MM Lee criticizes Japan’s political system which is based on seniority
December 11th, 2009 | 
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MM Lee Kuan Yew criticized Japan for having a political system based on seniority and urged its leaders to learn from China, which requires its political leaders to step down when they turn 65.
He was speaking at a dialogue organised by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry yesterday.
China’s current President Hu Jintao is serving his second five-year term and 
is expected to step down by 2012 together with his premier Wen Jiabao to give way to a new generation of leaders.
Mr Lee said this is what is being done in Singapore before realizing that he is the most senior member in the present cabinet:
“We also have a rule, I’m the exception to the rule, I’m 86….But I’m not doing the work; I’m just forecasting… The work is being done by younger people in their late 40s and 50s. So there’s an energy and a drive, and an understanding of the contemporary world. And they are also linked up with the younger generation of voters,” he added.
In his eagerness to dispense with his usual dose of (highfalutin) wisdom to the Japanese and to impress his audience, it appears that it has slipped Mr Lee’s mind that the Singapore’s political system is based on seniority too and there is no rule in Singapore requiring its leaders to step down when they reach a certain age.
For a small nation like Singapore, it has two former prime ministers in the 
cabinet, one as a senior minister and the other is Lee himself – the minister mentor, in addition to two deputy ministers, both of whom are above 62 years of age.
Mr Lee should walk his talk first before asking Japan to learn from China and set the example himself by stepping down completely from all positions in office by the next election when he will be 87 years of age.
Having already broken the world record for being the oldest MP in parliament, there is no need for him to set another record again by being the first living MP who is above 90 years of age.
Regardless of the reality, the lingering presence of the elder Lee in the Singapore government will continue to fuel the public perception that he is still “running the show” from behind.
After all, his honorific title “minister mentor” seems to suggest that his role is to “mentor” the ministers including the prime minister as and when the need arises.
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What gives LKY the right to criticise the 2nd largest economy of the world and one who has recently being more democratic than Singapore?
pot calling the kettle black, didn’t he just has a new senior minister jayakumar?
According to lky’s criticism to the Japanese, in my opinion, since Japanese are doing such a lousy work and having out-dated political system as proclaimed by lky, I strongly urge all Japanese to withdraw all their investments in Singapore, since they are no-more longer good enough for lky and his cronies as lky is now teaching them how to have “sexes” with their long establish political and social system!!!!
I can hear the Japanese audience giggling and some of their faces flushed with shame!!
We also have a rule, I’m the exception to the rule, I’m 86….But I’m not doing the work; I’m just dictating… The work is being done by younger people in their late 40s and 50s. So there’s an energy and a drive, and an understanding of the contemporary world. And they are also linked up with the younger generation of voters,” he added.
Ha ha ha!
I just need to change ONE to elucidate the real situation in Singapore.
OMG, i need to find a hole to stick my head into.
Our MM is becoming senile and need to consult a doctor or is it TR is joking.
This is too embarrassing for us to talk about.
I rest my case.
He is not doing the work?
I thought he is still actively involve in screwing up Chinese language education?
Ha ha ha!
Yes LKY is ALWAYS an exception to the rule. Even the rule of law.
Who in Sg will be the next exception to the rule ? No prize for correct answers ……
It is better than a system where we bankrupt our political opponents and keep them in detention for decades without any evidence or send them into exile.
What is worst we even have octogenarians in the cabinet who refuse to retire; at least they go by seniority.
This is pathetic. We should keep our mouths shut.
Who is paying his salary after all?
I don’t think its good for Singapore to allow such things to continue i.e. telling other major countries whats right and whats wrong. Sooner or later our younger generation will pay the price in answering everything for LKY.
Another piece of advice. Whos next in line?
yes i was just telling my mum earlier lky is becoming senile just like my granny, for that “exception” comment. She said, “ya its about time…he’s quite old already”
After 2560 years and 6 months later, Confucius found a match.
What has the japanese got to say about Singapore politician?
Is Singapore political system better than Japan? lol.
then what the hell is this dinasour doing in our government????
Japan go by seniority; we go by family ties? Tell me which is better?
“I’m not doing the work; I’m just forecasting”
Why the hell are we paying this idiot million dollars to forecast? And with so much mistakes to boot!
Isn’t our very own ELECTED PRESIDENT supposed to have some sort of ‘EXECUTIVE POWERS’?
how old is he?
may be some of us can volunteer for the post?…guess most of us here are younger?
Now,he’s just preparing the way for his grandsons,huh?
the are probably younger than most in the present cabinet?
“And they are also linked up with the younger generation of voters.”
As a member of said generation, I fail to see how any of them have ever succeeded in linking up with the rest of us.
