PM Lee talks about social media, governing S’pore post-LKY

SINGAPORE — Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was interviewed by a group of journalists from around the region yesterday (June 4). Here’s are extracts from his interview.

ON SOCIAL MEDIA…

“More and more people are spending time firstly on their mobile devices, secondly on the messaging type platforms like… Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, even Snapchat, and not so much time on the formal news sites. So, they will not go to BBC but they expect to see BBC turn up on their Facebook feed… or whatever it is, and so, I want to be there too. And it does not meet all my needs because sometimes you need to make a speech and it is very difficult to have a one hour speech in a Facebook post. But there are people who will be on the Facebook who will not often be reading speeches and this is one way to reach them.”

PAP’S PERFORMANCE IN 2011 GE

“I would say 60 per cent is a good result. If you look at the developed countries - in Britain, they have just had an election, 60 per cent voted and about one-third voted for the Tories. So that means 20 per cent of the population have chosen this present government of the United Kingdom. And if you go to America it is also about 60 per cent voting and about 50 per cent will win you the presidential elections …. So that is the way democracy works. I mean there are different views within the society. We try our best to bring together people so that we have a broad consensus of support for the government. You may not like everything which the government does. But on balance, you are prepared to say this government is not bad. We vote for it.”

ON GOVERNING S’PORE, POST-LKY

“Mr Lee retired as Prime Minister 25 years ago… and he retired from the Cabinet completely four years ago… a new team has been in charge since 1990 and there has been a turnover even in the new team. I am not the second generation leader, I am the third Prime Minister. So in a way, Mr Lee has been preparing Singapore for the day when it carries on without him for a very long time... I think he has prepared well and Singapore is well set to move ahead… Of course, we would have liked to continue to have his wisdom, his advice, the confidence that he has been with us all along and that whatever happens, he can help us to see through… but the reality is increasingly in the last 15 years, it is a new team which has been taking Singapore, making the decisions, carrying them, persuading people or dealing with problems when they have risen and I think that will continue to be so now.”

ON BIRTH RATES

“We have had many marriage and parenthood packages… It has not turned the trend around and caused more babies to be born. But I think it has slowed down a very strong downtrend in people getting married and people having children. And if you look at the most recent numbers, well, the marriage numbers have gone up. I think birth numbers have gone up a little bit. In terms of fertility, it is still not where we would like it to be. So, we have to consider what we can do to do more.

ON TIMOR LESTE’S BID TO JOIN ASEAN

“Before we take a view or make a decision, I think we need to know what all these implications are... there is always a trade-off between how quickly you expand and how deeply you make your cooperation. The wider you go, the more difficult it is to reach consensus and to work out programmes which benefit everybody and which can go in-depth and make a real difference… it has taken us some time to (have 10 members in ASEAN) and even with 10, there is a question of how do the original six countries match with the… new members, (in terms of) the development gap and so on. So, to have a new member is not a trivial issue. We have to spend some time and understand the issues carefully and decide. But as far as helping Timor-Leste to get ready, I think ASEAN is doing quite a lot.”

More stories from Mr Lee's interview with ASEAN journalists:

Blessed with opportunities, young here ready for challenges ahead: PM Lee

Conservative S’pore ‘not ready for same-sex marriage’

Quality of AEC ‘depends on how it solves sea row’

Indonesia not renewing 2005 bilateral agreement