So far in Singapore only those from the small minority ethnic
groups had held the key political posts of chief minister and prime
minister, the jewish David Marshall and the two peranakan baba
chinese, Lim Yew Hock and Harry Lee Kuan Yew.
For the purposes of this discussion, we will exclude Goh Chok
Tong and Lee Hsien Loong.
Will you accept someone from the more major ethnic groups such
as dialect chinese, malay, tamil as prime minister?
Lee did not agree with your decision to pick
Goh.
No, he did not disagree. He said he would leave it to us.
His own first choice was Tony
Tan. Goh Chok Tong was his second choice. I
was his third choice because he said my English was not good
enough. He said Dhanabalan was not
right because Singapore was not ready for an Indian prime minister.
That upset the Indian community. There was
quite a bit of adverse reaction to what he said. But he speaks his
mind. He is the only one who can get away with it...
http://www-cgi.cnn.com/ASIANOW/asiaweek/magazine/
