Going further, dialogue moderator Professor Tommy Koh asked if more could be done to integrate those already here, in much the same way that the Ethnic Integration Policy was introduced in 1989 in public housing estates to get races mingling.

Mr Lee said: “Could the same approach be adopted towards integrating new Singaporeans? We are not allowing new Singaporeans whether from China, India, Malaysia, or whatever, to congregate in the same tower blocks, which they are already beginning to do.

One other issue that came up during the dialogue is that of affordability, which has come up repeatedly. One suggestion was to have HDB provide more rental housing units.

Mr Lee said: ‘I completely disagree with that policy. It will lead us into all kinds of problems. You are getting a dependency group – dependent on the government on constant subsidies, whereas our philosophy is ‘I give you this asset, I will increase the value of the asset as the economy grows but it is yours and you look after it.’ And we do not have run down public housing like other countries which are rental.”

Mr Lee was also asked for his take on a recent media report that at least three opposition parties were eyeing National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan’s ward with the aim of making public housing affordability an election issue.

He explained: “What is affordabilty? From the point of view of the buyer? And the government that is subsidising you? The government has to price it at a level that is fair to the revenue it is collecting and fair to the individual, not only the present buyer but past and future buyers. If Mr Mah is unable to defend himself, he deserves to lose.