Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew said his son is being appointed prime minister because he is more committed and passionate about the city-state's future than other potential leaders, a newspaper reported yesterday.
The son, Lee Hsien Loong -- who is now deputy prime minister, finance minister and the central bank chief -- is widely expected to take over from current Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in August.
He would become the country's third prime minister since independence in 1965.
Many political observers have suggested that the younger Lee was groomed to follow in his father's footsteps since he was a boy. But the elder Lee, who holds the title of senior minister and still wields considerable influence in Singapore, has consistently insisted that his son's political ascent is based on merit, not nepotism.
"It so happened that he was of that frame of mind and in his generation, he was more committed, more passionate about the future of the country than other people," Lee Kuan Yew said in a report in the Straits Times, a newspaper with close government ties.
He said that as a child, his elder son displayed "exceptional capabilities."
"I think his intellectual power is considerable," the paper quoted him as saying in a television interview in China on Sunday night.
Lee Kuan Yew said Lee Hsien Loong would face a new challenge as prime minister, leading a population that is fast evolving.
"They have absorbed Western ideas and they also demand that they be heard, so he has to hear them," the elder Lee said.
Lee Kuan Yew said he was concerned his son would be compared to himself.
"My worry is for him because the people's expectations are high and they will always [compare] subconsciously," the paper quoted him as saying. "I hope he will be able to do better than me."
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
RSS