmajor problems, and meets every populist demand in order to win
\nvotes for the next election, will cause a slide downhill,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/singaporeans-warned-about-competition-1447893297",
"image": ""
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