Speaking at an event celebrating the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC), dictator Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called for Singaporeans to obey his laws and the rules he set:
“Upholding the rule of law is not only an important reason for the Republic’s rapid progress in the past, but continues to be of vital national interest to small states like Singapore.”
In reference to his recent actions offending China and United States and straining international diplomacy, Lee Hsien Loong said:
“Nations dealing with Singapore have also come to expect that the Republic would honour agreements it enters into and expects the same of others. We say what we mean, and we mean what we say. Sometimes we are faulted for being rigid and inflexible, but it is absolutely critical for our words to count and for us to hold others to what they have undertaken to us. So having a reputation for insisting on these key points is perhaps no bad thing.”
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong then said public policies in Singapore are copied from other nations but this does not apply to his recent re-writing of the Constitution to suit his political agenda in the coming Presidential Election. Again this time in his speech, Lee Hsien Loong used his father’s name, Lee Kuan Yew, to drive his point:
“Whenever a new legislation was proposed in the Cabinet, founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s first question would be to ask which country it was copied from. He knew that from a good precedent, Singapore would benefit from the experience and mistakes of others. But when we have to make laws on our own that have no precedent elsewhere, we have to be very deliberate, think creatively and feel our way forward, and recognise that we will have to amend the laws later as we gain experience working it, to deal with unexpected issues or react to changing circumstances.”
Lee Hsien Loong controls the ruling party-dominated Parliament through the use of a party whip, and bypass ministries by directly controlling the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), the entire civil service under Public Service Division (PSD) and the Election Department. In Singapore, nobody is allowed to investigate Lee Hsien Loong even though his alternate position as Chairman of GIC, and his wife’s position as CEO of Temasek Holdings were pointed out to be blatant corruption by various international media.
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Screenshot from PMO website
Legalised corruption and nepotism remains the primary driver of cost of living in Singapore, with government leaders having business interests in various statutory boards and government-linked corporations.