Q. With all this pessimism surrounding Singapore’s prospects today, what’s your personal prognosis? Will Singapore survive Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew?

A. Unequivocally yes, Singapore will survive SM Lee but provided he leaves the right legacy. What sort of legacy he wants to leave is for him to say, but I, a blooming upstart, dare to suggest to him that we should open up politically and allow talent to be spread throughout our society so that an alternative leadership can emerge.So far, the People’s Action Party’s tactic is to put all the scholars into the civil service because it believes the way to retain political power forever is to have a monopoly on talent. But in my view, that’s a very short term view. It is the law of nature that all things must atrophy. Unless SM allows serious political challenges to emerge from the alternative elite out there, the incumbent elite will just coast along. At the first sign of a grassroots revolt, they will probably collapse just like the incumbent Progressive Party to the left-wing PAP onslaught in the late 1950s. I think our leaders have to accept that Singapore is larger than the PAP. …

I suspect we have started to believe our own propaganda. There is also a particular brand of Singapore elite arrogance creeping in. Some civil servants behave like they have a mandate from the emperor. We think we are little Lee Kuan Yews. SM Lee has earned his spurs, with his fine intellect and international standing. But even Lee Kuan Yew sometimes doesn’t behave like Lee Kuan Yew. There is also a trend of intellectualisation for its own sake, which loses a sense of the pragmatic concerns of the larger world. The Chinese, for example, keep good archives of the Imperial examinations which used to be held at the Temple of Heaven. At the beginning, the scholars were tested on very practical subjects, such as how to control floods in their province. But over time, they were examined on the Confucian Analects and Chinese poetry composition. Hence, they became emasculated by the system, a worrying fate which could befall Singapore.

Let me even venture further to say this – IF PAP post LKY do not open up politically and in allowing its citizen more voice/participation in 5 years (or even less) there will indeed be a revolt – people power. It will be a sad day to see the detrimental end of PAP goes down the history flame like that while they still have a chance to remedy it. They are already losing ground /touch with what this generation of young wants if they don’t realized it by now.

Mark my words.

If democracy comes at the price of everything you own right now. Would you still want it? Full-fledged democracy, as the many developed countries have shown us, fails. It is not a perfect tool. Look at all the bipartisan arguments in US. It will eventually lead to a political deadlock where no policies can be put in place. Better still, politicians will introduce popular but “problematic in the long-term” policies just like what they are doing in US and UK?

Besides, would you rather the oppositions take over the governing the nation? I am no advocate of LKY, but just look at the bigger picture. We may not be a full-fledged democracy like America, but we are no North Korea either. I think the value of democracy is grossly overvalued by the people today…

I hope you understand where I am coming from and I harbour no ill-intention, just hopes that you would consider the cons of democracy too.

Yours faithfully,
Kenny

Best wishes!

Thank you, Sir. and may you live forever.