Officials blast Lee for criticism of RP democracy

Officials blast Lee for criticism of RP democracy

MANILA (AFP): Top Philippine officials on Tuesday let rip at
Singapore's elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew over reported comments
on the shortcomings of Philippine democracy, which some here
interpreted as suggesting Filipinos are stupid.

"He is out of line comparing his country to the Philippines,"
said Roilo Golez, the country's national security adviser.
"Situations vary among countries of different sizes," Golez said.
"It is easier to foist a dictatorship on a small nation than a
big one," he added.

Local newspapers and radio stations on Tuesday highlighted
news reports in which former prime minister Lee supposedly
suggested that the democratic process does not work in the
Philippines because people are not educated.

Some Manila radio stations took it to mean that Lee was
describing Filipinos as stupid.

In its website, Singapore television station Channel News Asia
quoted Lee as citing the example of the Philippines, which has a
constitutional process in place, but was unable to remove the
President constitutionally although he was impeached.

Senate president Aquilino Pimentel also blasted Lee for his
comments, saying the economic success of Singapore a "tiny state"
was not a license to bad mouth neighbors.

"The success of that tiny state Singapore must have gotten
into his head that he wants to pontificate the rest of the world
(on) what is good in matters of governance and statescraft,"
Pimentel told reporters.

Like Golez, Pimentel scoffed at Lee's style of governance as
only fit to "run a city." "I doubt if he can run a nation as big
as the Philippines."

"Therefore he has no business telling us what we did is wrong
according to his standards," he added.

Lee had been among the few foreign statesmen who criticized
the military-backed popular uprising which ousted the corruption-
plagued regime of Arroyo's predecessor Joseph Estrada last month.
Prosecutors had earlier failed to win his conviction in a Senate
trial.

"So it just doesn't work ... the checks and balances do not
work out in the same way and we have to live with reality," Lee
was quoted as saying in the website.

"And one of the reality is that this is an area where the
population needs to have its level of education brought up,
complete literacy, dissemination of information that makes it
possible for informed judgments," said Lee.

Golez recounted how Lee supposedly got his comeuppance when he
visited China and lectured the leaders of the Asian giant.

"When it was the president of China's turn to speak he told
him, 'Mr. Lee Kuan Yew we will remember all your advice and if we
ever need a mayor for Shanghai we will call you'," Golez said.