Interesting anonymous opinion piece about the NUS dialogue at Temasek Review:

The criteria used in selecting the questions were left deliberately unanswered. Needless to say, only politically correct questions found their way to the audience.

Is this the kind of “forum” we expect from a supposedly renowned world-class university like NUS?

Why can’t the undergraduates be given the autonomy to quiz Mr Lee directly during the forum itself? Why are they treated like a herd of sheep without a mind of their own?

There are only two plausible explanations for the weird arrangement:

1. Mr Lee is getting advanced in age and is unable to handle complex and difficult questions. Therefore, there is a need to select only straight-forward questions which he will be able to answer easily.

2. To censor difficult or sensitive questions which might embarrass Mr Lee in order to prevent a similar fracas like what happened in Russia from repeating itself. Then, a Russian student had the “temerity” to ask Mr Lee about his “appointment” of his son as Singapore’s prime minister which obviously peeved him off. …

If Singapore’s ministers don’t even dare to engage the opposition in a public debate or forum out of fear of losing “face”, then perhaps they do not quite deserve their multi-million dollar salaries after all.

The last time Singaporeans witnessed Mr Lee in a televised debate was more than 20 years ago in 1986 during a Parliament Select Hearing on the legal amendment bill.

The broadcast was turned off abruptly halfway when it became obvious that Mr Lee, then the Prime Minister of Singapore, was losing steam against his adversary, a cool-headed Francis Seow who was the President of Singapore Law Society. …

Mr Lee is not an immortal. His era will soon come to a pass and young Singaporeans will be the ones taking over the reins of the country. …

Mr Lee claimed during the session that he never thought of leaving a legacy behind when he has unwittingly left one – a legacy of repression, fear and apathy instilled in almost every Singaporean.

The very least Mr Lee can do now for Singapore before he passes on will be to leave the political scene completely altogether by the next general election to allow a new batch of leaders to emerge out of his shadow and run the country without his interference or influence.