Singapore 1992

Singapore: A More Rounded Personality Despite the fact that the hallmark of the new government had to be continuity, change, reflecting the priorities and preferences of the new rulers as well as those of the citizens of Singapore, was inevitable. In fact, the first generation rulers, anticipating the inevitability of change in these terms, had themselves sought to tutor and prepare their successors during the last few years to make sure that changes effected by them did not damage the vital interests of Singapore. As such, the changes introduced by the new rulers after 1990 could not be dra matic, disruptive and sudden. They had to maintain continuity with the past and be slowly and carefully effected over period of time. In this respect, the first two or three years of Singapore under Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and his second generation team were to constitute critical period in the political history of Singapore. These years were to provide the crucial transition from the Singapore of the first generation founding fathers to Singapore that reflected the vision of their second generation successors and the expectations of the now better-educated and greatly more affluent and self-confident citizenry of Singapore. The new Prime Minister was fully conscious of the constraint that only through process of slow and cautious change could he and his team give Singapore, as described by him, a more rounded personality. A few months after taking over, in May 1991, he told this writer when asked if he expected some of his colleagues and the bureaucracy to take note of his political style and the way he perceived government

Political science · Asian Studies and History · Islamic Finance and Banking Studies · Socioeconomic Development in Asia

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