By Raju Gopalakrishnan
SINGAPORE, May 8 Reuters) - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, re-elected on Sunday as his People's Action Party won its toughest ever general election, could be preparing the city-state for some of its most sweeping changes since independence in 1965.
In doing so, the 59-year-old may also be stepping out of the shadow of his illustrious father, Lee Kuan Yew, the architect of modern Singapore.
'Many (Singaporeans) wish for the government to adopt a different style and approach,' the prime minister said after the vote, which returned the PAP to power with a sweeping majority, but also gave the opposition the highest number of seats ever.
'Many desire to see more opposition voices in parliament to check the PAP government. This was a watershed election. It marks a distinct shift in our political landscape.'
((For a story on the election, click [ID:nL3E7G70DF))
The PAP, co-founded by Lee Kuan Yew, has ruled Singapore since independence and while it has propelled the city-state into a gleaming First World financial hub, it has also been criticised for strong government and little tolerance of dissent.
The younger Lee showed during the campaign that he could move away from the PAP's old-style, heavy-handed form of leadership, surprising many with an apology for mistakes the government may have committed.
It was in contrast to his plain speaking, 87-year-old father, 'minister mentor' in the cabinet, who had said just days earlier that a constituency which voted in the opposition would have 'five years to repent'.
Cynics said the prime minister's apology was aimed only at bringing in votes, but some commentators applauded him.
'Let's be honest, Mr Lee will be prime minister after polling day and he doesn't necessarily need to say sorry,' said Zulkifli Baharuddin, a former MP.
'But he is leading from the front, and this shows he has the strength of character to admit his government's shortcomings.'
Garry Rodan, a professor at Murdoch University in Australia, said it marked a change from his father's style.
'I don't think there's any doubt that Lee Hsien Loong sees a need to present the PAP as a more gracious, tolerant and listening government.
'I think he genuinely understands that some of the positions of his father are really not going to have the same effect.'
GROOMED EARLY
Lee was groomed for politics from an early age, trailing his father as he toured his constituency in pre-independence Singapore. Lee Kuan Yew says his son had to walk home from school when riots broke out in Singapore in July 1964, learning an early lesson about the fragility of a multi-racial society.
After graduating with a first class honours degree in mathematics at Cambridge, England, the younger Lee was offered a fellowship, but decided to come home.
'He wrote to his tutor and said: 'I must go home. I've joined the Singapore Armed Forces, my father is the PM and for me not to go home and do what I have to do would be bad for the country and bad for me',' Lee Kuan Yew said in interviews published in a book last year.
The younger Lee stayed on in the army after compulsory national service, attending the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and holding various staff and command posts in the Singapore Armed Forces.
Later, he took a masters degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
He retired as a brigadier-general and entered politics in 1984.
In a glittering political career, Lee headed Singapore's central bank and served as finance minister and trade minister before becoming Singapore's third prime minister in 2004.
'He's got my mathematical and numerical capabilities,' says Lee Kuan Yew. 'And he's got his mother's retentive capacity for words and ideas. If I were not PM, he would have made it earlier.'
The younger Lee is now one of the world's highest paid leaders, earning S$3.8 million (more than US$3 million) a year. U.S. President Barack Obama's salary is about US$400,000 a year.
At the central bank, Lee initiated reforms to liberalise the financial sector and to shift the emphasis from one-size-fits-all regulation towards a lighter supervisory touch, relying more on disclosure and caveat emptor.
As prime minister, he has launched policies to build a competitive economy, introducing new programmes to upgrade the education system, investing in R&D and infrastructure, and driving the constant re-invention of Singapore as it transforns from a manufacturing hub to a first-world financial centre.
Despite his meteoric rise, Lee has faced tough personal tests. His first wife died in 1982 shortly after the birth of the couple's second child.
'He was in a daze,' his father said. 'I said, you have to face the future, you can't be grieving all the time. We got him books on grief. I said, at the end of the day, you have to move on.'
Lee re-married and has two children with his second wife, who heads the powerful state investment firm, Temasek Holdings.
In 1992, he was diagnosed with cancer and underwent chemotherapy, but got a clean bill of health five years later.
Lee, a slim, tall man with salt and pepper hair, was also reputed to have a no-nonsense manner akin to his father, but that seems to have mellowed.
'All Singaporeans of different stratas and groups have higher aspirations and expectations, and many of them wish for the government to adopt a different style and approach to government,' he said after Saturday's election.
'If we do not evolve and find a formula that works, then it's bad news for the PAP and Singapore,' he said.
(Additional reporting by Kevin Lim; Editing by Nick Macfie) Keywords: SINGAPORE ELECTION/PM (raju.gopalakrishnan@thomsonreuters.com)(+65 6403 5657)(Reuters Messaging: raju.gopalakrishnan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
SINGAPORE, May 8 Reuters) - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, re-elected on Sunday as his People's Action Party won its toughest ever general election, could be preparing the city-state for some of its most sweeping changes since independence in 1965.