Before he thinks of trimming our neighbors’ lawns, he ought to pull out all the weeds from our local backyard.
haha … this is classic PAP hypocrisy at its finest
HELLO Old FART Lee,telling Japan’s leader to step down at 65,then what the hell are you still doing in the Spore Cabinet at 86,drawing millions of $ in salary every year.
So your rules only apply to others but not yourself.so you are not doing the work only forecasting,which means you have become sort of a Fortune Teller,so should it not be,that you only be paid for every accurate prediction and be penalise every wrong prediction.
MM Lee, don’t urge people. It doesn’t matter what your title is, don’t order countries what they should do when Singapore is not heeding calls for human rights! god dammit
don’t you get it?
Like some bloggers here who constantly bark up the wrong trees
in order to please their masters,some guy is just trying to please China,the new superpower?
LK is such a big talker, trying to teach the japanese what to do. Singapore is not doing that well. GIC and temasek losing billion of dollars, native singaporeans unhappy with his rule.
LKM should take care of his own backside but starting to criticizing others.
Laughter is the best medicine.
It’s the new export good that will economic growth in the 21th century.
This must be the brilliant product of our extraordinarily successful bio tech investment program.
Where do i sign up?
I want to be funny too
hahaha…. old man admit he is paid to do nothing but forecasting. thing is… can he even forecast properly?
he forecasted 2 is enough and takes 20 yrs to admit his mistake
he forecasted casinos will be the bane of singapore and is forced to eat his words
he forecasted Aussie is the white trash of asia but guess which SWFs got trashed the most in asia?
even now, bilingual policy has become a mistake.
mebbe it is time he dump the flawed crystal ball and forget his daytime job as well.
The best man should hold the helm….esp if he is your son, better still.
It is obvious that neither humility nor graciousness are part of LKY’s list of virtues. He can stand in front of a crowd and lecture his hosts about the evils of a seniority based system without so much as a bat of an eye lid and yet we have a fully entrenched seniority based leadership in Singapore. There is no doubt who is in command in Singapore. We have a 21 person obscenely paid cabinet led by a minister mentor, two senior ministers and two deputy prime ministers and a prime minister. In addition, we have a prata man for President who is way past his expiry date. If Japan had the same minister to population number in Singapore, it would have a 538 member cabinet. I would not even do the maths for China.
When LKY came to power, the Prime Minister of Britain was Harold Wilson. Since then the UK had 7 prime ministers till today. In the USA, John Kennedy was the President and they had 10 presidents since then. Menzies was the PM of Australia when LKY ascended the throne and they have had 11 prime ministers since then. Japan had 23 prime ministers in the same length of time. How on earth can someone stand up and tell others to abandon their seniority system?
Why do other countries pander to LKY’s enormous ego and selective memory? Is it just common courtesy on their part or the machinations of the main stream media to puff up his image. Imagine the uproar if the Prime Minister of Japan had commented on Singapore’s use of the ISA, the silly one man demonstration rule or the emasculation of the opposition in Singapore.
This is another demonstration of the MIW’s logic. Do as I say and not as I do. What utter hypocrisy! Tell the poor harassed Singaporean to work faster, better and cheaper and not applying it to themselves. Have you heard of anything recently that the MIW elite will do faster, better and cheaper? Oh no, that’s only applicable to the lesser mortals.
With false humility he said that he was only the forecaster. Really? Going by his past predictions on the state of the world economy and its subsequent recovery or Obama’s election as the American president, he should have been sacked a long time ago. Forecasters are in the same profession as false prophets, medicine men, wizards and bomohs. And we all know about LKY’s obsession with geomancers. Boy, are we in deep sh*t if his admission is true and we are actually run by soothsayers and fortune tellers. There are rich examples in history about the roles such people play as court advisors, such as Merlin, Rasputin or the eunuchs in ancient Egypt and China. They connive, plot and out maneuver the opponents to their puppet king whilst they actually are the power behind the throne. Sounds familiar?
What do I know, I am only the Born Loser!
Can the above messages reach the OLD MAN?
wong kan seng will turn 64 in 2010 election. is LKY going to walk the talk and force WKS to step down. afterall,LKY said he is the only exception, didn’t mention WKS
Is old fart the modern day Nostradamus ?
He supported G Bush on invasion of Iraq and search for WMD
He rooted for Obama’s rival to be President
He supported Marcos, Suharto, Thaksin, Anwar
He continues to support Burmese Junta, Mugabe, Kim, Castro
He engineered turning a country into a corporation
He predicted golden period for Spore
He thinks he can fool everyone with his fcking predictions
Does it mean that singapore system is not based on seniority?
Can p65′er respond?
