THE founding leader of the People’s Action Party (PAP) who led it for 38 years as secretary-general has predicted its loss of power in government.
Mr Lee Kuan Yew said in a new book to be launched today that the day would come when voters ‘get tired of a stable government and say let’s try the opposition’.
PAP Lee Kuan Yew
‘There will come a time when eventually the public will say, look, let’s try the other side, either because the PAP has declined in quality or the opposition has put up a team which is equal to the PAP and they say, let’s try the other side. That day will come.’
He referred to the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party, which held power from 1955 to 2009, with an 11-month interruption from 1993 to 1994, and said its downfall was partly because it ‘carried on with old ideas’.
He added: ‘No system lasts forever, that’s for sure. In the next 10 years to 20 years, I don’t think it’ll happen. Beyond that, I cannot tell. Will we always be able to get the most dedicated and the most capable, with integrity to devote their lives to this? I hope so, but forever, I don’t know.’
Mr Lee, who was party leader until 1992 and now remains on its central executive committee, made these candid comments in a series of interviews with a team of Straits Times journalists. The interviews are published in a new book, Lee Kuan Yew: Hard Truths To Keep Singapore Going, to be launched today at St Regis Singapore.
