Looking for leaders with "less white hair"
AUG 23, 2004Looking for leaders with 'less white hair'
AT AN HDB block party recently in his Teck Ghee ward, a little boy walked up to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and chirped: 'I know you, Lee Hsien Loong'.
The Premier toyed with his young resident, asking: 'How do you know?'
'From the TV, Channel 8,' the boy shot back.
Mr Lee continued to tease: 'You made a mistake, that's my younger brother.'
But the boy had the last laugh: 'No, it's you. White hairs.'
Mr Lee recalled this anecdote last night during his maiden National Day Rally speech, as he emphasised that one of his chief tasks is to launch an early search for his successor.
'I think the little boy wants somebody with a little less white hair,' he said to much laughter at the University Cultural Centre.
He said that among Singapore's three premiers, he is the oldest when assuming the office. Mr Lee Kuan Yew was 35 when he stepped up to the top post, and Mr Goh Chok Tong was 49 in 1990.
Mr Lee is 52 this year, and stressed that for the next prime minister, 'we have to try harder'.
He emphasised that political self-renewal is critical to Singapore, noting that Mr Goh started scouring for talent even before he assumed the premiership.
That was how he came into politics, said PM Lee. And all the people who came in with him then were also in their 30s.
But in recent years, it has become harder to get people in their 30s. In the last General Election in 2001, although the People's Action Party brought in many young people, the average age of the seven who became ministers of state was 43.
'So we need people coming in in their 30s,' said PM Lee. 'Then they have time to learn. At 30, you are not ready to take charge. But you are ready to learn and absorb.
'By 40, you are tested, experienced and ready to take charge.'
Added PM Lee: 'I can connect with the young people, but the generation after that, the five-, six-year-olds, they will need new leaders by the time they are 21.
'We've got to find the people'.
Copyright @ 2004 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.
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