SINGAPORE - Singapore's ruling party won yet another thumping victory in a weekend election -- a result the financial markets are bound to welcome on Monday -- but it must now tackle some difficult issues: jobs and a widening income gap.
There was little doubt before Saturday's election about the victory of the ruling People's Action Party, which has dominated the politics of the wealthy city-state since independence in 1965 -- only the margin of the win was in doubt.
In the event, it won 82 of the 84 parliamentary seats with 66.6 percent of the votes cast, which reflected well on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, facing his first general election as party leader.
But nagging doubts remained about Singapore's political system -- where the ruling party is all powerful, critical debate is mostly discouraged and some opposition leaders have been bankrupted by defamation lawsuits filed by government leaders.
"You have a political system where one-third votes for the opposition and yet only has two out of 84 seats," said Garry Rodan, head of the Asia Research Centre at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia.
"So one-third is under-represented in parliament and large numbers of those are probably losing out in the economic restructuring," he said.
Lee, who is also finance minister, has said he is well aware of the problems facing the tiny nation of 4.4 million people and the need for its US$118 billion trade-dependent economy to stay competitive and relevant.
The son of founding father and former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, the younger Lee has used tax breaks to attract leading international banks, electronics and pharmaceuticals companies to the island, Asia's wealthiest nation after Japan.
Last year, he reversed a ban on casinos and now plans two glitzy casino-resorts in order to lure more tourists, boost the services sector, and create jobs.
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But for the low-income and unskilled workers, such careers -- as croupiers or bio-engineers -- are unlikely to be an option.
"Many other countries have had to tackle these issues -- how to deal with workers who are left on the scrap heap and who feel alienated in an increasingly cosmopolitan society," Rodan said.
"The government's specific policies for dealing with this in future appear not to have been spelled out."
Singapore's manufacturing industry, based on electronics and engineering, faces stiff competition from lower-cost rivals such as China and India.
While its jobless rate -- at 2.6 percent in the first quarter it is the lowest since mid-2001 -- would be the envy of many countries, government statistics show that prosperity is unevenly distributed and that the poor are being left behind.
Over 250,000 Singaporeans earn less than S$1,000 (about $625) per month. The bottom 20 percent of households saw per-capita income fall 7.6 percent to S$281 in 2003 from 1998, while for the top 20 percent of households, it rose 17.9 percent to a monthly S$3,790.
The election campaign showed that many ordinary Singaporeans were concerned about the widening income gap, rising medical costs, job cuts, and an authoritarian political system.
One opposition politician said Singapore's generously-paid ministers, who receive annual salaries around the S$1 million-mark, should peg their wages to those of low-income Singaporeans rather than to those of top professionals.
This, he said, would give them more incentive to look after the poorest members of society.
However, in contrast to some other developed countries, Singapore's leaders have an almost visceral dislike of a welfare system as this encourages dependency on government hand-outs.
Instead, the government prefers to distribute special one-off handouts during times of prosperity: The most recent such hand-outs were made on May 1, just a few days before the May 6 general election, and were given to low-income and elderly workers, as well as to army conscripts.
Yet some economists argue that Singapore's government could easily raise funds -- which could potentially be used for a welfare system.
"A lot more needs to be done in terms of privatisation," said Manu Bhaskaran, an economist with the Centennial Group.
"The government should do a lot more than it has -- there is land stock, companies, and the government still controls a huge part of the savings flow in the country. In my view, the government should reduce its role in these areas." ($1 = S$1.58)
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