“We also have a rule, I’m the exception to the rule, I’m 86….But I’m not doing the work; I’m just forecasting…”
Just forecasting only, get few millions a year. Besides most of his forecasts were grossly wrong, resulted in many social and financial catastrophies as follows:
1. Forced S’poreans to stop at two, thinking that S’pore is too small. Now have to import foreign trash to make up the shrinking population.
2. Forced previous generation of S’porean Chinese to sneer at Chinese language and culture, thinking that China would never be strong again. Even to the extent of closing down the Nanyang Univ, the only chinese univ in SE Asia. Now want to turn back the clock by telling all S’porean Chinese to identify with China
3. Predicted golden period one moment, saw the worst recession in S’pore’s history the next moment
4. Lost billions of state-owned money thru’ GIC in wrong forecasted investment
5. Thought that Obama was just a flash in the pan. Now he is the President
The list can go on. You people get the message
hahhahahhahahaaa…………do you think the Japanese really gives a crap what he says?
Hmm, I kinda like to think that as much as we brag about MMlee being un-kind, I must say that he has done Singapore a pretty decent job in making ‘everything-seem-so-good’.
It’s true that not everyone is born rich nor have a good life, but at the very least, when Singaporeans goes out to the world today, even though we’re so bloody small, people still recognizes us.
In terms of asking people to step down and him, being outrageously over-paid and all, I like to think that Singapore’s orderliness and discipline to get things up-to-speed and steady/consistent is none matchable by anywhere else in the world. From street hawkers to top airport in the world.. Singapore stands solid even though we may be small on the map..
now I must say that whatever he has done that have irritated all of us here blogging so much, or whatever he has said, I’d rather think of it as one who is much older than all of us and would have known better.
But do give him a little break lah huh.. his son is pretty much on his own and he is doing a pretty decent job too!
Old Fart hasn’t mentioned what his two senior ministers are doing?
Are they also in the business of forecasting?
Hahahahahaha.
Jjong on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 1:04 am
“But do give him a little break lah huh.. his son is pretty much on his own and he is doing a pretty decent job too!
”
Let’s see.
1. Starting wages have stagnated.
2. Contract workers are the norm not the exception.
3. Inflation? What inflation?
4. See what compound interest does to the total amount you pay for the 40% more expensive HDB flat you just bought, and now have to pay for 10years longer to have manageable monthly payments.
5. Apply the same compound interest calculation to find out how much you lose in retirement savings because your CPF has gone into paying for that flat.
6. Wah, the trains damn empty sia….. so shiok.
7. Your friendly neighborhood chicken is a PR.
Damn good job, give the man his bonus.
That Elfredian bullshit hasn’t come back widh his ‘winning formula’ crap has he?
what is so difficult in making singapore work and progress if you open the door wide without restrictions to foreigners and ride rougshod over the rights and entitlements of local born citizens?
What a joke!
LKY is the oldest politican around and he is telling Japanese about the values of not respecting seniority in the political system.
What a joke.
He is really Thick skin or he is senile to the extent that he doesn’t see the contradiction.
//Jjong
LHL is not doing a good job at all.
Under him, GIC and TH lost a lot of monies.
TH is issuing bond i.e borrowing monies from people.
Well, TH have squeezed the CPF system enough already and where else do you find people to lend them monies.
The Pigs @ parliament make a lot of monies from Singapore and what did they contribute?
For a supposedly first world country, we had an old man burning an MP up.
The list of the cock ups including the escape of a limping terrorist run long.
Maybe in the near future, we need Malaysians to refine our water.??
haha.
What a joker
Now this wise man is becoming a fool from his big ego and arrogance!
Excellent write Born Loser,
I do think MM is playing to the local gallery rater than teaching the Japanese a thing or two.Even Mahathir once said that China also did not think much of Lee and the Chinese there don’t want to listen to him.
Notwithstanding MM talks and our press publishes pages & pages of it.Purely for local consumption.
@ fpc on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 3:09 am
What a joke!
LKY is the oldest politican around and he is telling Japanese about the values of not respecting seniority in the political system.
————
ya rite… is he gg to have another round of talking to the kiddo leeporter fr the MSM. didn’t some1 reminds those kiddo leeporters to respect the senile, oops, I mean the senior????
tsk tsk… shame on those kiddo leeporters, trying to maul our dear leader.
btw can they hv another go again.. with TR and TOC invited as well.
…He is not doing the work…. but why he still collects million dollar salary??
Forecasting need to pay him so much?? Better engage a fortune teller which is cheaper !!
@ fpc on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 3:09 am
What a joke!
Yes, he should have retired after two terms in the early 70s of the last century and let CST take over!
Failing that, he should give local talent like Dr Chee who is very young in his prime a decade a ago and a PHD as well! I am so sad that he missed another chance for fresh ideas!
Better late than more anguish for forever, why not he retires today and enjoy the sunshine?
