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Dear The Real Singapore,
I want to share with your readers some interesting things I found on Wikipedia regarding Singapore.
First of all, to get trouble out of my pants, this is as quoted by Wikipedia and by no means the opinion of the author of this post whatsoever.
Okay, now that the disclaimer is done, I saw this news via Singabloodypore and asiapundit and the details are as follows:-
Nepotism (extract from wikipedia):-
Nepotism is a common accusation in politics when the relative of a powerful figure ascends to similar power seemingly without appropriate qualifications. For example, in America, politically powerful families such as the Kennedy family and Bush family in American politics are sometimes accused of nepotism by critics. Recently, U.S. Senator Frank Murkowski, when elected Governor of Alaska, appointed his daughter Representative Lisa Murkowski to fill the remaining two years of his seat and was accused of nepotism. (Murkowski won reelection on her own in 2004.) Families elsewhere have also dominated politics of their homeland, such as Tun Abdul Razak, second Prime Minister of Malaysia and his son, Najib Tun Razak, current Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, or Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew (first Prime Minister of Singapore) and his son, Lee Hsien Loong, who recently succeeded Goh Chok Tong as Prime Minister of Singapore.
Family Dictatorship (Extract from wikipedia):-
A family dictatorship is a form of dictatorship that operates much like an absolute monarchy, yet occurs in a nominally republican state and is not part of its laws.
When the dictator of a family dictatorship dies, one of his relatives (usually his son) becomes the new ruler of the country. This transition often occurs after years of "grooming" the dictator's successor as heir apparent.
Nicaragua: Anastasio Somoza García (1937-1947, 1950-1956) succeeded by his son Luis Somoza Debayle (1956-1963). There was also a third Somoza president, Anastasio Somoza Debayle (1967-1972, 1974-1979), though he did not directly succeed the other two.
Haiti: François Duvalier (1957-1971) succeeded by his son Jean-Claude Duvalier (1971-1986)
Republic of China (from 1949 on Taiwan): Chiang Kai-shek (1928-1975) indirectly succeeded by his son Chiang Ching-kuo (1975-1988)
North Korea: Kim Il Sung (1948-1994) succeeded by his son Kim Jong Il (1994- )
Syria: Hafez al-Assad (1971-2000) succeeded by his son Bashar al-Assad (2000- )
Congo-Kinshasa: Laurent Kabila (1997-2001), succeeded by his son Joseph Kabila (2001-)
Azerbaijan: Heydar Aliyev (1993-2003) succeeded by his son Ilham Aliyev (2003- )
Singapore: Lee Kuan Yew (Prime Minister 1959-1990, Senior Minister 1990-2004, Minister Mentor 2004-), indirectly succeeded by his son Lee Hsien Loong (2004-)
And as a quote from a reader Singabloodypore:-
The strange thing is that while the entire world is aware of this glaring injustice and abuse of power, Singapore's local government owned media are trying hard to avoid acknowledging and discussing this troublesome and embarassing interpretation.
(This seems to be part of the Wiki entry but was deleted according to some comments left there)
The entry on Singapore in Wikipedia for Family Dictatorship has been removed. And all these within 24 hours of her article. How interesting. The powers-to-be at work?
To top it off with some more juicy information from the wiki again, from the description of our MM Lee Kuan Yew, in order to educate less well informed friends:-
Several members of Lee's family hold prominent positions in Singaporean society. Lee's wife Kwa Geok Choo used to be a partner of the prominent legal firm Lee & Lee. His younger brothers, Dennis, Freddy and Suan Yew were partners of Lee & Lee. He also has a younger sister, Monica.
His sons and daughter hold government and government-linked posts. His son Lee Hsien Loong is currently the Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Singapore, as well as Vice-Chairman of the Government Investment Company (GIC) of Singapore (Lee is the Chairman.) His daughter Lee Wei Ling runs the National Neurological Institute, while his other son Lee Hsien Yang manages the recently privatised telecommunications company SingTel. His daughter-in-law Ho Ching (Lee Hsien Loong's wife) runs Temasek Holdings, a prominent holding company with controlling stakes in a variety of government-linked companies. However, Lee has consistently denied charges of nepotism, arguing that his family members' privileged positions are based on personal merit. In 2004, the Economist magazine apologised to the Lee family for making such accusations of nepotism in its August 14th-20th 2004 edition.
In his biography, Lee stated that he was a fourth-generation Chinese Singaporean, contributing to the fact that his Hakka great-grandfather emigrated from the province of Guangdong to the Straits Settlements in the 19th century.
And finally, the elusive Temasek Holdings in the eyes of the wiki
As of 2004, it owns stakes in many of Singapore's largest companies, such as SingTel, DBS Bank, Singapore Airlines, PSA International, SMRT Corporation, Singapore Power and Neptune Orient Lines. It also holds investments in public icons like the Raffles Hotel and the Singapore Zoological Gardens. It also holds a stake in Singapore Pools, the only legal betting company in Singapore. On October 14, 2004, it announced that it was closing the operational headquarters of Singapore Technologies and transferring the latter's assets to itself.
There's a saying in Singapore that RI graduates rule Singapore while ACS ones own Singapore but all that seems to be rumours.
Aliasy
TRS reader