S'pore disfavors ministers' children

S'pore disfavors ministers' children

SINGAPORE (Reuter): Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said the island state was a meritocratic society that did not favor the children of top officials, the Straits Times newspaper reported yesterday.

"In Singapore, there is no barrier to a person's ability to go up the building. It does not depend on who you know.

"We do not look at the parents and say, these are the children of top civil servants, or these are the children of ministers and so these children must be given advantages," Goh said in an off- the-cuff speech at a public employees' union dinner on Sunday.

Goh's statements come in the wake of an unprecedented debate in parliament last week which saw senior minister Lee Kuan Yew and his son explain their discounted private property purchases and a long-time opposition parliamentarian raise the issue of ministers taking advantage of their position for personal gain.