SINGAPORE — Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong covered a wide range of topics during interviews with various media outlets ahead of the handover of the top role to Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on May 15.

Here are some edited quotes from Mr Lee addressing some of the major themes of the interviews, the final ones before the leadership handover. He was quizzed by several English-speaking reporters on April 26 before conducting an interview with Chinese media on April 28.

RACISM IN SINGAPORE 

"I think it (racism) is less in Singapore than most other countries. We will work to make it better. To make it completely disappear, I think would be very difficult.

"We started off with the founding ideal to be one people, regardless of race, language or religion.

"And actually, we have gone very far in that direction by policies, by government indoctrination even, by the way we have built our society to be one people.

“But to make prejudice disappear completely between different human groups who are going to remain different and to keep our cultures, our heritages and our religions, which are not the same — I think to remove altogether any sense of that different distinctiveness, I think that would be very hard.

“So I think that we will improve, we will do more things to nudge this in the right direction. For example, the workplace discrimination legislation, which we are working on... I think it would make a difference.”

Mr Lee added that "we have to know what to do when we fall short of perfection and something happens".

“Because sometimes, if there is a small incident and you overreact and everybody gets hyped up overnight because you saw one — somebody made a — foolish post, I think it is not really the wisest way to handle it. You have to see it in perspective, if it is wrong, I condemn it. Do not do it again. Let us move on.”

HIS ROLE AS SENIOR MINISTER 

“Well, I talked to him (Mr Wong). I said that I will be here to do my best to help you to succeed, you have to be your own person. You have to make the decisions. You have to lead in your own way, persuade people in your own way.

"But I will give you the benefit of my experience and my views. But you have to set the tone, you have to carry the decision.”

“Well, I hope that the people I know, the network of leaders I have met and who know me, will still be there for some time. They are getting old, too, and getting on.”  

These would be Indonesian President Joko Widodo, better known as Jokowi, who is completing his term this year, and former heads of states such as Ms Angela Merkel of Germany and Britain's Tony Blair, who retired some time ago. 

“But to the extent that I have people who know me and whom I can talk to, I will certainly make use of that and engage them.

“(As for) specific, sensitive policy, that is up to the prime minister to decide. If he arrows me to do it, I will take the arrow,” Mr Lee added.

MANAGING FOREIGN RELATIONS

Mr Lee was asked whether Singapore will be tested since the handover is near and there will be a line-up of new leaders here.

“I would not be surprised. People will want to see how the new leaders are, what their policy is and what their (personalities are); his standing, his strength and support at home, and his ability to engage and to hold his own, and to be somebody to take seriously,” he replied.

“(Mr Wong) is not completely new to this. He was my principal private secretary a long time ago, and he went to many of these meetings with me, so he has seen me. As minister, he has travelled with me, too, from time to time.

“I think that the new team will be probed, certainly. Tested, well, maybe gently, maybe issues will come, and people might push a little bit harder, or maybe not. But we must expect that some probing will come and we must be ready to respond.

“Not in a harsh way, but quietly to stand our ground and let people know that you know, we may have had a changing of the guard, but the new guards are prepared, and the old guards are still giving hopefully useful views to the new team on how to do it," he added.

When it comes to managing relations with Indonesia and Malaysia, this was what Mr Lee had to say: 

“I think both will always be complicated relationships. Nearest neighbours, permanently nearest neighbours; you have to work together, and yet there are always so many places where you can easily have different perspectives or rub up against each other.

“And I think we both know that, and both try our best not to collide because we can do many things together.”

MYANMAR

Mr Lee said that “Myanmar is an old problem”, adding that the Southeast Asian country first became a problem when there was a coup in 1990, which installed a military junta.

“We decided that at that time, we would deal with it by engaging them and encouraging them to move towards democracy. It was patient work," he recalled, before the country finally held elections in 2010.

"It was patient work... It is their domestic policies, their domestic tensions, conflicts, difficulties and social conditions. You cannot go and solve (these) for them.” 

After Myanmar's 2021 elections, the outcome was "not acceptable and there was a coup".

The Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) continued to meet "always with one empty chair and Myanmar's flag down there", Mr Lee added.

“Meanwhile, we are trying to engage Myanmar, and we have special ministers and formed special little groups to go visit the parties in Myanmar.

"Asean settled on the formulation for its approach to Myanmar, which we call the Five-Point Consensus.

“I think looking at the history and understanding the nature of the problem, we have to be patient.

"But fortunately, Asean is not held back. That is the matter which is being dealt with. But as I put it into context, Myanmar is an issue for Asean to manage.”

ROLE OF OPPOSITION IN PARLIAMENT 

Mr Lee said that in Parliament, "there are ample alternative voices".

"The Opposition has a dozen Members of Parliament (MPs) there are Nominated MPs as well. All views are aired and questions are asked without any restraint — answered, debated. People write all sorts of pieces on op-eds online, on CNA Insider, in the newspapers.

“That is the way a vibrant system works.

“Parliament with more Opposition, more active Opposition — I think the debates have become more intense. From the point of view of quality of debate, if you are watching it as a television debate, I would have to say the quality has improved because there are more opposition MPs.

“From the point of view of Government, has it improved people's understanding of issues and enlightened the public? The answer is mixed.

"Because, once in a while, you have a non-contentious issue… And the Opposition will chip in ideas and sometimes if you close your ears, close your eyes, it sounds (like) it could have been made by somebody wearing white and white.”

During Mr Lee's separate interview with Mandarin-speaking reporters on April 28 on good politics, this was what he had to say about the role of the Opposition in Parliament: 

“It is not just the men in white who can do it. The Opposition has its own definition. It wants to have more opposition MPs and to them, this is the way to achieve better politics — they want to replace the PAP.

“I think they are doing their best to act as a watchdog, hoping that Singaporeans will think that they will make our Government more transparent and our policies better.

"Even better, they can dilute or weaken less popular policies. I think in this aspect, they are doing their best.

“But as to whether they can really raise the standards of policies, I have my views. I think for those less controversial policies, we can discuss them very calmly and objectively… But when it comes to economic issues, or education or health issues, it is hard to avoid politicking.”