Every year, soon after Singapore's national day on August 9th, Singapore's prime minister gives a state-of-the-nation address. On August 17th Lee Hsien Loong, the prime minister and son of modern Singapore's founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, delivered his nth such speech in his genial, if slightly mawkish, style. As usual, he offered plenty of crowd-pleasing goodies: gardens and a science centre for western Singapore; a new government department to co-ordinate public services; praise for Singapore's "pioneer generation". But Mr Lee also unveiled two significant changes in pensions policy that hint at some deeper systemic problems.
展开▼
