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.