Remembering Lee Kuan Yew 1923 - 2015

[Ong88]

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/22/...ity-singapore/

Long Live Lee Kuan Yew’s Lion City

Singapore's long time leader has passed, but his ideas will live on in the country he created.

BY PARAG KHANNAMARCH 22, 2015

Henry Kissinger called him one of the “asymmetries of history.” Margaret Thatcher said “he was never wrong.” Barack Obama called him “one of the legendary figures of Asia.” Tony Blairsaid he was “the smartest leader I ever met.” Samuel Huntington said he was one of the “master builders” of the 20th century.

What more can be said about Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding father, who passed away on March 23, local time? Simple: He will be one of the most admired leaders of the 21st century as well.

Lee would surely regret not having survived just a few more months to witness Singapore’s 50th anniversary celebrations this August. But he can rest in peace knowing that the country he led from 1959 to 1990 is the world’s most successful post-colonial nation. Gulf monarchies are laden with bling but vulnerable to wars, coups, and falling oil prices. Africa needs another half-century to heal its colonial scars. India is only beginning to get its act together. Meanwhile, Singapore has grown from having a per capita GDP of $516 in 1965 toabout $55,000 today.

Singapore long since stopped comparing itself to its post-colonial peers. It is at or near the top of global league tables ofcompetitiveness, livability, innovation, and other metrics*— more on par with Switzerland than Saudi Arabia. Recently, a Western journalist newly arrived in Singapore on assignment let out a slow whistle after a few weeks of imbibing the city’s seamless efficiency, its legendary cleanliness, and its blend of skyscrapers and beaches. “Modernity now begins in the East and flows west,” he mused to me over a drink. I have noticed the same over the past two years since locating myself in the de facto capital of Asia, a surprisingly livable city — and one from which I can hop on a plane and reach 4 billion people within a four-hour flight radius. (Disclosure: I have been, but am not presently, a paid advisor to various Singaporean government agencies and companies.)

At the time of Singapore’s independence — first from the United Kingdom in 1963, and then from Malaysia in 1965 — there were few models for the system Lee eventually built. In the 1950s and ’60s, Lee traveled from Sri Lanka to Jamaica looking for success stories of former British colonies to emulate. Fortunately, he chose different models instead: He decided to study the Netherlands’ urban planning and land reclamation, and the oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell’s management structure and scenario-led strategy-making. Singapore, it is often joked, is the world’s best-run company. Lee is the reason why.

The Asian way is thought to consist of borrowing and bettering. Lee did a fair bit of that, such as adapting Israel’s*military conscription. But he also oversaw original and innovative policies that spread from Singapore outwards: Electronic road pricing, a system to reduce congestion, is now used in London and Stockholm, while Estonia and South Korea have created their own versions of the SingPass digital identification and online services portal to access government data and services.

Singapore has one of the world’s highest ratios of millionaires per capita. Whileincome inequality remains high, Singaporeans born in the bottom income quintile are nearly twice as likely as Americans to rise to the top income quintile. Columbia University economics professor Joseph Stiglitz made a splash in 2013 by writing about how the United States needs Singapore-style affordable public housing and a robust pension system.

Lee also made Singapore the second-safest large city in the world after Tokyo, as ranked by the Economist Intelligence Unit. “Law and order” has it backwards,according to Lee. Order first, then law. For Lee, of course, order meant both public safety and political predictability. Trained as a lawyer at Cambridge, Lee didn’t hesitate to intimidate would-be rivals who stepped into the political arena — authors, professors, journalists, lawyers, and other critics — making sure they wound up bankrupt, in jail, or both. While the Western media focused on draconian punishments for chewing gum andgraffiti, Lee meted out worse to political opponents like Chee Soon Juan and J.B. Jeyaretnam.

Lee was stubborn, but not afraid to change course. From socialism to libertarianism, he flip-flopped pragmatically until the country found a model that works: a freewheeling nanny state. He believed that one cannot be afraid of contradictions in a complex world. “I always tried to be correct, not politically correct,” goes another*of his memorable aphorisms.

