Singapore after Lee Kuan Yew

The inevitable farewell of the country’s 90-yearold founder presents opportunities and risks for Asia’s most ferocious tiger

Fifty years ago, Singapore was a fishing village abandoned by the British about to be expelled from Malaysia. The exponential growth of the minute equatorial territory, which has turned it into the ‘Switzerland of Asia’, is the result of half a century of leadership by former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and his special brand of efficient authoritarianism. But the ‘Father of Singapore’ has just turned 90 and his age is beginning to show. And while his legacy has yet to be passed on, a certain degree of anxiety is spreading throughout the wealthy city-state. Even though Singapore has a 3% GDP growth rate and is ranked number seven in the world for per capita GDP ($61,000, or €45,000), these figures don’t tell the whole story. Many of the country’s 5.3 million inhabitants (75% of whom are of Chinese descent) feel the country is no longer headed in the right direction. This concern resembles that of other developed nations having to come to terms with the impoverishment of the middle classes and a rising cost of living. Yet on the island of Singapore, half the size of Rome and devoid of natural resources, the people express doubts as to whether Lee’s People’s Action Party (PAP), in power since 1963, will be able to sustain the ‘Lee model’ in the future.

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