We are also waiting for him – IMPATIENTLY – to move on.
@ Jjong on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 1:04 am
Except for your mundane slavish licking, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the contributions in this thread.
Laughing uncontrollably, the tits have fallen off my chest!
“We are also waiting for him – IMPATIENTLY – to move on.”
The old fart will never move on until he died. The old fart knows it very well, and we know it very well, that the reason why he continue to stay on is because he want to leave himself a good name. Why ? Because a dead man tell no tale and leave no evidence. You should not be surprised if he burn all the paper and concrete evidence with him down to hell.
Yeah, it is so unfair to us, the poor citizens of Singapore; if the Japanese do not listen to what the “DOM” said, in the first place, why invite him to the lavish, extravagant, sumptuous dinner/banquette? ###I protest strongly by not breaking the stupid law of demonstrating SOLELY in public###, (heehaheehaheeha…..) instead of inviting this old and senile idiotic million-dollar farting-nerd, why don’t the Japanese invite me, as least I will butter-up to them first on those real achievements the Japanese have endeavors and subsequently based on Japan’s “real social and political system” to give genuine and constructive advices couple with my marvelous and fabulous ***scientific-knowledge*** as the basis!! I really have solutions for the Japanese but I can not reveal here as the idiotic miw will emulate and mimic my proposals and solutions, thus finally, claim credits to be the miw’s brilliant forecast as proclaimed by the shameless “DOM”!!!
Mind you, this kind of sumptuous banquette cost you at least hundred of dollars per person, ok! Why waste money on this senile DOM when three quarter of his body almost buried in his own graveyard! Hello! My daily meals are just white-bread with plain-water, you know, my dear Japanese!!!!!!!!!!!!
Remember he forecast that Singapore was entering golden period, then the market crash and Singapore was caught in a recession. So much for his forecasting powess. And to be paid millions for dollars for this is obscene, isn’t it?
He proposes 65. He is now 86. 65 vs 86. Wow! 21 yrs past expiration. Still counting ….more years to be added to past expiration. Bansai! Bansai!
The greatest joke of year 2009! I can hear the Japanese rolling on the floor laughing their ass off!
smallyfly,
the Japan just want dumb money and investment from SinCity, and that is why Japan humbly and tolerably (or wayangly just like other countries) invite the old fart over to give highfalutin nonsense and forecast just to feed the old fart’s ego of always been right and of been emperor (he forget Japan already has Emperor), so to appease to get few millions for free. Stupid old fart just never wake up his idea. But then what can we expect a traitor like him ?
WHAT HYPOCRISY! MM LEE STILL THINK HIMSELF IS VERY YOUNG?
yeah, LKY is super thick skin
Our PMs and ministers never retires and still draw multi-million dollar salaries. The younger generation of PAP ministers in name are in charge but are under the thumb of these superannuated ministers. Don’t kid ourselves; we do not have a regeneration process. We continue to have ministers who pretend to give way to the younger ministers but in fact continue to call the shots!
They even deceive themselves.
We the citizens are suffering because of the outdated policies/mentality of this government because the people in power have refused to step down.
//Lann Poh
it is like those old man who dates young babe thinking they are very young.
Pot Kettle Black.. Nuff Said..
[sarcasm]Yeah, seniority is so much worse than nepotism and hiding your mistakes.[/sarcasm]
Ten years ago I first moved to Singapore and I had some respect for LKY and the PAP. Getting to know real Singaporeans, though, and the price they pay to support the Lee Family I realise that he is nothing other than a petty bully boy who ran out of good ideas decades ago.
The Singapore Story has been replaced by the Singapore Sclerosis and only LKY and his accursed family can be blamed.
As MM Lee has proven, age has no barriers to serve it’s nation. His recent “lecture” as a guest of the Japanese Association is not a all serving for some nation. Why, after his speach I had a hard time explaining the political gesture versus sense of business to my bosses as they are Japanese.
The Japanese is by far regarded as the longest investors in Singapore and so pose NO threat to national security nor economical threat. But they have since contributed to thousands employed and improved skill sets of certain Singaporeans here especially the skilled workers in the 70’s and 80’s.
Why one has to lecture others when I thought we were and are still friends. Some of us still have to face our Japanese bosses “to bring home ends meat”, and we are not paid millions annually but still we are tax payers. I hope any other political leaders here would craft their speaches carefully in mind of the nation’s benefit and not at the expense of certain nation. Dear MM please spare a thought for us.
To compare China against Japan make no sense and it shows how senile MM is. One is a democratic country where the politician are elected by the people while the other is ruled by iron fist and the citizen have no say on who should lead the country.
Moreover in China, when a person stepped down, it does not mean that he is no longer in power. It might be he is still the most powerful person in country as in the case of Deng XiaoPing.