The Name is Lee - Kasperli:-)

You know my name...

The Prime Minister is called Lee, Lee Hsieng Loong to be precise; his father is also Lee (maybe the Schmutz-li?), Lee Kuan Yew.
(for all non-Swiss who read this: Kasperli is famous comic and audio figure for children, we pronounce that like Casper-Lee; Schmutzli is the type of guys who accompany the Santa Clause and usually are there to punish the bad kids; known at least in the German-speaking area).

What happened? Well, if something happens, it is not the happening that grab media attention, but it's Lee, or his response, comment etc. on the happening (cf. news about the Fed's 0.5%-interest rate cut some weeks ago, the biggest story was not the Fed's deed, but what Lee thinks the impact on S'pore will be).

Could it be a coincidence? Sure, life is full of surprise. The most widely used name in Mandarin is Li (or anglizised Lee). But isn't there something?

Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister Singapore (1959-1990; actually only chief minister till 1965, since Singapore was before not sovereign).
- His son, Lee Hsien Loong PM since 2003;
- his daughter-in law (PM's wife), Ho Ching, CEO of Temasek, the government-run Investment fund (117bn$ assets; one of those sovereign wealth funds the Europeans are scared about right now, due to heavy boost of investments from the Arabs).
- his son Le Hsien Yang, former CEO of Singtel (partly gov-owned telecom firm) is CEO of F&N (big player in dairy/food market) and gets a nice job at DBS, a big bank here.

Coincidentally the Lee-clan seems to own also the biggest fire-insurance company which has exclusive contracts with all HDB-flats.
Coincidentally, Lee Kuan Yew seems to be still chairman of GIC, the other gov-run Investment fund (200bn$-assets).
Or is all this just gossip? (Maybe we shall ask the folks in Beijing who just gather for their Congress?)


Hey man, life is full of fun, right? Everything is so nice and proper here, except below the surface, and unfortunately the facade is not covering 100% of the reality:-(((

Nepo... nepotism?
At least the Financial Times Asia thought so in its article on Sept 29. Now, they surrendered and officially apologized for an article which could be understood in certain ways ... (FT Asia, Oct 17, page 10) .

Whatever the past was, sooner or later the nomenklatura on the island will see that collusion, intransparency, nepotism and all those nice words hamper development. Funny that all students know the term "meritocracy" (hey, it's from Latin and Greek!) and follow that, but noone seems to care about politics.
Again, ask the folks sitting currently in the Great Hall of the People: In the short-run and in the past it could have made sense to catch-up, but you're doomed if you don't acquire some more proper, transparent and truly competitive habits. Otherwise, "City of Possibilities" will be drowned....