‘From third world to first’: Lee Kuan Yew’s legacy in charts
Andreas Paleit and Jennifer Hughes - Hong Kong
Lee Kuan Yew,
who has died aged 91, presided over a turnround in the economic
fortunes of his nation, taking it from a colonial backwater to its
status as one of the richest places on the planet — a journey ‘from
third world to first’, as Lee titled his memoir.
From ease of doing business to concentration of millionaires, 21st-century Singapore consistently ranks among the world’s most economically developed nations.
But Lee’s legacy goes beyond wealth-creators. Since he came to power
just about every aspect of Singapore has been transformed, and along
with it the fortunes of ordinary Singaporeans. The population has, of
course, grown.
Singaporeans have become much better educated and crime has dropped, partly as a result of Lee’s authoritarian influence.
An enormous public housing programme in the 1960s and 1970s has
allowed more than 80 per cent of citizens to live in
government-subsidised apartments. But an ageing population raises
challenges for the years ahead.
The Financial Times Limited 2015. You may share using our article tools.
Emotional farewell for Singaporeans
Thousands wait in long queue for hours to pay last respects to Lee Kuan Yew
SINGAPORE: Singaporeans wept on the streets and queued in their thousands to pay tribute to founding leader Lee Kuan Yew as his flag-draped coffin was taken on a gun carriage to parliament for public viewing.
After a two-day private wake for the family, the coffin was taken in a slow motorcade from the Istana government complex, Lee’s workplace for decades as prime minister and cabinet adviser, to the legislature yesterday. It will lie in state there until Sunday.
The 91-year-old patriarch died on Monday after half a century in government, during which Singapore was transformed from a poor British colonial outpost into one of the world’s richest societies.
The government led by his son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, apparently taken by surprise at the heavy early turnout, announced that Parliament House would stay open for 24 hours a day until Saturday night “due to overwhelming response from the public”.
Lee will be cremated on Sunday after a state funeral expected to be attended by several Asia-Pacific leaders even though he was just an MP when he died.
Applause and shouts of “We love you!” and “Lee Kuan Yew!” broke out as the dark brown wooden coffin, draped in the red-and-white Singapore flag, emerged from the Istana housed in a tempered glass case on a gun carriage pulled by an open-topped military truck.
Earlier, in scenes that evoked Singapore’s colonial past, the carriage stopped in front of the main Istana building, where British administrators once worked, as a bagpiper from Singapore’s Gurkha Contingent – the city-state’s special guard force – played Auld Lang Syne.
After the motorcade emerged from the palace, many in the crowd waiting behind barricades along the route were in tears as they raised cameras and mobile phones to record the historic event.
Some threw flowers on the path of the carriage, while office workers watched from high-rise buildings.
President Tony Tan and his wife Mary were the first to pay their respects in the parliament’s foyer.
By mid-afternoon Singaporeans were waiting for up to eight hours in queues that snaked around the central business district, many using umbrellas against the 33°C heat.
In true Singaporean fashion the crowds were orderly, with free drinking water and portable toilets set up for mourners.
Police helped direct traffic flow and priority queues were created for the elderly, pregnant women and the disabled.
People from all walks of life turned up to honour the authoritarian former leader popularly known by his initials “LKY”.
“These are amazing scenes. I have not seen anything like this in my lifetime,” said bank executive Zhang Wei Jie, 36.
“LKY is the founder of our country. It is a no-brainer that we have to pay respect. We have taken some time off from work, my supervisor is also here somewhere in the crowd.”
R. Tamilselvi, 77, brought two of her granddaughters, each clutching flowers.
“Lee Kuan Yew has done so much for us,” she said. “We used to live in squatter (colonies) in Sembawang, my husband was a bus driver. Now my three sons have good jobs and nice houses. The children all go to school. What will we be without Lee Kuan Yew?” — AFP
When he suddenly fathered a reluctant new nation, the iron was forged in him.
LEE Kuan Yew, former prime minister of Singapore, has died at the age of 91.
He was born Harry Lee Kuan Yew on Sept 16, 1923 in Singapore. When he left England after graduating with a law degree from Cambridge University, he also left his English name behind.
In 1954, Lee formed the People’s Action Party (PAP). In 1959, at the age of 35, he won the national elections of Singapore, then still part of the British Empire, and became Prime Minister for the first time. After a brief merger with Malaysia, in 1965 the Republic of Singapore was born. Lee was PM until 1990 when he voluntarily stepped down, at age 67, to make way for a younger man.
It is a cliché, but it has to be said: the passing of Lee Kuan Yew is the passing of an era for Singapore and Singaporeans. A Singapore without LKY will take some adjusting to.
Older citizens will probably remember him with more affection and gratitude. Younger Singaporeans may attend the academic institutions and win scholarships that bear his name, but they will likely feel no particular affection or disdain, but rather, a vague admiration for the legendary leader whom they have been told was the architect of modern Singapore.
“I have been accused of many things in my life, but not even my worst enemy has ever accused me of being afraid to speak my mind,” he once said. Perhaps he will be best remembered through his own words.
