continuation:
Noordin Sopiee, chairman and chief executive officer of Malaysia's
Institute of Strategic and International Studies, calls Lee "a good
soldier"--and not because he used to be in the military. Noordin
recalls Lee once speaking on a "regional strategic issue" at a
closed-door meeting and taking a position that he surmises Lee
disagreed with personally. "I heard him arguing something that was
quite preposterous, but nevertheless he argued it with gusto and
sincerity, because that was the government line," says
Noordin.
Could the government line now change? Simon Tay, a law professor
and chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs,
says that outgoing Premier Goh and Malaysia's new Prime Minister
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi didn't get a chance to shine until they took
power. "There are reasons to hope Lee Hsien Loong will blossom in
the job," he says.
Civil servants say Lee, who became junior minister for trade and
industry after entering Parliament in 1984, arrived with certain
strong beliefs about the economy--a reliance on markets, keeping
Singapore open rather than protectionist and ensuring that people
had a strong incentive to work.
Lee is closely identified with helping to rescue the Singapore
economy from recession and other economic storms, and preparing the
country to remain competitive in an era of globalization. He headed
two special economic committees set up at critical times to write
blueprints for the future. The first, prepared in 1985-86,
delivered an average 10% growth a year for the following
decade.
Patrick Daniel, who worked for Lee as a director in the Trade and
Industry Ministry, cites an early stand on the thorny issue of wage
reform as characteristic of Lee. "His speech showed a complete
mastery of the subject, and he had the guts to say: 'You've got to
reform'," says Daniel, who is now a newspaper executive.
In his memoirs, Lee Kuan Yew tells how, in 1997, he got his son
involved in preparations to end the protection of Singapore's banks
and expose them to global competition. "He began meeting bankers
and fund managers and mastered the workings of our financial
sector," wrote the elder Lee. Appointed chairman of the MAS in
1998, Lee Hsien Loong, with the help of a few key officers,
revamped the MAS and implemented the new approach. The father had
the vision, while the son was the facilitator.
Lee is what is known in management theory as an "assessor
developer," say people who have studied him closely: He trawls
through the marketplace of ideas, often on the Internet, and
selects those he considers appropriate for Singapore. One senior
civil servant reports that Lee circulates drafts of his speeches
and solicits ideas and comments.
Civil servants say Lee seized on and developed a series of reforms
including reform of the financial sector, a goods and services tax,
and a revitalized bureaucracy. Lee designed the GST, argued for it
and did a great deal to get it adopted, they say.
"He conceptualizes the need for reform from the big, macroeconomic
picture, customizes it for Singapore, and goes all the way to
implementing it--everything from the timing to who does what," says
Daniel, who served as secretary of the first economic committee
that Lee chaired.
Daniel, now a managing editor at Singapore Press Holdings,
describes Lee as a task-oriented policy wonk. "If you get the task
done, everything is fine," he says. "If you don't, you have to
answer to him."
Outside the government, others have encountered Lee's combative
side. Gareth Evans, a former Australian foreign minister who
currently heads the Brussels-based International Crisis Group,
clashed with Lee in the 1980s and 1990s on bilateral issues
long-forgotten. "He gave no quarter in arguments, but equally
expected none in return," says Evans. "He's pretty direct and
frank."
Tay, the law professor, found himself in a sharp exchange with Lee
20 years ago, after Lee told students at the National University of
Singapore that they shouldn't see themselves as a lobby group. Tay,
then president of the students' union, disagreed. As the two young
men raised their voices, organizers tried to calm them, but Lee
would have none of it.
"It's a telling example about his character," says Tay, who later
became a nominated member of parliament and continued to question
Lee on various issues. "He believes in the substance. He felt there
should be a robust debate, not just empty talk."
In expressing strong opinions, Lee can also leave others with the
feeling that he thinks he alone has the answers. But based on the
testimony of fellow politicians and foreign diplomats who regularly
accompany visitors calling on Lee, he is keenly interested in the
views of others.
Frank Lavin, the United States ambassador to Singapore, says Lee is
invariably businesslike. "Sometimes this is mistaken for aloofness
or arrogance," he says. "But I don't think that is true at all."
Lee is "completely unpretentious and very unassuming," he adds.
"There's no hubris about the man."
In part, Lee suffers from a comparison on a personal level with his
predecessor. He isn't as warm or genial as Goh, say acquaintances,
and doesn't engage in as much small talk. Colleagues say that while
Lee isn't the back-slapping type, he has a wry sense of humour and
sometimes laughs out loud with a distinctive guffaw.
Not much is known of Lee's life outside the office. He reads and
spends a good deal of time on the Internet, say colleagues. Tall
and slim, Lee is reported to be in good health after a battle with
cancer in 1992. Pronounced cured after a course of intense
chemotherapy that kept the lymphoma in remission for more than five
years, he stretches and works out daily, jogging or swimming. He
also tries to take a short break in the afternoon to "rest and calm
down for an hour, if I can," as he told the Straits Times.
IMAGE MANAGEMENT
In Singapore, people tend to be cautious about offending a
government that has shown little tolerance for criticism. Any
number of locals--often grass-roots PAP officials or old
friends--are quoted in local papers ascribing positive qualities to
Lee, but their claims are sometimes hard to confirm.
Even the political opposition seems to tread carefully. Low Thia
Khiang, one of only two opposition members of parliament, declines
to comment on Lee. The other, Chiam See Tong, says it is Lee's
intelligence that is at the root of the misunderstanding about him
being above the heads of ordinary people. "Most people can't keep
up with him," Chiam says. "That's why they find him abrupt."
Lee does have an image problem, identified by no less than Goh in
his National Day address last August. "Loong's public persona is
that of a no-nonsense, uncompromising and tough minister," Goh
said. "Singaporeans would like Loong to be more
approachable."
While Lee has been taking Goh's advice "to let his softer side
show"--being filmed eating out casually with the family, for
instance--"I can't say he's succeeded by all the talk I hear," says
Lim, the former newspaper editor-in-chief.
Part of the problem is an undercurrent of resentment that Lee, for
all his academic and political accomplishments, has had it easy
because he is Lee Kuan Yew's son, and that he finds it difficult to
empathize with less fortunate Singaporeans.
The cynicism surfaced with Lee's fast track through the military
ranks to brigadier-general. His move into politics and rapid rise
fuelled speculation that he was being groomed by his father to be
premier. BG Lee, as he was then known, was widely referred to as
"baby god."
"He's got the right economic vision, no doubt about that," says a
Western diplomat. "The big test is getting that social and
political touch for a modern society."
http://www.singapore-window.org/sw04/040819fe.htm
