ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa will need to employ shock therapy to transform the ruling party — just as Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew did
PAP transformed Singapore within one generation from dirt poor at independence from Britain in 1965 to a highly developed economyA general view of the Woodlands Causeway in Singapore, Malaysia. Picture: GETTY IMAGES/ORE HUIYING
The PAP was established in 1954 as a party to fight for the independence of Singapore from Britain. The party was similar to many African liberation and independence movements: a typical broad front spanning trade unions, communists, populists, professionals, small business and traditionalists. But fundamentally it identified as a party of the Left.
In contrast, African independence and liberation movements nationalised many local and foreign companies, or introduced indigenisation or empowerment programmes, where the state or local political capitalists close to governing parties got slices of local or foreign companies. When the PAP’s Left wing, communists and trade unions opposed the new entrepreneurial direction, Lee, like many leaders of African independence movements, did not try to hold the Left and moderate factions of the party together for the sake of “unity”, which would invite policy paralysis. Rather, he encouraged them to leave.In August 1961, Lee forced the communists out of the broad church because of irreconcilable ideological, policy and leadership differences.
The PAP dealt firmly with corruption within the party and state, jailing senior leaders in the party and government implicated in corruption, even if they were struggle grandees, to show that liberation leaders are not above the law. No successful country development can take place amid corruption, incompetence and lawlessness.
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