Singapore

Until he retired last November, Lee Kuan Yew was the only Prime Minister that Singapore had ever had since gaining independence in 1965. In the months since Lee stepped down, Goh Chok Tong, his handpicked successor, has been trying to emerge from Lee's shadow. In an attempt to establish his own mandate, last month he called a snap election two years before he was required to do so.

The election, which the Prime Minister saw as a referendum on his relatively open style, brought him mixed tidings. His People's Action Party received 61% of the popular vote, 2.2% lower than the total accumulated by Lee in 1988. The vote was less a repudiation of Goh than a plea for a viable opposition to the country's ruling party.

While Goh promised to make some modification in his open style, he vowed no drastic changes. But he might reform his party and bring it back closer to the grass roots. Had Goh been less liberal, less open, some analysts contended last week, he might have done better at the polls.