In 1980, he said, “Whoever governs Singapore must have that iron in him.” For him, it was in August 1965, when he suddenly fathered a reluctant new nation, that the iron was forged - from the fire in his belly to make Singapore succeed.
From that “moment of anguish”, he would “spend the rest of my life getting Singapore not just to work but to prosper and flourish.” Over the years, he would use that same steel to fight all forms of obstacles and undesirable dogma, prejudices and even personal habits.
He would go on to confront and battle challenges that included corruption, unemployment, poverty, communism, political opposition, smoking and at the end, his own deteriorating health.
His self-belief and devotion to the Singapore cause was intense and absolute: “This is your life and mine. I’ve spent a whole lifetime building this (country) and as long as I’m in charge, nobody is going to knock it down.”
He will be remembered for his ferocious fight against corruption. He believed vehemently, “The moment key leaders are less than incorruptible, less than stern in demanding high standards, from that moment, the structure of administrative integrity will weaken, and eventually crumble. Singapore can survive only if ministers and senior officers are incorruptible and efficient.”
He will be remembered for standing up for meritocracy. A key reason for Singapore’s separation in 1965 was Lee’s belief in multiracial meritocracy. He was utterly convinced that, “If you want Singapore to succeed…you must have a system that enables the best man and the most suitable to go into the job that needs them…”
Every time a Singaporean takes a ride in a bus along a tree-lined avenue, plays with her children in a park near their flat, or enjoys a picnic in Botanic Gardens, she might just think of Lee. He launched Tree Planting Day and “set out to transform Singapore into a tropical garden city.” He was completely certain that, “Greening raised the morale of people and gave them pride in their surroundings.”
Lee’s beliefs and ideas went on to mould not just the development of a small new country with no natural resources to speak of, but also, some would argue, the personal lives of its citizens. Under his leadership, his government implemented policies and ran campaigns to compel and urge Singaporeans to save water, to keep Singapore clean, to have two children, and later, to have three if they could afford it, and to speak Mandarin, among many other exhortations.
In response to critics who accused his government of interfering in the private lives and personal behaviours of the city-state’s inhabitants, he had this to say, “It has made Singapore a more pleasant place to live in. If this is a ‘nanny state’, I am proud to have fostered one.”
He will be remembered for the power of his convictions. “I have never been over concerned or obsessed with opinion polls or popularity polls. I think a leader who is, is a weak leader.” No-one could accuse Lee Kuan Yew of being a weak leader.
Of his own accord, he relinquished the position of Prime Minister in 1990, but stayed on in government as Senior Minister and then Minister Mentor in the governments of both his successors, Goh Chok Tong and his own son, Lee Hsien Loong, the current Prime Minister. He retired from Cabinet in 2011 but remained a Member of Parliament.
For those who remember Lee Kuan Yew in his prime, no matter to which side of the political divide they belong, they will recall a perspicacious politician whose intellect found admirers far beyond the little red dot, a powerful orator whose words conquered crowds and carried generations of Singaporeans with him, and perhaps, most of all, a pragmatic visionary who, against all odds, made the improbable nation a reality.
Lee was known for his admiration, gratitude and devotion to his wife, the late Kwa Geok Choo. He is survived by his two sons, one daughter and seven grandchildren.
By Peggy Kek
Singaporean analyst Peggy Kek is a former director with the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.
Quotable quotes from Lee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew commenting on death: 'There is an end to everything and I want mine to come as quickly and painlessly as possible, not with me incapacitated, half in coma in bed and with a tube going into my nostrils and down to my stomach.' – AFP pic, March 23, 2015
Here are some notable quotes from Singapore's founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, who died Monday at the age of 91.
On Japan defeating Britain to occupy Singapore in 1942:
"The dark ages had descended on us. It was brutal, cruel.
"Looking back, it was the biggest single political education of my life because, for three and a half years, I saw the meaning of power and how power and politics and government went together, and I also understood how people trapped in a power situation responded because they had to live.
"One day the British were there, immovable, complete masters; next day, the Japanese, whom we derided, mocked as short, stunted people with short-sighted squint eyes."
After World War II when the British were trying to reestablish control:
"... the old mechanisms had gone and the old habits of obedience and respect (for the British) had also gone because people had seen them run away (from the Japanese) ... they packed up. We were supposed, the local population was supposed to panic when the bombs fell, but we found they panicked more than we did. So it was no longer the old relationship."
As a law student in Britain:
"Here in Singapore, you didn't come across the white man so much. He was in a superior position.
"But there you are (in Britain) in a superior position meeting white men and white women in an inferior position, socially, I mean. They have to serve you and so on in the shops. I saw no reason why they should be governing me; they're not superior. I decided when I got back, I was going to put an end to this."
On opinion polls:
"I have never been overconcerned or obsessed with opinion polls or popularity polls. 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. That's not what I am in this for."
On his iron-fisted governing style:
"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."
On his political opponents:
"If you are a troublemaker... it's our job to politically destroy you... Everybody knows that in my bag I have a hatchet, and a very sharp one. You take me on, I take my hatchet, we meet in the cul-de-sac."
