No hurry to hand over power, Goh told

By Amit Baruah

SINGAPORE, DEC. 11. Singapore's Senior Minister and former Prime Minister, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, has said there is no hurry for the Prime Minister, Mr. Goh Chok Tong, to hand over power.

Mr. Lee was quoted by the Singapore press as saying that Mr. Goh had the responsibility to ensure a smooth transition to a new leader.

``Nobody is going to edge him out. There is no hurry. I don't see any hurry in this. Certainly, I'm not going to edge him out,'' Mr. Lee said in Hong Kong. He said it was up to Mr. Goh to decide the timing of the transition.

``He (the Prime Minister) has the responsibility to ensure that the transition is smooth and successful. I hope, as smooth and probably smoother, than the transition from me to him,'' Mr. Lee was quoted as saying.

In a recent interview to the Asian Wall Street Journal, Mr. Goh said his goal was to build a new team to take over the task of Government by 2007, when general elections will be due. (The next general elections are to be held by 2002).

``Nobody is going to edge me out. In fact, if somebody wants to edge me out, I would dig in my heels. I'm not going to be pushed over.'' He had also referred to the problem of finding capable leaders in Singapore.

Mr. Lee said there were two reasons for the lack of good leaders in Singapore. ``I can't prove this statistically, but I think the fact that so many of our graduate women are unmarried and do not produce children, I do believe that has lessened the number of talented people in the next generation.''

``If you look at the older generation, you find one bright one in the family, then you find six or seven bright ones. Now, one child or two.''

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Section  : International
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