Lecturer in public law at the University of Paris-I-Panthéon-Sorbonne, Eugénie Mérieau conducts research for the CNRS in comparative constitutional law between the illiberal democracies of Asia and their liberal cousins in Europe and the United States. Researcher and teacher in Singapore (2020-2021), Thailand (2015-2017), Germany and the United States, she is the author of Dictatorship, an antithesis of democracy? 20 misconceptions about authoritarian regimesrepublished in February (Cavalier bleu, 240 pages, 13 euros).
Singapore has been led by a new prime minister since May 15. Lee Hsien Loong, son of the founder of the city-state, is succeeded by Lawrence Wong, appointed by the People’s Action Party (PAP), in power since 1965. Can we speak of the end of an era?
This is certainly not the end of the PAP. This very effective party has the means to train new generations of political leaders – Wong belongs to the fourth. And it’s not necessarily the end of the Lee era. There is nothing stopping Li Hongyi, the eldest and most popular son of former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong from becoming the next leader. Aged 37 and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT, aux Etats-Unis], he is currently a senior civil servant at the Singapore Government Agency for Digitalization. When the media asked Lee Hsien Loong if his son might be interested, he replied in the negative. But he himself said the same thing at his age. This reflects the aura that the Lee family still enjoys in the country, and the phenomenon of political dynasties is common in Southeast Asia.
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers With Lawrence Wong at its head, the city-state of Singapore is making a change in continuity
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The legislative elections scheduled for the end of 2025 will leave little room for suspense, since the PAP retains the hegemony of power. What is it based on?
The PAP anchors its legitimacy in the grand “narrative” of Singapore’s economic performance, which, since independence in 1965, has gone from a so-called “third world” country to one of the richest states in the world – it is ahead, in terms of its GDP per capita, of all Western powers. Lee Kuan Yew’s memoirs are titled From Third World to First. The Singapore Story: 1965-2000 (“From the Third to the First World, the History of Singapore”, Harper, 2000, untranslated).
The second story, which is very promising, is that of security. Singaporean society is multiracial (Chinese [75 %], Malays, Indians and others) and multi-religious (Buddhists, Christians, Muslims and Hindus). The racial riots targeting Singapore’s Chinese majority in 1964, when the city was still an integral part of Malaysia, gave a glimpse of a society undermined by violence. However, since its independence in 1965, Singapore has experienced almost none – unlike Malaysia and Indonesia. It has also been spared Islamic terrorism, although most countries in Southeast Asia have been its target and, sometimes, its focus. These PAP grand narratives are not based on ideology, but are based on results.
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