Singapore's ruling party ushers in new guard<\/p>\n
Amy Tan, Reuters, Singapore<\/p>\n
Singapore's ruling People's Action Party (PAP), in power for more
\nthan 36 years, has begun to reshape its leadership and bring in
\nnew blood from previously untapped areas to tackle a more
\nuncertain future.<\/p>\n
The tiny trade-dependent country is in its worst recession
\nsince independence in 1965 and faces rising security concerns
\nafter the attacks on the United States as a small pro-Western
\nisland in the heart of Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n
The PAP is taking advantage of a walkover election win on Nov.
\n3 to retire several senior ministers and bring in new talent
\ndrawn from professions such as banking, law and medicine.<\/p>\n
The ruling party's return to power has been secured without a
\nvote being cast as the fragmented opposition will contest only 29
\nof 84 seats in parliament.<\/p>\n
\"This election I am preparing a changeover of the guard. It is
\nnot going to be sudden, it will take some time,\" Prime Minister
\nGoh said on Thursday. \"Hopefully by 2007 the changing of the
\nguard will be completed.\"<\/p>\n
Goh said the moves will culminate with him standing down as
\nprime minister sometime during the next parliament, as happened
\nthe last time the PAP undertook this type of renewal program.<\/p>\n
Arriving in the new parliament will be a batch of politicians
\nunlike the predictable candidates of the past -- typically
\nmarried civil servants or former military men with a degree,
\nimpeccable track records and kids in tow.<\/p>\n
Three single women, a group conspicuously absent over the
\nyears, were among the PAP's 25 fresh faces, alongside some vocal
\nformer skeptics and plenty of people from the private sector.<\/p>\n
\"To win their votes -- the single mothers, the singles, the
\nmiddle income -- the PAP... are accepting people out of their
\nstandard category,\" Steve Chia, secretary general of the
\nopposition National Solidarity Party, told Reuters.<\/p>\n
Among those leaving is Finance Minister Richard Hu, who
\nfounding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew appointed to that role in
\n1985 during the first PAP changeover since independence.<\/p>\n
Hu's successor has not be named but Second Minister for
\nFinance Lim Hng Kiang and newcomer Tharman Shanmugaratnam,
\nmanaging director of the central bank, are likely contenders.<\/p>\n
Lee's overhaul of the first-generation PAP between 1984 and
\n1990 ended with him handing the reins of power to Goh.<\/p>\n
Following the precedent set by Lee, who moved on midway
\nthrough his five-year term, Goh may stand down sometime in 2004.
\nLee's son, Deputy Prime Minister and central bank chief Lee Hsien
\nLoong, is expected to take the helm.<\/p>\n
Singapore's weak and divided opposition, coupled with the
\nPAP's strong grip on the political and economic levers, afford
\nthe ruling party the luxury of near-certain forward planning.<\/p>\n
\"It (the PAP) has analyzed its own self-renewal situation,
\nconsidering the fact that society has changed and the new group
\nof voters have different aspirations,\" said Lee Chun Wah, an
\nassociate professor at Nanyang Technological University's School
\nof Communication Studies.<\/p>\n
Under Lee's firm hand and pro-business policies, an island
\nwith few natural resources transformed into a nation with one of
\nthe world's highest standards of living.<\/p>\n
Goh, who has been in power for nearly 11 years, was initially
\nbilled as a \"seat warmer\" by political pundits but has carved out
\na solid image as the instigator of a kinder, gentler Singapore.<\/p>\n
\"I've tried to bring about a more gracious kind of society,\"
\nGoh has said.<\/p>\n
His supporters claim his success was to soften the often harsh
\nrule of the PAP and maintain the support among an increasingly
\naffluent and well educated middle class.<\/p>",
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