August 11, 2004

Lee jnr steps up

As the Howard government struggles to mend fences in Asia, a changing of the guard in Singapore could slow some of the recent progress

Eric Ellis

The flags are a-fluttering, so it must be Singapore’s National Day. That’s when the four million people of this antiseptic city-state are permitted to publicly drape their patriotism over apartment balconies. Singapore’s nerdy technocrat-politicians actually letterbox subjects to tell them it’s the appropriate time for nationalism – all part of the micro-managing service government provides.

On August 9, however, there was a noteworthy reason to mark the national birthday: three days after Singapore turns 39 it gets a new prime minister – Lee Hsien Loong. Leadership doesn’t change much in Singapore. When Lee takes over on August 12, he will be just the third prime minister since independence. But new isn’t how many Singaporeans would regard the Cambridge and Harvard-educated Lee, who despite his liberal education presents as a capable but less-colourful version of his strongman father, the philosopher-king, Lee Kuan Yew.

Ever since his father stepped down in 1990 after 25 years as prime minister, Singaporeans have known the younger Lee would be leader. Indeed, the unremarkable term of the amiable Goh Chok Tong was punctuated by assurances he was a transitional figure, although he warmed the seat for 14 years. At 52, and facing an opposition neutered by Singapore’s defamation laws, Lee junior could be PM for at least as long as his father.

While Lee senior once derided Australians as the “white trash of Asia” who don’t work hard enough, Lee the Younger is a frequent visitor to Australia and his ascendancy has come as Australia and Malaysia – now mercifully free of the mercurial Dr Mahathir Mohamed – at last begin to cosy up, flagging a free trade agreement similar to the one Canberra signed with Singapore a year ago.

That would have been unthinkable under Mahathir, whose departure in favour of the avuncular Abdullah Badawi is also good news for Singapore, a favourite sparring partner of Dr M’s. Badawi has flagged a softer stance on Australia’s inclusion in key forums, such as the Association of South-East Asian Nations’ annual dialogues with the European Union, and on regional security. Australia wants deeper co-operation with Malaysia – where many of the Bali bombers were exiled – on terror issues and policing the pirate-ridden Malacca Straits, the region’s crucial trade artery.

However, Goh’s departure will be difficult for Prime Minister John Howard, who regarded him as his best mate in a region where he’s uncomfortable. For Howard, the distant Lee is a harder man to like than Goh, despite a public image busily being burnished by the state-controlled Singaporean press in the lead-up to the succession. Domestically, at least, Lee’s challenge as PM will be how far he seems willing to extend the social liberalisation process initiated by Goh in recent years.

Lee has suggested he’ll be a “user-friendly” leader but his prime objective will be to continue the steady-as-she-goes role of his predecessors. Singaporeans often speak of having a social contract with their government, accepting the tight controls and lack of plurality in return for prosperity, which the government has mostly delivered. The state stresses the primacy of government decision-making over the rights of individuals, even it means sometimes stifling entrepreneurial spirit, though businessmen hope he will reduce the government’s heavy-handed dirigism in the economy. That would be good news for corporate Australia, eager to see the free trade agreement as more than a piece of paper.

Anxious to prevent a brain drain, and to maintain its role as the preferred regional locale of western business, Singapore has cast itself as an arts centre and as one of Asia’s liveliest cities. It built a fabulous new arts centre (though it is struggling to find acts to fill it), has signalled more relaxed laws on homosexuality and oral sex, allowed Sex and the City to be broadcast – albeit at a late hour — and has promised a more liberal hand with movies after famously censoring out Kate Winslett’s breasts from Titanic. Singaporeans can now bungee-jump, draw graffiti, debate politics in a specifically designated debating park, and even chew gum and dance on bars.

It’s also urging its citizenry to “think”, “question the teacher” and “be creative”, seen as requirements for a still-elusive “renaissance city” that was once an anathema to Lee’s father, who seems prepared to remain lurking, an opinionated octogenarian, in his favourite son’s cabinet – just as he has done for the past 14 years.