On the 50th Annivesary of the
founding of PAP, MM LKY made a speech detailing the evolution of
politics as he see it from the past, and into the distant
future.
PAP Inauguration - 50th
Anniversary
Speech by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew at the
50th anniversary of the inauguration of the PAP at the Victoria
Concert Hall, 21 November 2004
It is a privilege given to a very few to be present at the founding
of a political party and also at its 50th anniversary. I could not
have imagined that 50 years after Sunday 21 November 1954, I would
be in this same hall, on the same date and also on a Sunday, to
celebrate the tumultuous journey of the PAP. For the historical
record, I recall that several moving spirits behind the PAP who
were closely following the proceedings that morning 50 years ago -
Goh Keng Swee, S Rajaratnam, and K M Byrne. Toh Chin Chye was on
stage with me that day. They are an important part of the history
of Singapore.
It was a most unlikely story and one that cannot be repeated. The
world of 1954 was in great ferment. European empires in Southeast
Asia collapsed when the Japanese captured the region. The British,
French and Dutch returned in 1945. But revolutionary forces had
been released. It allowed a group of young English university
educated activists to play a decisive role in determining the
future of Singapore.
In April 1955, six months after its inauguration, the PAP won 3 out
of 25 seats in the Legislative Assembly elections. Four years later
in May 1959 the PAP won a majority of 43 out of 51 seats in the
general elections and formed the first government of self-governing
Singapore. I became a prime minister at the age of 35. All around
us were earth-shaking changes. British India had been partitioned
in 1947 between India and Pakistan. Burma, Ceylon became
independent in 1948, Indonesia in 1949. The communists liberated
China in 1949. The French were defeated in Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
Malaya celebrated its independence in 1957.
The world of 2004 is radically transformed. The threat of communism
has dissolved after the Soviet Union imploded in 1991. Singapore
has linked up with the developed world, America, Japan and Europe.
Its per capita income, social infrastructure and quality of life,
are those of the First World. How did this come about?
The PAP started as an anti-colonial, nationalist,
democratic-socialist party. After several years in government we
found that socialism could not work. It was already malfunctioning
in Britain. PAP leaders were young students in England in the 1940s
after the war. The British Labour Party was embarked on a programme
to create a welfare state to look after its people from cradle to
grave. We soon realised that equalising incomes destroyed the
incentive for the individual to work and to achieve. Welfarism
blunted the drive in Britons to create the wealth.
Slowly we abandoned socialist theories. We became increasingly
pragmatic and moved towards the free market and free competition.
But we used the power of government to tax and take a part, not the
major portion, of the rewards of enterprise and growth from the
successful to help the less successful. But it must be done without
making them free-loaders, or we would blunt their desire to work
and to excel in order to provide the best for their families.
Hence we subsidised their basic needs, health, housing and
education. We made every effort to have a playing field level for
all children, rich or poor. In short we became anti-doctrinaire.
Because of pragmatic policies, we won the support of grassroots
leaders. Singaporeans voted for the PAP in freely contested 11
general elections in the last 45 years.
No political party can remain unchanged. Those countries that did
not change adequately, like the Soviet Union, imploded. Eastern
Europe broke out of the embrace of the Soviet Union to rejoin
Western Europe in the EU, to seek a better future co-operating with
the free market economies of the EU.
The Peoples Republic of China saved itself from collapse because
Deng Xiaoping reversed policies in 1978 by his open door policy, to
invite trade and investments with the free market economies.
Finally China joined WTO to implement free market practices.
The world will keep on changing because people invent new
technologies to create wealth. If we stop learning and changing, we
will stagnate and decline.
Why is it so important for political leaders and cadre members to
understand economics and technology? Because the first task of a
government is to provide the people with security and a living,
with the highest possible standard of living and the best quality
of life.
Singapore has fared well in the last 50 years. To do as well in the
next 50, we have to keep on acquiring new skills and knowledge. We
will have to adopt new models for growth and crafting new
strategies. Huge countries, like India and China have joined the
WTO and are competing in the world market for investments, trade
and inventing their own technologies and products. Our Asean
neighbours have embarked on strategies similar to ours.
After having studied us, they repeat what we have done, but able to
do it at lower costs. To meet this competition we have to cut our
costs, increase productivity and upgrade our economy.
Fortunately the next 10 or 20 years hold out great promise. We have
special FTAs or CEPAs (Comprehensive Economic Partnership
Agreements) with the US, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and soon,
also with India and China, and the European Union.
To maximise the value of this access to their markets, their
capital and technologies, our people must be better educated, more
disciplined, more productive and competitive. We have to be ahead
in skills and knowledge, and in quality of leadership at all levels
- political, economic and social. We cannot protect specific jobs
or companies. What we have to protect is total employment, by
creating more jobs. Never mind which particular industry or
services sector contract; we must ensure that industry and services
as a whole are expanding and create more jobs.
Then we will achieve the lowest unemployment rates with the highest
growth rates. This will mean a stable and healthy society.
But will economic growth alone ensure that the PAP can retain its
support for the next 50 years?
It will help but will not be decisive. To win support we must offer
superior leadership and capabilities as against what other parties
can provide. At every general election (GE) we must induct younger
men and women of ability, integrity and commitment for the PAP to
remain vigorous, sensitive to changes, and never complacent.
We have established a unique political culture of clean and honest
politics in Singapore. Our institutions are unsullied and
uncorrupted, even though we have remained in power for 45 years.
This is because we have had men and women of integrity in
Parliament and in charge of government. They do not seek power to get
rich.
The key to PAPs longevity is self-renewal continually, inducting
younger men and women of ability and integrity, with high energy
levels. It does not matter what their political views and
philosophies are so long as they are pro-Singapore. Arguments on
alternative policies and different futures can be intra-party
(within the party) rather than inter-party (between parties). If we
do not have these arguments within the party, they will surface as
inter-party competition.
Because we, the Chinese majority in Singapore, suffered
communal bullying and discrimination during the two years we were a
part of Malaysia, the
first generation leaders vowed that we would never bully or
discriminate our minorities.
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