What you do not read in the Straight Times - Part III
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Singapore's leaders groomed from early school
Fri May 5, 2006 4:34 PM IST
By Geert De Clercq
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - With candidates' faces smiling from posters on lampposts, loudhailers on cars blasting slogans and politicians pressing the flesh, the campaign for Singapore's election on Saturday looks and feels like polls elsewhere.
But unlike other democracies, where politicians elbow their way to the top, Singapore's leaders climb orderly up a ladder in a lifelong selection process starting in primary school.
The well-worn path to a cabinet post goes through Singapore's top high schools, where the best students get state scholarships to study in top universities in Britain or America.
These government scholars are then "bonded" for several years after graduation and must work in the civil service, the army or at one of Singapore's large state-owned corporations.
If they do well, they may receive a coveted invitation to tea with the ruling People's Action Party, which has ruled the city state of 4.4 million people continuously since independence from Britain.
Take Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang.
A top boy at the prestigious Raffles Institution -- the old school of former prime minster Lee Kuan Yew -- Lim won an army scholarship to study engineering at Cambridge in 1973.
Lim spent a decade in the army before winning another scholarship to study public administration at Harvard. On his return in 1986, he took over as head of Singapore's Housing and Development Board in 1991.
Shortly afterward, he was invited into politics.
"It's hard to say no when you are offered free tea," Lim told Reuters at a leadership seminar in February.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR ROLE
Newcomers typically go through a term in parliament, a junior minister post or a minor ministry, before getting a top post such as defence, home affairs or justice.
"We don't go for jostling of powers to compete for positions because we believe that in order to run our system, we need a process in which everybody understands what his or her role is," Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng told Reuters last month.
"That makes us different from other countries where there is a lot of personal interest and gain in wanting to achieve certain leadership positions," he said.
The last lap in this gruelling race is completed under the tutelage of a few select party stalwarts -- most notably Lee Kuan Yew, who remains a dominant presence as Minister Mentor in the cabinet of his eldest son, Lee Hsien Loong.
The rewards are high. Singapore ministers are among the highest paid public officials in the world. But those who aspire to a cabinet post must start the race early. Very early.
Selection starts in primary school, where children are streamed into different levels according to academic performance.
The students that come out on top typically end up at the top pre-university "junior colleges".
"That is where most of the elite in the civil service is chosen from," said University of Queensland researcher Michael Barr, who is writing a book about Singapore's education system.
MERITOCRACY
Despite the system's meritocracy, top schools are filled with children of the Chinese middle class who can afford to pay the extra tuition, he said.
The PAP not only recruits its future leaders from the civil service or the army; it also scouts doctors, lawyers and business people -- as long as they're successful.
During deputy prime minister Wong's presentation of one such bunch of achievers, they were asked whether the PAP's attempts to clone its successful leadership did not carry a risk of falling out of touch with a rapidly changing world.
"We are not clones of each other. I know we wear the same uniform, but we are not uniform in thought," said lawyer Alvin Yeo, decked out in the PAP's trademark white pants and shirt.
But when reporters asked him and other candidates about their views on touchy subjects such as civil liberties they all rattled off stock answers in line with PAP policies.
To Garry Rodan, head of the Asia Research Center at Murdoch University, the risk of Singapore's elitism is tha tit could become so inbred the capacity for independent thinking is lost.
"As Singapore internationalises its economy, Singaporeans will increasingly find themselves in situations that are different from their home environment and success will be based more on good judgement than on academic qualifications alone."
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
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Taking on the mighty PAP
By Joceline Tan
Singapore's leading opposition politician Low Thia Kiang has the sort of face that rarely betrays any emotion.
But he must have felt wildly elated on Sunday night (April 30) as he sat on stage before the biggest election rally that locals had seen in decades.
The Workers Party rally was held in the open field in Low’s Hougang ward, one of only two constituencies held by the opposition in Singapore’s 84-seat Parliament.
After days of rain, it was a beautiful night for an open-air rally.
The crowd swelled to some 10,000 even though the sound system was terrible, the field a bit mushy and the stage, from a distance, looked like a bright but tiny spaceship.
It was the sort of crowd that PAS in Malaysia used to command during its heydays in the 1990s.
“Even Andy Lau (one Hong Kong’s four heavenly kings of pop) cannot get this sort of crowd,” said a press photographer as he battled his way through the mass of bodies.
Singaporeans go to the polls on May 6 as Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong seeks a clear mandate for his leadership.
Call it the infamous Singaporean kiasu-ness or whatever, but the PAP, despite its dominance, is trying to wrest back the two opposition seats - Hougang held by Low and Potong Pasir which is held by likeable lawyer Chiam See Tong of the Singapore Democratic Alliance.
Former prime minister Goh Chok Tong, now Senior Minister, is in charge of the takeover bid.
Goh had initially been rather confident of regaining the two seats but after four days of campaigning and the gigantic Hougang rally, it is quite clear that the PAP has a fighting chance only in Potong Pasir.
Low who took over the Worker’s Party leadership from the embattled J.B. Jeyaratnam in 2001 is admired because he is seen as fearless.
The opposition parties, especially the Workers Party, have put up the most impressive challenge in years against the PAP, denying the ruling party its usual nomination day victory.
There are no spoilers or loony candidates among them this time and even Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has somewhat grudgingly conceded that some of them are “fairly presentable.”
But crowd size does not necessarily translate into votes.
Many people are simply curious because the opposition does not get the sort of media space that the ruling party does.
The opposition is unlikely to make much headway in terms of seats although they hope to improve on the 35% share of the popular vote they won in 2001.
Singaporeans lament the lack of an opposition to the mighty PAP but few are willing to take the risk of living in an opposition constituency and being squeezed of amenities that are available in PAP-controlled areas.
Election rallies in Singapore are also quite different from what Malaysians are used to. The rallies begin at 7pm and wrap up promptly at 10pm, the time when most Malaysian ceramah are just starting to warm up.
Supporters like to garland the “star speakers” with orchids - the national bloom - and speakers go through the evening with their heads half-buried under numerous garlands, without removing them even while making their speeches.
Most speakers, from the greenhorns to seasoned Cabinet ministers, rely on written speeches and often come on stage clutching sheets of paper and notebooks.
Even Workers Party chairman Sylvia Lim, a sultry-looking 40-year-old with a rather mellifluous voice, spoke entirely from her notes after a casual start of, “Hi, everybody!”
And there are no silly jokes and few entertaining anecdotes.
The speeches are all pretty serious affairs, loaded with heavy issues - spiralling costs of health care, upgrading of HDP flats, jobs creation, staying competitive, India rising, China taking away our lunch.
Some of the more natural speakers have been Senior Minister Goh and the Prime Minister himself.
At one rally, Lee said he had learnt sign language from his Foreign Minister George Yeo, then he held up his right hand in a three finger gesture - thumb, index and pinkie standing up ala Randy, the judge of American Idol.
He told the applauding crowd: “It means we love you!”