Singapore's ruling party ushers in new guard

Singapore's ruling party ushers in new guard

Amy Tan, Reuters, Singapore

Singapore's ruling People's Action Party (PAP), in power for more than 36 years, has begun to reshape its leadership and bring in new blood from previously untapped areas to tackle a more uncertain future.

The tiny trade-dependent country is in its worst recession since independence in 1965 and faces rising security concerns after the attacks on the United States as a small pro-Western island in the heart of Southeast Asia.

The PAP is taking advantage of a walkover election win on Nov. 3 to retire several senior ministers and bring in new talent drawn from professions such as banking, law and medicine.

The ruling party's return to power has been secured without a vote being cast as the fragmented opposition will contest only 29 of 84 seats in parliament.

"This election I am preparing a changeover of the guard. It is not going to be sudden, it will take some time," Prime Minister Goh said on Thursday. "Hopefully by 2007 the changing of the guard will be completed."

Goh said the moves will culminate with him standing down as prime minister sometime during the next parliament, as happened the last time the PAP undertook this type of renewal program.

Arriving in the new parliament will be a batch of politicians unlike the predictable candidates of the past -- typically married civil servants or former military men with a degree, impeccable track records and kids in tow.

Three single women, a group conspicuously absent over the years, were among the PAP's 25 fresh faces, alongside some vocal former skeptics and plenty of people from the private sector.

"To win their votes -- the single mothers, the singles, the middle income -- the PAP... are accepting people out of their standard category," Steve Chia, secretary general of the opposition National Solidarity Party, told Reuters.

Among those leaving is Finance Minister Richard Hu, who founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew appointed to that role in 1985 during the first PAP changeover since independence.

Hu's successor has not be named but Second Minister for Finance Lim Hng Kiang and newcomer Tharman Shanmugaratnam, managing director of the central bank, are likely contenders.

Lee's overhaul of the first-generation PAP between 1984 and 1990 ended with him handing the reins of power to Goh.

Following the precedent set by Lee, who moved on midway through his five-year term, Goh may stand down sometime in 2004. Lee's son, Deputy Prime Minister and central bank chief Lee Hsien Loong, is expected to take the helm.

Singapore's weak and divided opposition, coupled with the PAP's strong grip on the political and economic levers, afford the ruling party the luxury of near-certain forward planning.

"It (the PAP) has analyzed its own self-renewal situation, considering the fact that society has changed and the new group of voters have different aspirations," said Lee Chun Wah, an associate professor at Nanyang Technological University's School of Communication Studies.

Under Lee's firm hand and pro-business policies, an island with few natural resources transformed into a nation with one of the world's highest standards of living.

Goh, who has been in power for nearly 11 years, was initially billed as a "seat warmer" by political pundits but has carved out a solid image as the instigator of a kinder, gentler Singapore.

"I've tried to bring about a more gracious kind of society," Goh has said.

His supporters claim his success was to soften the often harsh rule of the PAP and maintain the support among an increasingly affluent and well educated middle class.