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That's awesome. Really impressive. Is he a good PM? My country's current PM is a school teacher but unfortunately doesn't seem to bring any of the good traits

That's awesome. Really impressive. Is he a good PM? My country's current PM is a school teacher but unfortunately doesn't seem to bring any of the good traits associated with that to the country. The last PM (and who will be PM again soon) was a doctor. Unfortunately he was is just a media/attention addict who won't tackle any big issues like housing costs or homelessness.

ValentineC 5y ago
> Is he a good PM? Singaporean here. Not if we take the recent performance of our COVID task force into account — it's run by a bunch of bumbling ministerial clowns (one who might potentially become the next prime minister) that can't seem to agree which direction to take Singapore, end up toeing the middle line between endemic and COVID zero, and wrecking everything including the mental health of most Singaporeans staying in their small public flats. Lee Hsien Loong's main involvement during the pandemic/endemic (Singapore still can't decide how to treat COVID) seemed to be encouraging people, especially the elderly, to get vaccinated.
- swyx 5y ago
  i mean, have some sympathy, easy to criticize from the cheap seats. (and yes, they are paid a lot, so what, decisionmaking under uncertainty is still hard) in retrospect, LHL distancing himself from covid policy is pretty brilliant/convenient, as whoever proves a credible leader through this mess will have demonstrated the qualities we'd probably want for PM
  - lgvln 5y ago
    Sympathy for _what/who_? They implemented a unnecessary, ineffective lockdown for two months and a mandatory nationwide tracking system (which differs wildly from the open sourced version they published) without any published efficacy data, went back on their word regarding data collected (without any zero consequences) and will now be using that data for future “policing”.
- forgingahead 5y ago
  Do you really think he's not involved? I can't imagine the task force does anything without his and other senior members of cabinet's approval, ie, anything they don't want doesn't happen.
hsiang_jih_kueh 5y ago
he's pretty decent. i can't think of anything particularly impressive about domestic policy (there's not much to improve on anyways in that aspect. shit runs pretty well here.) but he was pretty forward looking in seeing that the govt needed to actively support tech to build up a tech sector here. his son actually leads one of the government tech innovation units here (Open Government Products) and their work is pretty dope and useful. i respect him more for how he conducts foreign policy. professional, eloquent and incisive, IMO he really brings the best side of our country to the international table.
- wenc 5y ago
  His other son Li Haoyi is a prominent member of the Scala community (wrote the Ammonite scripting language and the book Hands-on Scala Programming). https://www.lihaoyi.com/Resume/ https://www.lihaoyi.com/Resume/
lgvln 5y ago
I think it would depend on what is your definition of “good”. If it is simply measured economical terms then he seems fine. However if you care about things such as freedom of expression or political rights, I don’t think Singapore has made any progress in those regards. The government is very conservative, as is the population due to generations of social engineering (conscription, mandatory “social studies”) plus the tremendous control it has over the whole country.

ValentineC 5y ago

> Is he a good PM? Singaporean here. Not if we take the recent performance of our COVID task force into account — it's run by a bunch of bumbling ministerial clowns (one who might potentially become the next prime minister) that can't seem to agree which direction to take Singapore, end up toeing the middle line between endemic and COVID zero, and wrecking everything including the mental health of most Singaporeans staying in their small public flats. Lee Hsien Loong's main involvement during the pandemic/endemic (Singapore still can't decide how to treat COVID) seemed to be encouraging people, especially the elderly, to get vaccinated.

swyx 5y ago
i mean, have some sympathy, easy to criticize from the cheap seats. (and yes, they are paid a lot, so what, decisionmaking under uncertainty is still hard) in retrospect, LHL distancing himself from covid policy is pretty brilliant/convenient, as whoever proves a credible leader through this mess will have demonstrated the qualities we'd probably want for PM
- lgvln 5y ago
  Sympathy for _what/who_? They implemented a unnecessary, ineffective lockdown for two months and a mandatory nationwide tracking system (which differs wildly from the open sourced version they published) without any published efficacy data, went back on their word regarding data collected (without any zero consequences) and will now be using that data for future “policing”.
forgingahead 5y ago
Do you really think he's not involved? I can't imagine the task force does anything without his and other senior members of cabinet's approval, ie, anything they don't want doesn't happen.

hsiang_jih_kueh 5y ago

he's pretty decent. i can't think of anything particularly impressive about domestic policy (there's not much to improve on anyways in that aspect. shit runs pretty well here.) but he was pretty forward looking in seeing that the govt needed to actively support tech to build up a tech sector here. his son actually leads one of the government tech innovation units here (Open Government Products) and their work is pretty dope and useful. i respect him more for how he conducts foreign policy. professional, eloquent and incisive, IMO he really brings the best side of our country to the international table.

wenc 5y ago
His other son Li Haoyi is a prominent member of the Scala community (wrote the Ammonite scripting language and the book Hands-on Scala Programming). https://www.lihaoyi.com/Resume/ https://www.lihaoyi.com/Resume/

lgvln 5y ago

I think it would depend on what is your definition of “good”. If it is simply measured economical terms then he seems fine. However if you care about things such as freedom of expression or political rights, I don’t think Singapore has made any progress in those regards. The government is very conservative, as is the population due to generations of social engineering (conscription, mandatory “social studies”) plus the tremendous control it has over the whole country.