SINGAPORE: Noted author and editor-in-chief of digital magazine Jom, Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh, has opined that former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has bequeathed a “more unequal and divided” Singapore to his successor, Lawrence Wong, in an opinion-editorial published last Friday (17 May).
Mr Vadaketh’s lengthy essay offered an alternative view to the scorecards mainstream media has published on Singapore’s progress and prosperity in the two decades under Mr Lee’s leadership.
While his tenure, beginning in 2004, has been marked by impressive economic statistics, Mr Vadaketh pointed out that the narrative of success is layered with complexities.
While economic metrics suggest robust growth, underlying social issues indicate a more nuanced reality.
Singapore has become more unequal and divided, with rising scrutiny over its public housing system and a perceived decline in academic freedom and societal dissent.
A major challenge of Lee’s administration has been managing immigration and its impact on inequality, Mr Vadaketh highlighted.
Singapore’s population increased by 42% from just over 4 million to nearly 6 million from 2004 to 2023, straining the nascent Singaporean identity and raising concerns about socio-cultural integration.
Mr Vadaketh added that the traditional race classification model, CMIO (Chinese, Malays, Indians, Others), has been critiqued for exacerbating ethnic tensions, particularly among Chinese and Indian communities.
The editor also noted that economic disparities have also widened.
While Singapore has become a hub for millionaires and billionaires, a significant portion of the population struggles with basic needs, and approximately 30% of working households earn less than what is required to meet basic needs, according to the Minimum Income Standard (MIS) 2023 report.
Furthermore, the Gini coefficient, which measures income inequality, remains high even when calculated conservatively.
Mr Vadaketh shed light on the critical challenges involving public housing, covering the declining value of 99-year leasehold Housing Development Board (HDB) flats and how the abolition of inheritance taxes in 2008 compounded this issue and exacerbated wealth inequality.
He added that the space for academic freedom and societal dissent appears to have diminished under Mr Lee, with new laws like the Foreign Interference Countermeasures Act (FICA) and the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) being criticized for potentially stifling free speech.
The editor wrote that the closure of Yale-NUS College and other actions against academics and independent voices further highlight concerns about declining intellectual freedom.
One of the biggest nuances in measuring Mr Lee’s performance over the past two decades could be how his party has performed at the polls.
Mr Vadaketh noted that the governing People’s Action Party (PAP) has seen a decrease in its vote share, reflecting growing public discontent.
He contrasted the party’s handling of issues, such as the investigation into Lee Kuan Yew’s will and the reserved presidential election for Malays that have sparked internal dissent and criticism from the public, with the higher number of seats the opposition has gained in recent election cycles.
Mr Lee’s legacy is thus marked by significant economic achievements and profound social challenges, Mr Vadaketh argued.
He wrote: “Lee leaves behind a Singapore that is probably more unequal and divided than when he entered office; where the raison d’être and dynamics of the much-vaunted public housing system are under growing scrutiny; and where the space for academic freedom and societal dissent appears to be shrinking, hampering the generation of new ideas and modes of thinking.”
His piece has been welcomed as providing a more realistic picture of Mr Lee’s lengthy reign as PM, compared to the articles in mainstream media that have been criticised as “disproportionate” by some Singaporeans online.
Sharing Mr Vadaketh’s essay, political scientist Donald Low wrote on Facebook: “Probably the best written so far on Lee’s legacy.”
Read the op-ed in full HERE.