Singapore's Politics in the Post-Lee Kuan Yew Era— The Structural Analysis of an Authoritarian Regime and Its Resistance
Date Issued
2006
Date
2006
Author(s)
Kuo, Chun-Lin
DOI
zh-TW
Abstract
Singapore is an island republic with political, economic, and social characteristics that puzzled many observers. Lee Kuan Yew and the People’s Action Party always believe that what people want most from their government is an environment in which they can pursue prosaic material comforts, rather than live up to high-minded political principles. Democracy is a means to an end, and the end is a high level of material security for Singaporeans. The official explanations, many of which tend to address past historical circumstances, should be taken seriously.
One of the most basic questions is why Singapore has become even less democratic while advancing economically. That political freedom is a precondition to economic prosperity is one of the most basic findings of the social sciences. Similarly, the government’s insistence that human rights are a luxury for rich countries is belied by the fact that Singapore is one of the most affluent countries in the world. Once Lee Kuan Yew said, 〝We have now achieved enough of the material basics of life to be able to give more attention to socio-psychological and spiritual needs.〞Why, then, does the PAP Government continue to espouse the view that it must assign higher priority to achieving economic growth than to providing more political freedom？
By the 1980s, Singapore has been totally transformed. Many Singaporeans, despite their highest regard for Lee Kuan Yew and his achievements, have begun to feel that his political style was no more entirely suited to the new reality of Singapore. Increasing numbers of Singaporeans, the better educated, confident and affluent, wanted a different style—more consultative and responsive and softer on the edges—especially from the second-generation rulers when they assumed power.
On 28 November 1990, Goh Chok Tong was installed as the new Prime Minister of Singapore. Despite the transfer of power, Lee Kuan Yew continues to play a dominant role as an overseeing father figure and a tutor and mentor to the second and third generation leaders. As in the words of Goh Chok Tong, 〝certain principles and parameters will never change for Singapore〞. It is widely recognized that for a considerable time in the future, in its essentials, Singapore is to remain a managed democracy：a democracy that works, that produces continuing economic growth and prosperity and ensures ethnic coexistence and harmony.〝The first duty of all governments is to ensure that it has the power to govern effectively, 〞 a UN conference on human rights in 1993 was reminded. Nobody could accuse the Goh Chok Tong Government of not fulfilling that duty. It maintained a firm grip on power, helping Singapore keep its balance in a decade when the winds of globalization sent the economic and political systems of most other industrializing nations helter-skelter.
What about the future？The controls have been passed to the third-generation rulers, the eldest son of Lee Kuan Yew and the latter’s handpicked politicians. The PAP’s hold on political power is likely to remain secure. This dissertation focuses on a historical account of some of the headline events of Singapore, when in many cases the PAP government acted in a peculiar manner. The inquiry is concerned with the following topics—the party politics, the mass media, the economic control, the civil society, and the future of Singapore. With the social and economic change having become a reality for most Singaporeans, the political innovation cannot remain far behind. The polity has to change to be in harmony with new social and economic reality of Singapore and its surrounding world.
Subjects
威權政治
政治發展
政黨政治
傳播媒體
經濟管控
人民行動黨
authoritarian politics
political development
party politics
mass media
economic control
civil society
Type
thesis