Even if Lee found it hard to let go of power — first to Goh Chok Tong, who served as prime minister from 1990 to 2004, and then to Goh’s replacement (and Lee’s son), current prime minister Lee Hsien Loong — he would prefer the world focus on this system rather than himself. Indeed, it only mattered whether you think Lee was a strongman or a visionary (or both) while he was alive. Now the yardstick is not personality but institutions. Lee Kuan Yew-ism, not Lee Kuan Yew. This is why the 21st century belongs to him more than to icons of Western democracy like Thomas Jefferson or even Jean Monnet, the founding father of the European Union.

The 20th century was a world of rival great-power blocks, while the 21st century is one of hundreds of autonomous city-states and provinces. Approximately 150 countries have populations of less than 10 million people. For inspiration, their leaders look to Silicon Valley, Dubai, and Singapore, not Washington, Brussels, or Beijing.

China’s then-paramount leader Deng Xiaoping famously launched the Shenzhen special economic zone after visiting Singapore in 1978, kicking off more than three decades of uninterrupted Chinese modernization. Since then, Singapore itself has been helping*to build and govern many of these industrial clusters across China. Indian officials recruited Singapore to help realize Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign to build 100 “smart cities.” In this century of urbanization, the world’s two largest countries want to be sovereign collections of prosperous Singapore-like cities.

Then there is governance. Even without mocking the ad-hocery that Western governments have degenerated into, it is clear that the West could benefit from more technocracy and less of what passes for contemporary democracy. For that, too, Singapore had the solution: data-driven governance and a meritocratic civil service.

Singapore’s civil service is like a spiral staircase: On each rung, civil servants manage a different portfolio in a different agency, building a broad knowledge base and gaining firsthand experience. By contrast, American politics is like an elevator: One can get in on the bottom floor and go straight to the top, missing all the learning in between. Constant consultation with the population — before, during, and after elections — and measuring progress with key performance indicators are Singapore’s hallmarks. Policy, not politics.

Today, the country’s leadership is building an adaptive model I call the “info-state,” governed by a blend of data and democracy. The former is embodied in the country’s “smart nation” strategy, which puts every citizen service, from pensions to taxes, at one’s mobile fingertips.

The latter is a work in progress. In 2011, Lee the younger’s People’s Action Partynearly lost*the popular vote, while retaining a majority in parliament. In 2016, voters may double down on the push for political diversity. Much is made of Singapore’s*low rankings*in “happiness” surveys. The truth is that Singaporeans are as happy as any other society — but they are*never*satisfied. As contradictory as their founding father, Singaporean youth are complaining perfectionists and ambitious slackers.*Lee was a creative problem solver in a world that’s growing steadily more complex. The next generation of Singaporeans will need more like Lee — if the country is to remain as iconic as he was.

JIMIN LAI/AFP/Getty Image

Correction, March 22, 2015: Lee Kuan Yew died at 3:18 a.m. Singapore time onMonday, March 23. An earlier version of this article mistakenly said he died on March 22, which was the date in the United States at the time.

[smalllfish]

Originally Posted by Ong88

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/22/...ity-singapore/



The latter is a work in progress. In 2011, Lee the younger’s People’s Action Partynearly lost*the popular vote, while retaining a majority in parliament. In 2016, voters may double down on the push for political diversity. Much is made of Singapore’s*low rankings*in “happiness” surveys. The truth is that Singaporeans are as happy as any other society — but they are*never*satisfied. As contradictory as their founding father, Singaporean youth are complaining perfectionists and ambitious slackers.*Lee was a creative problem solver in a world that’s growing steadily more complex. The next generation of Singaporeans will need more like Lee — if the country is to remain as iconic as he was.

The last paragraph is spot on

difficult times breeds fighters, easy times breeds slackers

that's why the Chinese say entrepreneurship is tough but to keep it running is tougher

[aromatix]

"Could I have lived my life differently? Maybe yes, but probably not. At each stage I made what was then the best choice. Having taken that decision, I changed direction and there was no turning back.

