Life After Lee
Governing by planning and social engineering has been very much the PAP’s way. It analyzes problems in perspective and carefully calculates probabilities. The meticulously planned and gradually implemented political succession to Lee Kuan Yew is a good example of this policy. for it was Mr. Lee himself who started a more than two-decade long systematic and deliberate plan to groom a crop of successors. Described as a “non-event” by Mr. God (because there was no break in continuity), the succession was smooth. This took place amidst traumatic events around the world (including neighbors in Asia like India, Myanmar, Philippines and South Korea) when fierce demon-strations and riots almost always accompany each change in leadership.
Uncertain political succession can be destabilizing in a young nation whose ability to survive its founders is yet untested. Singaporeans now want continued stability as provided by the PAP government as well as opposition in Parliament. It is perhaps early to tell how Goh’s government will cope with the new demands. However, the values stressed by the new government remain