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Singapore POLITICAL DYNAMICS
Power Structure
In 1989 political power in Singapore was in the hands
of a
small group of individuals who had been instrumental in
Singapore's
gaining independence. The leadership core ruled through a
second
echelon of potential successors, who tended to be
technocrats,
administrators, and managers rather than politicians or
power
brokers. The PAP leaders, convinced that a city-state
without
natural resources could not afford the luxury of partisan
politics,
acted after 1965 to "depoliticize" the power structure.
Economic
growth and political stability would be maintained instead
by the
paternal guidance of the PAP. Politics, as a result, was
only
exercised within very narrow limits determined by the PAP.
Singapore was thus administered by bureaucrats, not
politicians, in
a meritocracy in which power was gained through skill,
performance,
and demonstrated loyalty to the leaders and their
policies.
At the top of the hierarchy in 1989 were fifteen
cabinet
ministers, who were concurrently members of Parliament and
the CEC,
the PAP's highest policy-making body. Among these
ministers was an
inner core of perhaps five members. Below this group was a
tier of
senior civil servants who, in addition to their official
duties,
filled managerial and supervisory roles as directors of
public
corporations and statutory bodies. PAP members of
Parliament
without cabinet or government portfolios also tended to
function at
this level of the power hierarchy, providing links between
the
government and the populace.
Rifts within the leadership were rare. Although minor
differences over policy may have existed, the top leaders
presented
a united front once decisions were made. The mode of
decision
making was consensus, and the style of leadership was
collective,
but in 1989 Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was by far the
first among
equals on both counts. The leaders identified themselves
with the
nation, were convinced that they knew what was best for
the nation,
and interpreted opposition to themselves or their policies
as a
threat to the country's survival.
The overwhelming majority of the leadership were not
propertied
or part of the entrepreneurial class. They did not appear
particularly motivated by profit, gained lawfully or
through
corruption (which was almost nonexistent), or by the
perquisites of
their office (which although increasing, remained less
than could
be achieved in the private sector). Their reward, instead,
derived
from their access to power and their conviction that they
were
working for the nation and its long-term survival. Prime
Minister
Lee Kuan Yew and his close associates were highly
conscious of
their roles as founding fathers of the new city-state.
The power structure was extremely centralized. It was
characterized by a top-down style, featuring appointment
rather
than election to most offices; the absence of
institutional
restraints on the power of the prime minister and cabinet;
and more
effort devoted to communicating the government's decisions
and
policies to the public than to soliciting the public's
opinion. The
high degree of centralization was facilitated by the
country's
relatively small size and population. Although members of
Parliament were elected by the public, they were selected
by the
core leadership, often ran unopposed, and regarded their
positions
as due to the favor of the prime minister rather than the
will of
the voters. At the highest levels, the distinction between
the
bureaucracy and the political offices of Parliament was
only
nominal, and many members of Parliament were selected from
the
upper ranks of the civil service and the public
enterprises. Many
high-level civil servants had direct access to the prime
minister,
who consulted them without going through their nominally
superior
cabinet minister.
Data as of December 1989
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