SINGAPORE'S leaders must put national interests first before those of their particular racial community, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong made it clear yesterday.

That is why the country will not head down the road of electing people to Parliament to represent the interests of their race, as is the case in Malaysia and New Zealand.

In response to a question on whether Malay Members of Parliament have difficulty balancing their community's interest with the national interest, Mr Lee explained what he expected of MPs here.

'If he is a Chinese, I want to ask him if he is a Singaporean who happens to be of Chinese descent or is he Chinese first, who happens to be living in Singapore,' he said.

Singapore is unlike Malaysia as it does not have 'a coalition government where there is a Chinese party and a Malay party and an Indian party, and then we try to push and see who can push harder'.

Neither does it intend to move towards a system of proportional representation as practised in New Zealand, where the small number of MPs voted in to represent Maoris can exact a price each time the government seeks their support.

'But for Singapore, I think it would be the wrong thing to do. In Singapore, you come in, you have to think about the interests of Singapore,' Mr Lee said.

On the difficulty of finding Malay political talent, he said it was tough to find such talent across all the races.

Although the pool of Malay talent is bigger than what it used to be, the proportion of Malay professionals - such as doctors, lawyers and engineers - is still lower than the national average, he said.

Mr Lee also called for the grassroots leaders' help in talent-spotting, asking: 'Do you know anyone to introduce to me?'

Aaron Low