Lee Kuan Yew on fate of Singapore in 100 years' time

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http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/lee-kuan-yew-fate-singapore-100-years-time-20130811

Former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew’s new book launched last Tuesday, One Man’s View Of The World. In this extract, he speaks about a younger generation of Singaporeans who have known only a thriving Singapore:

Many older Singaporeans progressed from living in shanty huts to high-rise apartments with present-day conveniences and surrounded by safe neighbourhoods.

They have a good understanding of the nation's imperatives - what it took for us to get here and what it would take to keep up our success - as well as its vulnerabilities.

The younger voters do not share those views. Having been born into a Singapore that had in many ways already arrived, they see all that is around them - a working system generating stability and wealth - and they ask: "Where is the miracle?"...

Even as things stand, we have regretfully shifted the system away from attracting the best talent through reductions to ministerial pay.

It is true that no country in the world pays ministers as we do. But it is also true that no other island has developed like Singapore: sparkling, clean, safe, with no corruption and low crime rates.

You can walk the streets or jog at night. Women will not be mugged. Police do not take bribes, and if they are offered bribes, there are consequences for the ones offering.

With every pay reduction, the sacrifice that a minister makes - giving up his profession or his banking job - becomes greater.

The final outcome would be a revolving-door government, which will inevitably lack a deep understanding of the issues or the incentive to think about problems in a long-term manner.

Will Singapore be around in 100 years? 

I am not so sure. America, China, Britain, Australia - these countries will be around in 100 years. But Singapore was never a nation until recently.

An earlier generation of Singaporeans had to build this place from scratch - and what a fine job we have done.

When I led the country, I did what I could to consolidate our gains. So too did Goh Chok Tong.

And now, under Lee Hsien Loong and his team, the country will do well for at least the next 10 to 15 years.

But after that, the trajectory that we take will depend on the choices made by a younger generation of Singaporeans.

Whatever those choices are, I am absolutely sure that if Singapore gets a dumb government, we are done for. This country will sink into nothingness.