Lee is still trying to remake himself to suit the job.

Politics in the city state has always been a top-down process, with little left to chance. The inner core of the People's Action Party (PAP), which has the longest period of unbroken rule of any government in the world, has decided that Lee will become the third prime minister in Singapore's 39 years of independence. He is expected to take over this year. But there's just one hitch: The deal has yet to be sold to an increasingly affluent, educated--and sceptical--public. Lee has an image problem. Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong publicly confronted the issue last August, when he confirmed that Lee would succeed him. "Loong's public persona is that of a no-nonsense, uncompromising and tough minister," he said. "Singaporeans would like Loong to be more approachable." The first Singaporean questioned at random for this article, a man in his mid-30s, was blunter. "He's arrogant and he's had it too easy," he replied.

So Lee's big challenge is to "endear himself" to fellow Singaporeans, says political scientist Ho Khai Leong. Lee, who declined to comment, has been trying to do just that through a careful campaign of newspaper interviews, TV appearances and public speeches. Singapore's media have introduced a different Lee, one who weeps at the memory of his late first wife, relates to youth and displays a sense of humour.

One columnist in The Straits Times, for example, took exception to Goh's description of Lee. She recounted anecdotes from a colleague to show that Lee is "awfully good with children" and once insisted on shaking hands with a reluctant fishmonger who had dirty hands. Some of Lee's interviews have broached subjects long considered taboo in Singapore, notably the suicide of his first wife in 1982 soon after giving birth to their second child, an albino with a mild form of autism. "They are trying hard to project a softer, more emotional and family-oriented Lee," says Ho.

Part of Lee's problem is that he is the eldest son of Lee Kuan Yew, the nation's founding father, who retired as premier in 1990 but remains in the cabinet. Many Singaporeans believe that though the younger Lee's intelligence, application and scholastic ability are beyond doubt, his pedigree probably helped get him to the top.

PRIVILEGED BACKGROUND

In moving up the political ladder, Lee has gained a reputation for being impatient with others he considers inferior and dismissive of those with alternative views. Lee Kuan Yew's pivotal role in the independence movement and his long record of working with people from all social classes earned him the right to be dominating and elitist, says Garry Rodan, a professor of politics at Australia's Murdoch University. "But no such latitude is given to Lee Hsien Loong, who is seen as coming from a privileged background," he says.

Singaporeans worry, in particular, that things will go backwards under Lee Hsien Loong, after more than a decade of incremental political and social liberalization. The most commonly asked question "on the ground," according to Kenneth Paul Tan, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore, is: "Will the new prime minister return to the harsher, more authoritarian style of his father?"

It is hard to tell if Lee's efforts to re-brand himself as more personable, consultative and committed to further liberalization are succeeding. Ho judges the results to date to be mixed. Simon Tay, a law lecturer and former appointed MP, is more sceptical. Noting that "it feels unnatural that now, suddenly, there's a campaign to change a 20-year impression" of Lee, he says, "I think some people have made up their minds about him and won't change them."

Still, most analysts aren't surprised that Lee is attempting the make-over, rather than just relying on his record as a forceful leader who gets results. They say Lee will need to show he feels the pain of ordinary people as the effects of globalization hit Singapore and cause economic dislocation. "There's every reason to win minds and hearts," says Tay. Rodan adds that the "political skill in bringing people with you in hard times" is as important as policy. The PAP has never shown much capacity "to mobilize and inspire people rather than telling them how PAP policies are good for them," he says.

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