SINGAPORE, Aug 23 — The coming General Election, which will be called “soon”, will be critical for the country, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong today.

Lee said during the National Day Rally that he will be seeking the mandate from Singaporeans to take the Republic into the next phase.

“You will be deciding who is governing Singapore for the next five years but much more than that, you will be choosing the team that will work with you for the next 15 to 20 years,” he said.

Singaporeans will be setting the direction for the country’s next 50 years and determining the future, he added.

He noted that in order to transform Singapore into what it is today, the Republic’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and his team planned “beyond their terms, beyond their lifetimes” by nurturing the next generation of leaders and teaching their successors to do the same.

In the same vein, the Prime Minister said he and his team have sought to make sure Singapore “lasts beyond us”.

“We must have the next team ready in the wings,” he said, adding that the nucleus of the fourth generation leadership is in place, having been brought in at the last GE in 2011 and earlier.

While the next generation of leaders have taken charge of different ministries and important programmes such as Our Singapore Conversation and the SG50 celebrations, he noted that the team has to be reinforced - and that is what he need to do at the coming polls.

“Singapore is at turning point, we have just completed 50 successful years,” he said. “Now, we are starting out on our next 50 years of nationhood.”

He also read out a letter from one of Lee Kuan Yew’s friends, following his death. In the letter, the friend noted that during gatherings, Lee Kuan Yew would be asked whether Singapore will continue to exist many years from now.

Without fail, the founding Prime Minister would always give tentative answers — until the last gathering in January, some two months before his death in March, when everyone was surprised by Lee Kuan Yew’s answer this time: “Of course, there will be…even better.” — TODAY