Singapore Must Create Strongest Possible Team To Ensure Long Term Future

SINGAPORE (Bernama) - Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong says Singapore must develop the strongest possible team, with depth and resilience, to ensure its long term future.

An "A team" like this would have to include both competent ministers and younger ones, so as to enable Singapore to compete in the international league of nations, he was quoted by Channel NewsAsia.

Lee was speaking to university students at the Kent Ridge Ministerial Forum entitled "Leadership Renewal: The 4th Generation and Beyond" Tuesday.

The prime minister said assembling an outstanding team was not an easy task because in every election, his ruling People's Action Party (PAP) found only three new MPs, on average, who can become Ministers.

He was confident he has put together an "A team", but said he cannot assemble a second team and questioned how the opposition can find it easier to do so.

Lee pointed out that a two-party system was not workable in Singapore because there was simply not enough talent to form two "A teams".

He emphasised that Singapore, more than any other country, needed capable leadership to tackle difficult challenges and maximise opportunities for the nation.

With a mediocre government, Singapore would fail, he warned.

He said a two-party system would also throw up other problems, such as a division in society based on class or racial lines and groups pushing different policies.

And because there was a lack of talent, Lee said he also disagrees with Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong's recent opinion that future ministers may end up serving only two terms.

He said that was not possible because of the lack of numbers.