In doing so, the 59-year-old may also be stepping out of the shadow of his illustrious father, Lee Kuan Yew, the architect of modern Singapore.
'Many (Singaporeans) wish for the government to adopt a different style and approach,' the prime minister said after the vote, which returned the PAP to power with a sweeping majority, but also gave the opposition the highest number of seats ever.
'Many desire to see more opposition voices in parliament to check the PAP government. This was a watershed election. It marks a distinct shift in our political landscape.'
((For a story on the election, click [ID:nL3E7G70DF))
The PAP, co-founded by Lee Kuan Yew, has ruled Singapore since independence and while it has propelled the city-state into a gleaming First World financial hub, it has also been criticised for strong government and little tolerance of dissent.
The younger Lee showed during the campaign that he could move away from the PAP's old-style, heavy-handed form of leadership, surprising many with an apology for mistakes the government may have committed.
It was in contrast to his plain speaking, 87-year-old father, 'minister mentor' in the cabinet, who had said just days earlier that a constituency which voted in the opposition would have 'five years to repent'.
Cynics said the prime minister's apology was aimed only at bringing in votes, but some commentators applauded him.
'Let's be honest, Mr Lee will be prime minister after polling day and he doesn't necessarily need to say sorry,' said Zulkifli Baharuddin, a former MP.
'But he is leading from the front, and this shows he has the strength of character to admit his government's shortcomings.'
Garry Rodan, a professor at Murdoch University in Australia, said it marked a change from his father's style.
'I don't think there's any doubt that Lee Hsien Loong sees a need to present the PAP as a more gracious, tolerant and listening government.
'I think he genuinely understands that some of the positions of his father are really not going to have the same effect.'
GROOMED EARLY
Lee was groomed for politics from an early age, trailing his father as he toured his constituency in pre-independence Singapore. Lee Kuan Yew says his son had to walk home from school when riots broke out in Singapore in July 1964, learning an early lesson about the fragility of a multi-racial society.
After graduating with a first class honours degree in mathematics at Cambridge, England, the younger Lee was offered a fellowship, but decided to come home.
'He wrote to his tutor and said: 'I must go home. I've joined the Singapore Armed Forces, my father is the PM and for me not to go home and do what I have to do would be bad for the country and bad for me',' Lee Kuan Yew said in interviews published in a book last year.
The younger Lee stayed on in the army after compulsory national service, attending the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and holding various staff and command posts in the Singapore Armed Forces.
Later, he took a masters degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
He retired as a brigadier-general and entered politics in 1984.
In a glittering political career, Lee headed Singapore's central bank and served as finance minister and trade minister before becoming Singapore's third prime minister in 2004.
'He's got my mathematical and numerical capabilities,' says Lee Kuan Yew. 'And he's got his mother's retentive capacity for words and ideas. If I were not PM, he would have made it earlier.'
The younger Lee is now one of the world's highest paid leaders, earning S$3.8 million (more than US$3 million) a year. U.S. President Barack Obama's salary is about US$400,000 a year.
At the central bank, Lee initiated reforms to liberalise the financial sector and to shift the emphasis from one-size-fits-all regulation towards a lighter supervisory touch, relying more on disclosure and caveat emptor.
As prime minister, he has launched policies to build a competitive economy, introducing new programmes to upgrade the education system, investing in R&D and infrastructure, and driving the constant re-invention of Singapore as it transforns from a manufacturing hub to a first-world financial centre.
Despite his meteoric rise, Lee has faced tough personal tests. His first wife died in 1982 shortly after the birth of the couple's second child.
'He was in a daze,' his father said. 'I said, you have to face the future, you can't be grieving all the time. We got him books on grief. I said, at the end of the day, you have to move on.'
Lee re-married and has two children with his second wife, who heads the powerful state investment firm, Temasek Holdings.
In 1992, he was diagnosed with cancer and underwent chemotherapy, but got a clean bill of health five years later.
Lee, a slim, tall man with salt and pepper hair, was also reputed to have a no-nonsense manner akin to his father, but that seems to have mellowed.
'All Singaporeans of different stratas and groups have higher aspirations and expectations, and many of them wish for the government to adopt a different style and approach to government,' he said after Saturday's election.
'If we do not evolve and find a formula that works, then it's bad news for the PAP and Singapore,' he said.
(Additional reporting by Kevin Lim; Editing by Nick Macfie) Keywords: SINGAPORE ELECTION/PM (raju.gopalakrishnan@thomsonreuters.com)(+65 6403 5657)(Reuters Messaging: raju.gopalakrishnan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.