It's telling that a Malaysian and not a Singapore newspaper noted Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew completed 50 years in office, becoming the world's longest surviving national leader, on June 5. It was on that day 50 years ago he was sworn in as the first prime minister of a self-governing Singapore. He was succeeded in 1990 by his deputy, Goh Chok Tong, who in 2004 handed over power to Mr Lee's son – current Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Singapore has never known a day since the end of British rule when it has not been under the firm and capable leadership of Mr Lee and his People's Action Party. He has led the tiny city state of 4.8 million people to prosperity. From Third World To First is the title of the second volume of his memoirs.
The Star asks:
So why is the image-conscious government so reticent about Lee’s political longevity?
Party insiders say it is because he is bent on avoiding doing anything that will promote a personality cult…
Critics, however, give a different reason. One said the government would rather not mention the subject for fear it would renew calls for him to leave.
In a Yahoo online poll, 53% of Singaporeans said they wanted their founding father to quit politics either immediately or very soon – and that was five years ago…
It is the younger Singaporeans who want him to go. Unlike the previous generation, they are not beholden to him for his contributions to the republic.
Well, he may not be as popular as Nelson Mandela, with whom I contrasted him on Mandela's 90th birthday on July 18 last year. But as I wrote in that post before the economic recession:
His achievements are evident even in the lives and aspirations of ordinary Singaporeans, many of whom have studied abroad, holiday abroad. They may take it for granted and ask how is that different from the lifestyle of people in the Gulf, the South Koreans and the Japanese. Well, the Gulf has oil, the Japanese and the South Koreans make things. What does Singapore produce except a well-educated workforce? It has grown into one of the richest nations in Asia with no other resources at all. And that is proof of the remarkable vision and achievements of the old man.
Lee Kuan Yew on race, equality and foreign talent
I have been reading his memoirs, From Third World To First, and find it quite revealing. He was amazed, he writes, by the views of American professors on race and equality when he visited Harvard in 1968.
They were too politically correct. Harvard was determinedly liberal. No scholar was prepared to say or admit that there were any inherent differences between races or cultures or religions. They held that human beings were equal and society only needed correct economic policies and institutions of government to succeed. They were so bright I found it difficult to believe that they sincerely held these views they felt compelled to espouse.
But he wanted equal treatment for all races during the brief period when Singapore was part of Malaysia during the early 1960s and has promoted racial harmony since independence in 1965 while keeping Singapore open to foreign talent. He writes:
Without foreign talent, we would not have done as well. In my first cabinet of ten, I was the only one born and educated in Singapore. (Goh) Keng Swee and (Toh) Chin Chye were born in Malaya, Raja (Rajaratnam) in Ceylon. Our present chief justice, Yong Pong How, came from from Malaysia, as did our attorney-general, Chan Sek Kiong. The list could roll on. Thousands of engineers, managers and other professionals who came from abroad have helped us to grow. They are the extra megabytes in Singapore's computer. If we do not top up with foreign talent, we will not make it into the top league.
He is a pragmatist who wants what he thinks will be good for Singapore – for which he even supported the Vietnam war. He wanted Washington to continue bombing North Vietnam despite the suffering it caused – even when the war became unpopular in America. For, as he says in his memoirs, the war saved Singapore and its neighbours from communism. But more about that later in another post.
