MM Lee: We will have to adapt our policies
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has weighed in the results of the General Election, saying that the ruling People's Action Party will have to "adapt our policies."
In his first comments about the GE results, in which the ruling PAP was returned to power but with the lowest majority of votes since independence, MM Lee said on Sunday, "I am sure the Prime Minister and his team will sit down carefully and analyse the reasons and adapt our policies."
MM Lee added that he "couldn't say more, I am not the prime minister," reported Channel NewsAsia.
MM Lee's view echoed that of his eldest son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who has said the PAP will have to do some "soul searching" so that it could "improve ourselves and serve you better."
Just last week, PM Lee also distanced himself from father's style of governing when he said, "We don't try to do it MM's style... We do it our way."
Earlier this month, MM Lee's controversial comments that Aljunied voters would regret and have "five years to repent" if they voted for the Opposition had sparked heated discussion.
But speaking at a community event in Tanjong Pagar GRC on Sunday, the 87-year-old elder statesman of Singapore said the country's younger generation "does not remember from whence we came."
"That is to be expected. But I do and those amongst you who are older than 50 will remember," he said.
On the loss of Foreign Minister George Yeo, who was defeated in the Aljunied polls, he said Singapore has lost a vaulable minister.
"Not just Foreign Minister, he was also Minister for Trade and Industry but that's the way the cards have fallen and we have to live with it," said MM Lee, whose Tanjong Pagar ward was the only constituency that was not contested.
He added that Singapore will always need "good pilots" and capable leaders because the "Singapore flight" cannot be on "auto-pilot".
"We will run into a storm, we will run into all kinds of emergencies and we must have good pilots on board and passengers who do not panic,"he said.
