The Lee and Lee Rally
P N Balji is a veteran Singaporean journalist who is the former chief editor of TODAY newspaper, and a media consultant. The views expressed are his own.
From the nation’s most important pulpit, Lee Hsien Loong pleaded, “Please support me. Please support my team.” It was an unusual appeal to make as he was addressing his people as Prime Minister. Not as secretary general of his political party, the PAP.
In a country where the line between party and nation gets blurred so often, Lee’s use of his 12th National Day rally speech last night as an election rallying call did not come as a surprise to many.
A CEO said: “This has happened so many times before. The principle of keeping the state and party separate has been violated so many times that I was not surprised.”
The news reports and commentaries, especially the one in The Straits Times with the headline -- Not Just An SG 50 Rally, An Election Rallying Call -- were so matter of fact that they seemed to suggest that it was not an issue.
The time has come for Singaporeans to ask if the separation of state and party, judiciary and executive, businesses and regulator is a principle they want to cherish and nurture.
There have been enough examples of the consequences when such lines become fuzzy and are not drawn clearly on the sand. The Brompton bikes scandal, the People’s Association’s embarrassment over one of its grassroots officers signing his own claims and the tender awarded by the Workers’ Party to one of its friends show that the system needs fixing.
This election is crucial for the PM as he looks back to the beating his party got in 2011. PAP’s popular vote sunk to a post-Independent low of 60.1 per cent. He needs to make sure that it doesn’t sink further as a further erosion can only raise questions about the PAP and its inability to win over those voters who swung away from the ruling party four years ago.
He and his team have done a lot since then. The unfettered flow of foreigners has been arrested, the transport crunch is being solved and the housing shortage crisis is now history. These alone should win the PAP more votes in the coming election.
But, if the tone of the Rally speech is any indication, the PM wants to pull out all stops to achieve a decisive victory. He must have decided that he wanted to push the Lee and Lee button. The first half of his address was devoted to Lee Kuan Yew and what he did for Singapore. Even the phrase “rugged society” – which was a term LKY and his team used in the 1970s and 1980s to push the people to be tenacious and fighting fit to overcome adversity – was revived.
“Teardrops and raindrops fell together,” said Lee in evoking the memory of his father as thousands lined the rain-soaked streets to bid his father a final farewell in March.
Then he moved on to his achievements. He ticked off one box after another in listing what he has done as PM in the past 11 years.
“We said we would build more beautiful homes that Singaporeans could afford. And we did. We said we would create more pathways for our children to chase rainbows. And we did,’’ the PM said.
As he recollected his achievements I couldn’t stop asking if this will be his last rally speech as PM. He has already said he will not stay beyond 2020, five years away. So was he giving a report card on himself and his team as a new group readies to take over? Or was he clearing the cards on national issues so that the local ones like managing Town Councils can be pushed into sharper focus as the hustings gets underway?
