Leader vaunts Singapore's political system

http://www.iht.com/articles/526964.html

Agence France-Presse
Monday, June 28, 2004

Singapore's unique political system must be maintained for at least another 30 years to avoid South-Asian-style disunity, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said in remarks published Monday.

Shortly after returning from a week-long visit to Pakistan,Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, Goh told members of his People's Action Party that the trip had renewed his conviction in Singapore's political structure.

"I come back even more determined that we should keep our system of political self-renewal," The Straits Times quoted him as saying late Sunday.

Goh, who has led the country since 1990, has said he will hand over power this year to Lee Hsien Loong, the son of Singapore's only other prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew.

The transition is expected to be smooth and maintain the vise-like grip on power that the party has held since the British introduced self-rule in 1959, followed by independence in 1965.

Singapore practices a form of democracy in which the press has to report in the "national interest," rallies are mostly banned and elections inevitably end in crushing majorities for the governing party.

Goh said his trip to South Asia, which coincided with the abrupt resignation of Pakistan's prime minister, Zafarullah Khan Jamali, had shown him how politicians can pull their countries apart.