I cannot say that I planned my life. That's why I feel life is a great adventure: exciting, unpredictable, and at times exhilarating and sometimes excruciating. To make life worthwhile, never lose that joie de vivre, that zest for life, to watch the sun go down and wake up to a new day rested and refreshed after a good night.

At the end of the day what I cherish most are the human relationships. With the unfailing support of my wife and partner I have lived my life to the fullest. It is the friendships I made and the close family ties I nurtured that have provided me with that sense of satisfaction at a life well lived, and have made me what I am."

Lee Kuan Yew @ his 80th Birthday
1923-2015

[jwhtan]

Originally Posted by aromatix

I have lived my life to the fullest. It is the friendships I made and the close family ties I nurtured that have provided me with that sense of satisfaction at a life well lived,

He sure had a good life .........

[aromatix]

Originally Posted by jwhtan

He sure had a good life .........

in the wide sense of the word, i agree with your statement

[aromatix]

[Ong88]

I am not saying, "No, let us be celibate." I am not even asking let us all be faithful to our wives, let us have no divorces. I do not ask that. All I ask is, please do not misbehave yourself. Anybody who has a paternity suit against him is out and there will be a by-election. That is all I say. Let us have none of this.

~ Lee Kuan Yew, 1977 Parliamentary Speech.

[shiokmc]

Originally Posted by HeiYuEr

how many thread need to be created for LKY?

WLE.....today radio all talk about him since morni,
news all also talk about him.

even FB.....90% in my frd list all also talk about him.

SMS,WA also talk about him.

I need a break

ah Orh..... .. my past few days.... go hum.... oso jiALatt...

I onli hav ch5 8 CNA ChU



do doubt he is a GREAT MAN

our Country won't be where it IS today, if not for him

[Aris]

New Discovery Channel documentary about LKY which by far is one of the best documentary about the life and times of LKY. Probably prepared by Discovery Channel and perhaps in consultation with LKY and probably approved by him.

YouTube Video

[satan_gal]

something to share... from one of the children of the ex-detainees.

http://thecrazyangmoandhisangrywife....der-truth.html

The Harder Truth

The Quiet Aftermath

This morning, as I made my way to work, there was an air of stillness about me. Everyone I met, at the bus-stop, in the bus, along the streets were quite quiet and simply trying to go about their usual day, but without uttering a word. A nation grieved yesterday at the final farewell of its founding Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew. So much tears were shed as the cortege journeyed through the streets of Singapore, lined with thousands of people. Today, I feel an air of emptimess and lingering sadness. The nation moves on, never forgetting a legacy left behind by an extraordinary leader.

Everyone had been discussing his passing throughout the week of national mourning. I have got friends and colleagues who queued for hours in the sun, just to bid their final farewell in person where the body was lying in state at the Parliament house. My entire Facebook timeline was plastered with newsfeeds about the man and the legacy he had left behind. However, all this while, I kept quite silent because I approached the entire issue with ambivalence. I needed time to step back and recalibrate my thoughts about the man, having lived through an era when my own family was impacted by some of his more autocratic policies.

My Father’s Past

I thought it was time to come clean and write this blog post about how I truly felt, without disrespect to my own father.

In 1978, I saw Dad handcuffed and led into our home by a team of officers from the Internal Security Department. I was 8 years old. And the entire episode unfolded before me like an extremely bad B-grade movie that did not seem to have a proper beginning or an ending. The sketchy storyline went like this for an 8 year old. Dad was involved in “political discussions” with a group of lawyers who took a pro-Communist stand. He had to be punished for having an opinion that was not aligned to our government’s stand. He then spent months incarcerated behind that famous big blue gate at Thomson road which was where my Dad and his bunch of friends were detained under the Internal Security Act.

