Well to all the contributors to this thread from Scroo to Kingrant to the rest ....
In my opinion, the 1987 Op Spectrum is the last time LKY can impose his will on the then 2nd generation leaders.
By sheer force of experience, charisma & paranoi, in the final analysis, I can imagine LKY throwing down the gauntlet: Limpei who rode the tiger & outsmart the British, the Plen, the Ultras, the turncoats etc, if I say that shadowy apparition is a demon, you guys better trust me. I KNOW.
Scroo, my friend is a contemporary of Tan Wah Piow but in SP Student's Union. These idealistic souls are born in the wrong time wrong era - when the domino theory was in vogue, indochina in flames threatening to burn into SEA, it was a time LKY consoled hisself that he will take no chances - and thereafter all the broken lives & unjust detentions .... from Nanyang Editor detentions, disbarment of David Marshall, closure of Nantah etc etc that was the 70s when Cold War & subterfuge was the order of the day.
In the 80s, LKY is in his feel-wise prime, preparing for handing over, threatening to put JBJ in his place & using his formidable intimidation such that Chiam under fire, melted and uttered his classic 'If the PM say so, then it must be so' when LKY came to the defence of that wily Mandarin Teh Chean Wan.
So 1987, DPM Goh, 2DPM Tony & the rest are coming to the tail end of their apprenticeship.
No doubt they had feathers in their cap by then, having successfully or on the way to overturning the 1985/86 first ever recession. I remember GCT in NUS Ministerial talk musing aloud under questioning: if the CPF cuts etc don't work, then how ... he was suddenly despondent then recovered to say words to the effect, then worst must happen before we can recover.
You appear definitive that Tan Wah Piow was a bogeyman to this day. I think it is plausible.
LKY is an intensely loyal tribal chief - so men like James Fu and some of his Kek clan supporters, LKY never forget to reward those who have done him good turns before.
Unless of course, loyalty is subsumed by threats to his credibility : that's how he can turn his back on Devan Nair, another 'turnaround' chap who unlike the other 3 released prior to LKY taking up the 1959 spoils of Prime Ministership, actually stick to the PAP-LKY cause. Man, this Devan sing superlatives of LKY in 1973 when he was chair of his Sep Birthday celebration.
In Devan's post-Presidency self exile, he was full of bile for LKY betraying the democratic socialism the core group espouse ( including the ideals of multi-racialism etc Raja's creed etc). LKY has just become totally self-righteous & Messiahnic by then, indulging in his social engineering & jump-up-from-grave machismo.
Ironically, Jenadas Nair, Singapore's 3rd President Devan's son has moved from Sunday Times columnist to IPS & now seen on TV part of panel interviewing the 4 Tans.
Life is full of ironies.
Singapore is an irony.
So, in a clash of wills & the contestation for power, how far can a political leader go in walking his talk depends on his moral courage - which when run out, will resort to 'ends justify means' logic to justify any extra-judicial or draconian anti-human rights courses of action.
Low Thia Kiang, an innate politician, have the smarts akin to the Lim Chin Siong generation.
Over the years, he has conducted himself in a way I thought Chin Siong & the middle school gang would have conducted themselves : fighting LKY's dimming charisma with vigour & charisma of their own & political shrewd and measured.
This camp or school of modus operandi is diametrically contrasted with the Western educated bleeding heart liberals like Dr Chee Soon Juan, RI principal Wijesingha's son that Dr Wijesingha, Kenneth Jeyaratnam & even to a certain extent, Tan Jee Say.
You can tell from their oratory style, their lines of thought in their political arguments etc.
I chuckled when TJS in rebutting TT and overriding moderator Saswa, blurted that 'I have been criticised on the net for my English.... so which part of terrorism,who is a terrorist blah blah ...'
ha ha was it kingrant who said for a British educated scholar, his England is below par...
Still, history awaits us in athe wee hours of 28th Sunday.
We shall all know the makeup of the new SIngaporean electorate - that would be market reality as opposed to all these cute postulations & personal theories we all put up .... mine included.