military is in charge. The world has limited influence over them, and you
can’t change them short of going there and providing a government, which
the British did for a couple of centuries, but eventually they can’t carry on. So they have to move forward because I think many people in Myanmar know that this is not a solution for Myanmar. Many of the people know that the government is doing badly by them and resent it deeply. I think many people know that this is leading nowhere and needs to change. I suspect that --
CHARLIE ROSE: How about many people in the military?
LEE HSIEN LOONG: Included.
CHARLIE ROSE: OK.
LEE HSIEN LOONG: But I suspect a few key people who make the decisions, they have decided that this is an existential thing for them. If they’re out, it’s not just the country and the government has changed, but where do I go and which jail will I be in and my children and my jewels and my billions? So they are not likely to be persuaded by elections. You have to wait. I think there will be a change over time as the generations change.
And they’re holding elections this year. It may or may not be perfect, but it’s a step forward.
And if you look at Indonesia and President Suharto, he came to power in a coup, military-backed. But over 30 years he acquired legitimacy, he developed a kind of ideology to legitimize the rule. He had some kind of elections, he had some sort of a political process.
CHARLIE ROSE: But at the end of the day he was a dictator. He was in control.
LEE HSIEN LOONG: At the end of the day he did a lot of good for Indonesia, but unfortunately towards the end the rapacity became intolerable. And he didn’t deserve the end he came to.
(http://shanghaiist.com/2010/04/20/singapore_pm_lee_hsien_loong_china.php)
