Singapore succession in place as PM Goh prepares for exit
Singapore succession in place as PM Goh prepares for exit
Roberto Coloma, Agence France-Presse, Singapore
Singapore's political succession is now in place as Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong begins his last big mission: restore economic growth before stepping down as chief executive of Singapore Inc.
Goh, 60, plans to hand over power halfway through his new five-year term if Singapore pulls out of its current recession by then, setting the stage for his designated heir Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to take over.
The new cabinet was sworn in Friday with the spotlight on Lee, 49, son of the first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, 78, who in 1990 stepped aside in favor of Goh but is still in the cabinet with the special title of Senior Minister.
"In two to three years' time, our economic growth should have resumed. By then, the new crew should be ready to take over the leadership baton," Goh said in a speech after the oath-taking.
Like a company chief executive preparing to move upstairs, Goh is scouting around for future leaders of Singapore Inc., as the republic is known because of the major role played by the state in the economy and the corporate methods used in running the government.
Goh told AFP in an interview that he would not negotiate his future role with his successor, but will remain an MP. He said that if asked, he could play an "advisory role" similar to that of the elder Lee.
The junior Lee has meanwhile assumed more powers, taking over the finance ministry in addition to being chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore and head of a committee studying the long-term restructuring of the economy.
Goh's People's Action Party (PAP) has ruled Singapore since 1959. It walked off with 82 of the 84 seats and 75 percent of the votes cast in the Nov. 3 elections, including 55 that were not even contested by the feeble opposition.
Emil Bolongaita, an assistant professor of public policy at the National University of Singapore, said the succession process was not exceptional or unusual.
He said Singapore has a "dominant party system" under which the PAP has its own internal rules and dynamics in deciding the succession issue.
"Because the PAP remains the dominant party, the real politics and the real election is within the party," he said. "As with similar parliamentary regimes, who heads the party heads the government."
"Because of the PAP's party dominance the succession process is very much an organizational process. That's not to say they don't take external factors and domestic factors into consideration. The last elections certainly demonstrated this."
Professor P. Ramasamy, a political scientist at the National University of Malaysia, said Lee's imminent rise to the top was no surprise but he was "slightly puzzled" that Goh gave a timetable for stepping down.
"In the Southeast Asian context prime ministers stay for a very long time," he said, citing Lee Kuan Yew, who was prime minister for 31 years, Malaysia's prime minister for the past 20 years Mahathir Mohamad, and former Indonesian President Soeharto, who ruled for 32 years.
"Maybe times are changing, maybe there is some subtle pressure on Goh Chok Tong," Ramasamy said. "Why does he want to quit so early? He has not been in power for so long. He's not that old. He's not been performing miserably."
But Goh told AFP that Singapore had a "unique system" and stressed the need to keep bringing in new faces as part of a "conveyor belt" process of leadership renewal.
He said he was himself recruited by the elder Lee in 1972 when he was a shipping executive running the Neptune Orient Lines, and it was now his turn to convince "bright young people" to join the government.
With a handpicked core group of key ministers in their forties and fifties now in position, Goh said he would now look for promising Singaporeans under 35 from whose ranks another future premier could emerge.