By Christian Kerr


Not all visitors to Australia are impressed, even if they get the VIP treatment and a 19-gun salute.

Take
Singapore’s Lee Hsien Loong. The island state’s Prime Minister was in
Canberra the week before last. There were a couple of difficult moments
– Qantas’s privileged position on trans-Pacific routes and the Nguyen Tuong Van
case – but everyone was polite enough. Until they got home. Since then,
Lee has had plenty to say and Singaporean blogger Au Waipang has lovingly documented it all on his website .

Here’s what the Today newspaper had to say about Lee’s experiences:

His visit to Australia and New Zealand has reinforced Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s belief that the one-party system in
Singapore must continue – and the same goes for the policy of placing
Opposition-held wards at the end of the lift-upgrading queue… After
having a more intimate look at their political systems, Mr Lee is
convinced that while their no-holds barred arguments make for “more
exciting” politics and “compulsively-viewable interviews”, they do not
necessarily result in more sound policies.

And this is what the Straits Times reported:

“Prime Minister Howard spends all his time dealing with
this party politics. The result is you don’t have a lot of time to
worry about the long-term future,” Mr Lee said.

As Au comments, this is a serious allegation:

It is most unusual for a Prime Minister of one country to
pass such comments about the competence and motives of government and
parliamentary leaders in another country, particularly one whom we need
as a friend… Moreover, if someone outside Singapore had made similar
remarks about Lee and his government, they would no doubt be told that
foreigners should not “interfere in our domestic politics”.

But
of course, Singapore is a special place. Lee was only reflecting the
views of the nation’s former prime minister, former senior minister and
now Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew (who also happens to be his daddy).
And what were his views on the messy and inefficient business of
democracy?

There’s too much to repeat here, but here’s a taste.
When the Singaporean opposition won two seats in the 1984 election, Lee
reacted: “At this rate, the one-man, one-vote system could lead to
decline and disintegration”.