Coded Language
It also said it would review ministerial salaries that are among the highest in the world: Prime Minister Lee made $2.1 million in 2009, while cabinet ministers earned about $1.1 million each.
Lee Kuan Yew, who turns 88 on Sept. 16, left the cabinet, as did Goh, who had assumed the role of senior minister in 2004. In somewhat coded language, the elder Lee and Goh said in a statement a week after the election that it was time for change in Singapore.
"We have made our contributions to the development of Singapore," they said. "The time has come for a younger generation to carry Singapore forward in a more difficult and complex situation."
The government began to address immigration before the election. "We have moved quite fast over the last five years," Lee Hsien Loong said last year. "But now, I think we should consolidate, slow down the pace. We cannot continue going like this and increasing our population 100,000, 150,000 a year indefinitely, and we should give Singaporeans time to adjust and our society time to settle and integrate better the newer arrivals."
Reaching Out
In that vein, the government granted 48,023 permanent- residence and citizenship applications in 2010, down about 40 percent from 79,388 the year before.
Ministers are increasingly reaching out to the public. Some are connecting in time-worn ways. In June, Minister for Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan waded through a shopping mall to see firsthand the effects of a flash flood.
Others are flocking to the Internet. "I will consult widely, with experts, customers, industry players and Singaporeans," Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan said on his Housing Matters blog.
Adapting to shifting currents is something that Singapore has excelled at since Lee Kuan Yew came to power a half century ago. His exit marks more than a symbolic threshold for Singapore and for his son. The government recognizes that popular demands at home can't go unmet.
'Significant Concerns'