Singapore
Changing the future
Moving into casinos (no stopping at two), pop culture, etc is first real step away from Kuan Yew era. By Seah Chiang Nee
Apr 24, 2005

SINGAPORE is often likened to crystal clear water which should have attracted a lot of fish but actually has not. In short, it's efficient and wholesome, but too boring.

That this "tired" image of sameness was bad for tourism was brainstormed for years but no significant solution emerged until last week.

When action came, it was big. The government approved the establishment of two mega casino resorts in Singapore at a cost of S$5bil that will rank as the biggest property development here.

The grandeur of the scheme is breathtaking, providing 35,000 jobs and annual revenue of S$1bil. But more significant is its impact on the future of Singapore and its people.

It marks a Rubicon crossing of sorts that would hasten Singapore's advent as a cosmopolitan city.

The decision is seen as its first real step away from the Lee Kuan Yew era, sanctioned by him, of course.

Until then, the city had been tinkering with, rather than reinventing, the state to meet the tough competition from China and India.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the resorts would feature ritzy hotels, family entertainment, restaurants, convention centres and museums at two sites - and, of course, casino gambling.

The battle was tough. Singapore is modelled by its conservative founding father.

After four decades of opposition to casinos, many of its 4.3 million people and the ruling People's Action Party fear that society's fabric and family value will be undermined by it.

Lee Kuan Yew, now 81, had to pitch in to persuade them to reverse history. He said having casinos was bad but not having them was even worse. Investors will build them elsewhere. Besides, Singaporeans gamble away S$2bil in overseas casinos every year.

Lee said that if Singapore rejected the idea after deliberating it for a year, it would be sending the world the wrong message "that we want to stay put, to remain the same old Singapore, a neat and tidy place with ... no this, no that, not a fun place".

To be clean, efficient and wholesome in today's world is not enough, he said.

Won't stop at two

Will it stop at two? Probably not. With the ban lifted, no one can dismiss the possibility of more casinos here after a decent interval if the current projects succeed.

Flourishing casino-city Las Vegas (population 1.5 million) has 30 million tourists, Macau has 17 casinos and 17 million tourists, while Genting has 11 million visitors a year.

By comparison, Singapore has only 8.5 million tourists, so casino resorts have room to grow.

Singapore will also likely expand into pop culture that Lee Kuan Yew rued having neglected during his time. What he says today has a tradition of coming true tomorrow.

While mapping a first-world city, Lee said he had planned a cultured place, with libraries, theatres and museums but had left out pop culture. "I didn't see that the money was in pop culture," he said.

He personally could not understand the lure of pop singers or MTV programmes, "but that's not the point".

"The point is, it attracts millions of young viewers around the world, and there is big business in this. So from a business point of view, whether I like it or not, I should be - the government should be - interested in this," he said.

(Japan's pop culture covers a wide range of creative activities like teen fashion, music, movies, TV, comics, soft toys, video games, etc, that helped lift its economy.)

"I think we made a mistake in not building a Formula One course," Lee also said. "I think I was dim-witted then."

Lee said he could not understand the allure of Formula One Grand Prix events but saw that hosting these races brought along economic spin-offs to the host countries.

"Driving around and then going into the pits; after that, changing the tyres and revving out again ... makes no sense to me," Lee said.

The anxiety over casinos and the possible entry into pop culture is tinged with an air of optimism. People are feeling better.

In recent years, as the economy declined - along with jobs and personal assets - some Singaporeans, including graduates, began to lose confidence about their future.

More Singaporeans are still migrating to greener - and more exciting - pastures.

Achieving the status of cities like New York, London or Tokyo as Singapore aspires would require moving away from the Kuan Yew era, of which many older PAP leaders are firmly attached to.

Until the 11th hour, the cabinet was split on the casino. The older ministers who had spent the most time with Lee were the most reluctant to nod their heads. Members of Parliament were also divided.

For several years, Singapore had strived to remake itself as fundamentals turned against it, but there was more big planning than real changes.

A few areas like Research and Life Sciences have succeeded beyond expectation but did not create sufficient jobs to maintain Singapore's previous wealth.

The government will announce the successful resort operators in December. The 11 aspirants include the world's most luxurious casino operators from the United States, Australia, South Africa and Malaysia.

The minister mentor said he found Genting Bhd's two-casino proposal the most interesting of all. Lee said he had been briefed on all of them, including Harrah's and MGM Mirage.

"The most interesting for me was Genting (partnering Star Cruises Ltd) putting two bids," said Lee. One is for Marina Bay and the other, Sentosa island.

It is teaming up with Universal Studios, theme parks and the entertainment giant behind movie franchises such as The Mummy and Jurassic Park.

The Malaysian plan is to commit S$3bil to build an integrated casino resort and cruise ship centre in the Marina Bay area.

"I ask myself 'What does this mean?' That they must be prepared to sink S$5bil to S$6bil and watch their investments in Genting become secondary as we draw in the crowds," said Lee.

Eight of them are seen to have the best odds to build what US investment bank Merrill Lynch says could be the world's most expensive casinos.

Lee, who had once said that Singapore might not be around in 50 years, appears more confident about the future.

It could, he now believes, emerge by 2030 as a vibrant economy of six to seven million people.

(The article was published in The Sunday Star on Apr 24, 2005)