We run a meritocracy – Lee Kuan Yew

FROM A DISTANCE
By Carmen N. Pedrosa
The Philippine Star

My daughter, in one of her visits to Manila, told me that I should get ready to write a Lee Kuan obituary. That was when his wife had just died.

It was a very close partnership and a close marriage.

Just a few days ago Lee Kuan Yew ran unopposed for a seat in parliament. He won unopposed to represent Tanjong Pagar, the same port district he represented for more than half a century. There was no opposition.

With 82 of 87 parliamentary seats to be contested in May 7 elections it will be a stiff fight for the ruling party. That may be one of the reasons why even at age 87 Lee Kuan has decided to be active again in politics.

He is already Minister Mentor and advises the government but he wants his record as the successful nation builder of Singapore at stake in the elections. It remains to be seen how actively he can participate with aging signs already upon him. He appears weak and speaks with a slur.

He told Tanjong Pagar constituents that he will serve them in the next five years as he had through several decades. He might as well have been speaking to the world as many countries will keenly watch how his decision will unravel.

When I was in Singapore recently, his son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong made a strong pitch that Singapore as it is known today will not survive a two party state. But with a growing opposition, Minister Mentor Lee threw his hat into the ring to make sure that Singaporeans understood what it would mean if more opposition members were elected into parliament. Singapore will be divided and cease to be what it is today.

He fears that the Singapore he built is under threat. “Do not rock this foundation,” said Lee, who transformed Singapore from an impoverished colonial outpost to a modern economic powerhouse.

He has both admirers and critics for his iron-fisted governance. For those of us in the Philippines where problems stem from weak governance, Singapore under Lee Kuan Yew is a beacon.

Lee Kuan Yew himself made a telling remark on his re-entering active politics. “One must be careful not to act foolishly until they close the lid on your coffin.” he said to many who expected him to retire to a quiet life after his wife’s death.

At a recent interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel the question came up on nepotism.

“Critics say that Singapore resembles a Lee Family Enterprise. Your son is the Prime Minister, your daughter-in-law heads the powerful Development Agency . . . But he was not fazed by the question . . . “And my other son is CEO of Singapore Telecoms, my daughter is head of the National Institute for Neurology. This is a very small community of four million people. We run a meritocracy. If the Lee Family set an example of nepotism, that system would collapse. If I were not the prime minister, my son could have become Prime Minister several years earlier. It is against my interest to allow any family member who’s incompetent to hold an important job because that would be a disaster for Singapore and my legacy. That cannot be allowed.”

That may be difficult to understand but it is true that a non-relative who is incompetent is not better that a competent who is a relative. As Lee answered Der Spiegel: “We run a meritocracy.”

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When I asked TUCP Secretary General Ernesto Herrera once which country he thought had a good labor-employer relations he said: Singapore. I was of course surprised because I have not heard of the country having strong labor unions. But he clarified.

What impressed him he said when he visited Singapore was their training programs and the availability of jobs once the training was over. There was coordination between labor and management to create jobs.

Labor Day in Singapore and Manila will be celebrated differently. In Singapore, the labor movement — the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) marks its 50th anniversary this year. I passed by their headquarters along Bras Basah road and a huge banner from the top to the bottom of the building had a banner announcing its 50th anniversary. There will be celebrations for labor on this island nation despite grumbling from some quarters.

The Labor Movement is a partner that helped Singapore out of the global recession in 2008.

The theme for the celebrations is “U & Me”, to depict the relationship between labor, government and industry. This relationship was built over the past five decades. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will join the celebrations and the awards ceremonies for those who contributed to the cause of labor.

Heng Chee How, NTUC 50 Committee chairman, said: “As we move forward, . . . we want to make sure that our lower wage, lower skilled workers continue to have a share, continue to have a hope . . . ” So what can be done (is) to upgrade their skills, uplift the deal for them at the workplace and make sure there is prospect for their jobs to also improve. This is the skills program the TUCP Secretary General said is needed for Filipino laborers.

As expected, Labor Day today will be marred with protests. Thousands are expected to join rallies demanding for “better wages, improved economy, security of tenure for workers and an end to demolition of squatter shanties.”

They rejected the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) for 2011-2016, merely a slightly updated version of the same old neo-liberal prescriptions. Protesters are also expected to burn an effigy of Noynoy Aquino as Kontra-Manggagawa at the Chino Roces Bridge across Malacañang.

When Lee Kuan Yew was asked by Der Spiegel about labor agitation for higher wages for less work: “I faced this problem myself. Every year, our unions and the Labor Department subsidize trips to China and India. We tell the participants: Don’t just look at the Great Wall but go to the factories and ask, ‘What are you paid?’, ‘What hours do you work?’. And they come back shell-shocked.”