Saturday, April 12, 2008

Successor Question

Recently I spoke to a friend who asked about what Singaporeans feel when their Prime Minister says that he is looking for his successor...in 14 years time!

Ha. He found it to be very, very funny. The background for this is our Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's stated wish to find and field those who can take over from him before he turns 70. Thing is, the man is just 56 now. My friend found it hilarious that a political party like the PAP would just assume they will still be in power in 14-15 years time, and funny that every Singaporean he met felt the same way! As you can tell, he's a foreigner.

I told him this is just the way it is. Thinking back now, I have to say he do have a point. I think most foreigners in Singapore feel the same as my friend. It is funny that Singaporeans just assume the PAP will be in power in 14 years time; I mean I do as well. With the power the PAP has over...well, everything in Singapore, that's not a bad assumption, but why do we feel that there's no other party in Singapore but the PAP.

My friend says that if Singapore is not careful, we could go down the road of Malaysia. When the ruling party get weak (which will happen sooner or later), but there's no other opposition party strong enough around to take over.

That I did not argue. It's not a bad assumption as well.

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