I remembered the months that ensued were a flurry of activities, where my Mum was trying to hysterically make sense of what had happened. I was the fire-cracker in the family and I went through a phase of childhood rebellion attempting to re-enact Guy Fawke’s Day with my marbles at any government officials that I had come across during those months. I was trying to “protect” Mom. I remembered Mom attempting to keep the family together, so she marched up to Dad’s boss at that time, the late Mr Khoo Teck Puat and said, “Bock Chuan had worked for you with such selfless commitment and treated you like his other father. The most compassionate thing you can do as his boss, is to keep that job for him, and wait for his release from political detention. Meanwhile, please continue to transfer his salary into his bank account so that his family can get by.” Mr Khoo did just that, and I would be eternally grateful to him for that.

Meanwhile, Mom and I struggled by without Dad. Mom suffered from hallucinations and I was subjected to the cruel talk amongst schoolmates who pointed their fingers at me while whispering, “Her father is in jail you know? So terrible.” The cruelest thing that had happened for me then was having thoughtless journalists camp out at our gates to take statements from Mum and I.

One day, there was a live telecast of Mr Lee Kuan Yew on TV getting a public confession from the political detainees including Dad. A journalist visited Mum and I and made us sit next to the TV. I could not remember much of that apart from waking up the next day with a picture of myself in my pyjamas, and a quote from an 8 year old me saying, “Daddy was very naughty.” Looking back, that was probably the beginning of my training as a Communications and PR professional. I never trusted the media ever since, and I hated the establishment even more for turning my family’s life into a circus. I grew up bearing that anger in my heart.

Growing Up

However, living through the last 4 decades where I saw how Singapore had evolved to what it has become today, where there are roofs over our heads, we feel safe when we walk the streets and our children have a good head-start in life with sound education, and the medical bills of our ageing population is heavily subsidized, I realized that Mr Lee had to do what he had to do at that time for the good of our nation. Sure, some of his policies were unpopular and my family was a victim of it, but as a child of Singapore having lived through the economic growth and political stability of the 70s through to today when I see my parents enjoying the benefits of the Pioneer Generation package, I cannot help but have to admit that the man had truly done a great job.

Doing What He Had To Do

Even he admitted, “I stand by my record. I did some sharp things to get things right – too harsh – but a lot was at stake. But at the end of the day, what have I got? Just a successful Singapore.” For a nation that went from survival instincts to protecting its economic and political security, this man would do anything for it. As he had declared, ‘Because my posture, my response has been such that nobody doubts that if you take me on, I will put on knuckle-dusters and catch you in a cul de sac...Anybody who decides to take me on needs to put on knuckle dusters. If you think you can hurt me more than I can hurt you, try.” Sure, some of his decisions were tough, but my Dad would have made the same decisions if he was in the shoes of Mr Lee. Ultimately, when he gave his entire life for nation building, he was in it for the nation and its people, not himself. He said, “"I have never been over-concerned or obsessed with opinion polls or popularity polls. I think a leader who is, is a weak leader. If you are concerned with whether your rating will go up or down, then you are not a leader. You are just catching the wind ... you will go where the wind is blowing. And that's not what I am in this for."

All Forgiven

I asked Mom if Dad had tuned to the TV channels to watch the crowd lining up to pay their last respects as the body was lying in state at Parliament House. To my surprise, she answered, “ Yes he did, and he even cried. I think after all these years, all is forgiven and forgotten and Dad has seen the good that the man had done for Singapore.”

That was all I needed to hear, so that it gave me that go-ahead to write this blogpost.

When I saw Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong giving his eulogy to the “Papa” that he loved so dearly, I was reminded that our late founding Prime Minister, was someone else’s father too. So yes, I spent much of my younger years hating the man, but as I grew up, my emotions grew up with me. I am still my father's daughter and I love and respect him for having boldly taken a stand no matter the risks involved, standing by what he had believed in then. However, I am also my nation's daughter and I respect Mr Lee for also having boldly taken a stand, no matter how many had felt about him then. He too, stood by what he had believed in.

Without any disrespect to my father, and with every respect to the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, I am eternally grateful for his efforts in turning this country into a safe haven for my family and I.