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SINGAPORE – Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he has no regrets after leading the country for 20 years, having done what he set out to do with Singaporeans. Singapore is a shining little red dot today, where people live in peace and contentment, and this is due to the effort of its citizens, he added. As he prepares to step down from leading the country, PM Lee has this message for the people: “We’ve achieved much together... we are proud to be Singaporeans, and I am comforted by that. This is the result of everyone’s hard work, and I thank you for your effort and support.” He will pass the baton to In wide-ranging interviews in English and Chinese looking back at his years in office, a relaxed and smiling PM Lee said he was ready to hand over to a new leader to take Singapore forward. “We have been preparing this for a very long time,” he said at the interviews held at the Istana on April 24 and 26. Noting that there have already been two successful leadership transitions, he expressed confidence that the third will be as smooth and peaceful. PM Lee, a former brigadier-general who entered politics in 1984 and was appointed minister of state soon after, will stay on as senior minister in the new Cabinet after the handover. Asked if he would deal with tricky issues as founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew did after stepping down, or travel the world like second prime minister Goh Chok Tong did to cement friendships, PM Lee said: “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. Specific, sensitive policy, that is up to the prime minister to decide.” He added: “If he arrows me to do it, I will take the arrow.” Whatever his role in the new team, he will only be in a supporting role, PM Lee stressed. He said he told his successor: “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. “I will give you the benefit of my experience and my views. But you have to set the tone, you have to carry the decisions.” The Singapore that PM Lee and his team inherited in 2004 had just emerged from the Asian financial crisis and the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or Sars, outbreak. At his inauguration speech on Aug 12, 2004, he had told Singaporeans: “Work with me to make Singapore a home we love, a community we belong to, and a country we are proud to call our own.” In the years since, the country has stayed open amid the backlash against globalisation, and moved to provide stronger social safety nets. Gross domestic product per capita more than doubled from $46,664 in 2004 to $113,779 in 2023. At the same time, income gaps widened, and Singapore moved towards redistribution programmes and more collective responsibility. ComCare was launched in 2005 to bring support schemes together, and Workfare in 2007 to top up the wages of lower-income workers. The Progressive Wage Model followed in 2012 to uplift the wages of those at the bottom. MediShield Life and CareShield Life were then introduced to provide financial assurance for those who need long-term care. Pointing to these policies, PM Lee said: “These are all things which we have done, all within the last 20 years. It is very considerable. “Of course, people will always say ‘please do more’, and we will keep on improving.” But the Singaporean attitude should remain one of working hard and being prudent, and if things turn out well and Singapore has a good year, everybody can enjoy the upside, he said. This upside, too, should not be just a distribution – “where you spend the money and it is gone” – but something society feels addresses real needs and deserves support. Under PM Lee, the Government also introduced generational safety nets, in the form of the for Singaporeans now in their 60s and older. A visibly emotional PM Lee said: “They brought us here. If they had not stood and fought at the critical moment, and then slogged and built their whole lives to take Singapore forward, saved and enabled the next generation to move higher and further than they did, we would not be here today.” Now that the Republic has accumulated some buffer, this is a way to thank and honour those generations, with a gesture that will help them in their golden years, he said. With 20 more years of nation-building, the Singapore identity has become stronger, said PM Lee. “It is 20 more years of ups and downs, and trials and tribulations, and joys and sorrows.” This identity was forged through crises, from the global financial crisis which hit in 2008 to the Covid-19 pandemic. From time to time, Singapore has also had to work through prickly issues like the which penalised sex between men, and These experiences enabled Singaporeans to understand one another better, accept one another’s differences, and work out practical arrangements, said PM Lee. “But to say after this, we can fly solo – the Government does not need to watch, can take hands off the steering wheel or the controls, and it will look after itself – I do not think so. Never,” he added. It is not possible because these issues will forever be sensitive, there have to be limits to discussions, and the Government needs to set the tone, he said. “It is better for the Government to guide it, allow more discussions, allow freer exchange of views, and you can allow more liberal practices too. But I think we have to handle (sensitive issues) with very great care – always.” This national identity will also always be subject to influences from the outside world, such as “wokeness”, religious norms, cultural norms, sexual norms and family norms. Singapore will always be both part of a global humanity, and yet also a nation. “I want to keep this Singapore nation cohesive, united, open, but not dissolved and just melted away. And that, for Singapore, for the long term, that is one of our key nation-building tasks,” said PM Lee. While he will hand over his role as prime minister on May 15, there has been no announcement yet of when he will hand over the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) to his successor. Observers expect that he will remain PAP’s secretary-general until at least November, when the party celebrates its 70th anniversary and holds internal elections. DPM Wong told The Economist that he would take over as secretary-general “in due course”, without stating a timeframe. Over the years, the party has changed, said PM Lee: generationally with new leaders; in policies and how it pitches them; and also how it engages the people to get buy-in. “We have changed a lot over the years, and it is for the better,” said PM Lee, who has been MP for Teck Ghee ward, now under Ang Mo Kio GRC, since he was first elected into Parliament in 1984. What has remained constant is the PAP’s commitment to Singapore, and its determination to maintain high standards of integrity and competence, he said. “Our intention to keep on providing a high-quality government for Singapore, that must always be there. “And Singapore depends on that, because if the PAP did not do that, I think any other political party would be hard put to do the same thing,” he said. “It is a reality.” Under his watch, the PAP was returned to power in four general elections – in May 2006, May 2011, September 2015 and July 2020. PM Lee said each generation of leaders has had to govern in the way that worked best for the Singapore of that era. “Mr Lee Kuan Yew governed in a certain way, it worked for his generation. It wrought miracles practically, but it was his generation, and him. Mr Goh Chok Tong did it his way for a younger generation, different from Mr Lee. “And I have tried to do it my way, different from both Mr Lee and Mr Goh. If I tried to do it their way, either one, I think I would have failed,” said PM Lee. Asked to assess his own performance, PM Lee gave his usual response that it would be up to others to judge. But he became emotional as he thanked Singaporeans for having come on this journey with him. That is what he would cherish most about having served as Singapore’s third prime minister. “I didn’t try to run faster than everybody else. I tried to bring everybody to run with me,” he said. “And I think we did have some success.”