Political change cannot come overnight or from abroad: MM LKY

The Straits Times, April 28, 2007
By Zakir Hussain


This is applicable to Mid-East as well as China, both ancient societies, he tells young Arab and Asian leaders at forum

POLITICAL change cannot be foisted overnight or from abroad, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew told 150 young Arab and Asian leaders at a forum yesterday.

This goes for the Middle East, just as it does for China, he noted, as these are ancient societies with their own way of doing things, and which will evolve their own systems of government.

His audience of government, business and civil society leaders was in town for the inaugural Young Arab Leaders Global Action Forum: Arab and Asian Dialogue. It was organised by the Young Arab Leaders, a grouping that aims to develop the Arab world.

Replying to a question on leadership transition in the Arab world, he said: 'They have their own hierarchical set-up and their tribal loyalties...

'And if you don't want a revolution, you got to carefully choreograph the process through which you go from a very centralised control to a more diffused power sharing.

'I don't know what the answer is because it will vary with each individual society. I would tread very carefully.'

Referring to the leaders of Algeria and Egypt, Mr Lee said: 'Who is to tell President (Abdelaziz) Bouteflika what to do in Algeria? You want to tell President (Hosni) Mubarak how he should have an election and put in the Muslim Brotherhood by popular vote, which is what I'm told will happen if there's a popular vote?'

He said: 'Let's go slowly.'

What was needed before popular participation, he added, was an educated populace, including women, because they raised the children.

Mr Lee was also asked whether democracy was a constraint for China or India in their development.

'I cannot tell you what the Chinese are going to do but I can tell you what they have been doing, and my guess is they will do more of the same in incremental manner,' he said.

He noted that they had elections at the village and small township levels.

'Will they have it in the big towns? Eventually, I think.

'Not one man, one vote, but one township mayor, one vote, then it will have a more definable and identifiable base. And eventually, from the provinces, we might have more representing the government coming into the centre.

'I would imagine they would very carefully and very cautiously move towards participatory government.'

He added: 'And they, like the Russians, are not going to be dictated to by the West as to how they should govern themselves...'

Citing a Western journalist's comments that at some stage the Chinese 'hare' will stumble and the Indian 'tortoise' carry on, Mr Lee said: 'I buy the thesis that the Indian political structure, cumbersome as it is, will not go through a revolution because it's constantly adjusting every four, five years with elections in the states and in the provinces.

'But I'm not completely convinced that the hare will stumble. I think this hare will learn to work out a policy, to work out a system which would keep the country in one piece.

'They never had one man, one vote and they are not going to rush into it.'

He added: 'I think Western thinkers and theorists must factor in the historical and the cultural forces at work in each society.

'These are not new societies where you can go and imprint your system on them. They are ancient civilisations, especially China, with very firm mental maps as to how they see themselves and the rest of the world, and how they should govern themselves.

'Yes, you have dissidents, then they go to Harvard and are given fellowships, but the revolution is made in China, not in Harvard. So when you go to Harvard, you have opted out,' he said.