Singapore reserves, top posts protected by President
By LEE U-WEN
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(SINGAPORE) There are many safeguards in place should the opposition manage to displace the People's Action Party at a future general election, said Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew yesterday evening.
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| 'I believe that whatever we learn, with the free market, you must expect a glitch and a failure. It happens regularly.' - MM Lee |
He gave the assurance that Singapore's reserves would be protected, and that the country's top officials - such as those from the police and the army - could not be changed without first getting the President's consent.
'We've set in place a President with blocking powers, so any opposition that comes in will find that they cannot touch the reserves,' he said during a dialogue session at a gala dinner at the Shangri-La Hotel to mark the fifth anniversary of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
'Otherwise, they promise the sky and spend the money and all our savings will go in five years,' he told his 800-strong audience that included key Cabinet ministers, senior civil servants, diplomats and academics.
He noted how the President could count on his Council of Advisers, comprising experienced economists and businessmen, to advise him on what would be best for the country going forward.
Mr Lee said that the system in Singapore allows any opposition the chance to displace the PAP government peacefully. 'If you can win an election, so be it. And at some time, some place, we will not be able to find a team that can equal an opposition team. And on that day, we deserve to be out. If we become corrupt, inefficient and can't deliver, we're out,' he said.
'We can't guarantee that each time we will produce a better team than the opposition. I don't see any problem at the next election, but maybe at the next one, and the opposition manages to get a good team. Then we're at risk.'
During the lively hour-long dialogue, which was moderated by LKY School dean Kishore Mahbubani, Mr Lee was asked a series of questions by the audience on numerous topics, including his views on the progress of China and India, and on leadership succession.
One subject that came up twice was the global financial crisis, and when asked about what he thought were the key causes of the unprecedented economic meltdown, the Minister Mentor boiled it down to a lack of regulation and the belief that a free market was the best way to go.
'Maybe we learn from this, maybe we won't. I believe that whatever we learn, with the free market, you must expect a glitch and a failure. It happens regularly. So if you believe that you learn from this and there will be no more crises, that's silly. It won't happen that way,' he said.
'We are in the middle of a crisis we haven't gotten out of. I think the consultation will be how to make sure that we don't go further deeper in this recession,' he said. 'When we are out of it, we will begin the more difficult task of how to improve the system. But no improvement can ever prevent another breakdown.'
Earlier in the evening, Prof Mahbubani paid tribute to the school's achievements, having started from a small public policy programme with 40 students and 11 professors in 2004 to become globally recognised as Asia's leading public policy school with over 325 students from 53 different countries.
He announced that the LKY School and the NUS Business School will launch a new Master in Public Administration and Management taught in Chinese. He also revealed that former United Nations secretary-general and Nobel laureate Kofi Annan has agreed to become the first Li Ka-shing Professor at the school from next February.
Before he took his leave, Mr Lee presented awards to major donors that have helped raise $16.5 million for the school in celebration of its fifth birthday. Together with the government's one-for-one matching grant, the total sum raised came to $33 million.
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