Singaporean stage set for smooth power transfer

Seah Chiang Nee, The Star, Asia News Network, Selangor, Malaysia

Five years ago, he appeared bald and physically weak before the press talking of his battle with cancer that he contracted in 1992. His future was under a cloud.

Flashing his boyish smile, Lee Hsien Loong last week spoke to a Chinese-language newspaper, touching on different subjects.

Given a clean bill of health long ago, the Deputy Prime Minister was portrayed as a friendly regular chap who eats out with his family in T-shirt and shorts.

"I can't say I'm a very experienced parent, but I have some experience," said Lee, who has two children aged 22 and 14.

"It's not easy being a parent. Maybe it's not very easy being a child. They have their own thinking and beliefs."

In recent months, he had been making the headlines, saying in one: "I don't make promises I can't keep."

At a Harvard Club lunch, he promised to continue liberalizing. "I have no doubt that our society must open up further," he said.

Lately, he admitted to being "the mystery caller" who logged into government websites, vetted service counters and checked e- mail replies to monitor the level of public service.

All this exposure was evidently to give Singaporeans a closer glimpse of their next leader.

The son of Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew is widely tipped to take over from Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong some time this year, Singapore's third in 39 years of independence.

At 52, Hsien Loong is 12 years younger than Malaysia's new Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, with whom he will soon work to strengthen bilateral ties.

Goh had said that if the economy recovered, he would be ready to announce his stepping down after the first quarter of 2004. Now that economic growth is forecast at a strong 5 percent to 5.5 percent, the time is near.

In a long newspaper interview last week, Goh spoke of his life as a loving grandfather, teaching his granddaughter to swim. Some regarded it as a message that the Prime Minister was ready to pass over the baton but will remain in the Cabinet.

Inside the government, the transfer of power had been taking place for some time. New younger leaders who will work with Hsien Loong have slowly been moving into positions and will take over from a number of older ministers who are likely to leave with Goh under Singapore's unique "self-renewal" politics.

No challenges, no public protest. When the time comes -- usually after three or four five-year terms if things go well -- they leave to make way for others. It's the People's Action Party way.

By the end of the year, Goh would have completed 14 years in office, not bad for one who was merely considered "a seat warmer" in 1990 when he succeeded Kuan Yew.

People had expected him to last maybe a term before vacating the seat for Hsien Loong. But he had stayed and even thrived.

Goh gained wide public acceptance from Singaporeans who warmed up to his mild, responsive style that was a far cry from his authoritarian predecessor.

For this reason, public reaction towards the imminent transfer of power is mixed.

On the unenthusiastic side are young professionals who are fearful that under Hsien Loong, the city-state will revert back to the "harsher", more controlled state of the Kuan Yew era. The chances for political decontrol, they feel, will be less under the new Prime Minister.

On the other side, however, are admirers who regard Hsien Loong as a more capable, firmer leader, who is better able to restore Singapore's economic strength and the people's pride and confidence in their society.

But overshadowing this is a wider debate involving the Lee family's role in Singapore after Hsien Loong takes over.

The controversy intensified after the ageing Lee, now 80 and not in the pink of health, announced he would retain his role in his son's Cabinet, which will also include Goh.

This will set up a near-unique model for the world, in which two ex-prime ministers will serve in the successor's government. "A three-in-one", a critic said cynically.

It caused an angry reaction from a section of the population which peppered the Internet websites with suggestions that it was time for Kuan Yew to retire from public life, and that he would do better offering advice from behind the scenes as a common citizen.

In addition, the public is uneasy with the extensive, powerful roles played by other Lee family members in Singapore.

Kuan Yew is likely to remain the chairman of the Government Investment Corporation, the state's overseas investment arm with more than US$100 billion in assets.

Hsien Loong's wife, Ho Ching, will remain chief executive of Singapore's other great investment anchor, Temasek Holdings, owned by the Finance Ministry.

Under Temasek is a whole stable of companies that include Singapore Airlines, DBS Bank, defense giant Singapore Technologies and others that make up a sizeable part of the stock market.

Another son, Hsien Yang, is central executive officer of the huge Singapore Telecoms (SingTel), with its tentacle-like shareholdings across Asia.

Explaining the phenomenon, Goh defended the appointments by saying that the Lee family is extraordinarily capable in a talent-short city.

For Hsien Loong, this has become a sensitive issue. Asked by an interviewer six months ago whether his father was running policies, he said it could not work -- if they had run it like a family, capable ministers would not stand for it and quit.

"We are running the ship but he keeps an eye on it and if he feels strongly about something, he'll surely let us know and we'll consider very carefully his views and then decide what we need to do."

Who will be Singapore's new deputy prime minister?

Some names have been speculated, including Defense Minister Teo Chee Hean, Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng and Minister for Trade and Industry George Yeo.

Not a word from the leaders, though, which shows, according to one commentator, how much the PAP views it as a party, and not a public, matter.