Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, widely believed to be Singapore’s next prime minister

Photo Paul Douglass

Singapore’s meteoric rise from an impoverished island in Southeast Asia with no natural resources to economic powerhouse was no accident.

It was the product of shrewd leadership.

When Lee Kuan Yew took power in 1959, he found himself governing a mosquito-infested swamp with his constituents living in crowded housing amidst pigs and chicken farms. Though strict and demanding, Lee adopted a string of policies that he believed would give Singapore a fighting chance at nationhood.

He made the English language mandatory in all schools, emphasized education and housing programs, adopted a free enterprise economic model and encouraged multi-national corporations (MNC’s) to come to Singapore in the 1960s when it was unfashionable in Asia to do so. He rejected anti-Americanism believing that the U.S. had the "capital, technology, know-how and markets" that Singapore needed to succeed.

As Lee told an interviewer in 1996: “We succeeded because the people were united and determined. They backed our tough policies to change the political, social climate, and hence made us more attractive to investments.”

Senior Minister Lee has often been criticized for his tough – some would say authoritarian – style of leadership as Prime Minister. But, says his son, current Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, “if you look back over the 37 years since independence, the fact that we have survived, prospered, become more cohesive as one nation, established our security, economically as well, and established a society where everybody has a chance to move up if he works hard and shows talent and promise, is something that not many countries have achieved.”

Since Lee stepped down as Prime Minister in 1990, his successor, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, has felt the pressure of competition from other Asian countries, especially from China. The Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 was a startling reminder to Singaporeans of their economic vulnerability.

Observes Nicholas de Boursac, Executive Director of The American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore, Singapore has continuously “re-invented itself”to stay ahead of the game in an increasingly global economy.

There is little doubt that this strategy has been successful. Singapore’s secret to success, says its Ambassador to the U.S., Chan Heng Chee, has been to focus on investment, equity, education and export-orientation as the interdependent basis for growth. A “strong vision with centralized power,” she says, has been instrumental in “bringing about positive change” in the country.

Today, government policies are aimed toward:
• Developing high value-added jobs through education to replace dwindling manufacturing jobs

• Attracting talent from abroad

• Encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation by creating an environment that is conducive to creativity, including the arts and support for research and development

• Positioning Singapore as a global hub in areas such as international trade, financial services, telecommunications, tourism, transshipping, logistics, high technology, bio-medicine and the performing arts

• Supporting multilingualism and multiculturalism among its people so that Singaporeans feel they are citizens of the world and know that they can successfully conduct business in any corner of the globe.

Being a small and young country located in a rapidly changing region of the world is perhaps why Singaporeans see more clearly than others how far they’ve come and where they need to go to remain a global competitor.