Asia Times Online, 19 Mar 2009, Shawn W Crispin
While a populist backlash against perceived corrupt bankers and financiers mounts in the United States, all is comparatively calm in financial hub Singapore, where the state and finance sector are virtually one and the same.
Yet some analysts wonder whether the deepening downturn could eventually spark popular calls for political change to the People's Action Party (PAP)-led government, similar to the mass mobilizations that ousted Indonesia's and nearly toppled Malaysia's entrenched authoritarian regimes amid the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong faces Singapore's worst economic crisis since it achieved independence in 1965 and some analysts believe his handling of the downturn will determine largely his future staying power as premier once his influential 85-year-old father, Minister Mentor and national founder Lee Kuan Yew, eventually passes from the scene.
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