On democracy:
"You take a poll of any people. What is it they want? The right to write an editorial as you like? They want homes, medicine, jobs, schools."
On justice:
"We have to lock up people, without trial, whether they are communists, whether they are language chauvinists, whether they are religious extremists. If you don't do that, the country would be in ruins."
On his policy of matching male and female university graduates to produce smart babies:
"If you don't include your women graduates in your breeding pool and leave them on the shelf, you would end up a more stupid society... So what happens? There will be less bright people to support dumb people in the next generation. That's a problem."
On criticism over the high pay of cabinet ministers and senior civil servants:
"The cure for all this talk is a good dose of incompetent government. You get that alternative and you'll never put Singapore together again: Humpty Dumpty cannot be put together again... and your asset values will be in peril, your security will be at risk and our women will become maids in other people's countries, foreign workers."
On religion:
"I wouldn't call myself an atheist. I neither deny nor accept that there is a God. So I do not laugh at people who believe in God. But I do not necessarily believe in God – nor deny that there could be one."
On his wife of 63 years, Kwa Geok Choo, who died in October 2010:
"Without her, I would be a different man, with a different life... I should find solace in her 89 years of a life well-lived. But at this moment of the final parting, my heart is heavy with sorrow and grief."
On death:
"There is an end to everything and I want mine to come as quickly and painlessly as possible, not with me incapacitated, half in coma in bed and with a tube going into my nostrils and down to my stomach."
On rising up from his grave if something goes wrong in Singapore:
"Even from my sickbed, even if you are going to lower me to the grave and I feel that something is going wrong, I will get up."
Former
Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew waves to supporters as he submits
his nomination papers to contest in the elections in Singapore, April
27, 2011. [Photo/IC]
a “Asian Tiger“.Lee Kuan Yew is not only regarded as the founding father of modern Singapore, but also as one of the most influential political figures in Asia.
who had a one-on-one interview with Singapore's founding prime minister back in 2011.Q1: What's the politicallegacy that Lee Kuan Yew has left to Singapore? ...
Lee Kuan Yew, former prime minister of Singapore, died on Monday at the age of 91, according to a statement released by the Prime Minister's Office.
"Mr Lee passed away peacefully at the Singapore General Hospital today at 3:18 am," the statement said.
Lee, a Cambridge-educated lawyer, is widely credited with building Singapore into one of the world's wealthiest nations on a per capita basis with a strong, pervasive role for the state and little patience for dissent.
He co-founded the People's Action Party (PAP), which has ruled Singapore since 1959 and led the newly born country when it was separated from Malaysia in 1965.
Singapore's founding father also hailed for diplomatic pragmatism and for inspiring Beijing's reform, opening-up
In Beijing's eyes, Lee Kuan Yew, the late founding father and leader of Singapore, was not only "an old friend of the Chinese people", but also "the founder of China-Singapore relations", according to China's previous official news releases about his visits.
Bilateral, top-level interactions were pioneered by Lee 14 years ahead of the establishment of the two nations' diplomatic relations in 1990.
Chinese media estimated that he had been to China more than 20 times, and he was known for his good personal relations with China's top figures, especially former leader Deng Xiaoping.
Zhang Jiuhuan, the Chinese ambassador to Singapore from 2000 to 2004, noted that "it was a rare case" at the time that a foreign prime minister would visit China, as Lee did in 1976, in the absence of diplomatic relations between the two nations. Deng then paid back the visit, going to Singapore in 1978, in what Zhang described as a sensational trip.
Lee was a man "with thoughts free from orthodoxy", and his pragmatism in diplomacy made Singapore a pioneer among Southeast Asia nations in harvesting large-scale trade, economic cooperation and talent exchanges with China, Zhang said.
However, Lee's intimacy with China since 1976 goes way beyond his remarkable record of handshakes with most of China's top leaders, including Mao Zedong and Deng.
Those who witnessed history unfold, as well as other observers, hailed the Singaporean statesman's efforts in inspiring China's reforms and opening-up.
Jin Canrong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University of China in Beijing, noted that Lee's No 1 contribution to China was his efforts in "sharing Singapore's successful experience in governance", adding that "China has benefited a lot" from this.
The China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park, inaugurated in February 1994 in Jiangsu province in East China, was proposed by Lee, who even went to the city in 1992 to inspect the site for the park.
Now, with the park serving as a role model for China's economic cooperation with foreign countries, more such industrial parks hosted or co-hosted by China have been established domestically and abroad.
Additionally, because of Lee's advocacy for sharing his country's inspiring philosophy of governance with China, Singapore has served as a de facto, inspirational training center for visiting Chinese officials.
Then vice-president Xi Jinping, right, meets Singapore's former prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, in this May 23, 2011, file photo. [Photo by Xu Jingxing/Asianewsphoto]
In 2011, Xi Jinping, then China's vice-president, told Lee that "tens of thousands of Chinese officials at various ranks have been to Singapore for visiting and studying", and "this has played an important role in promoting bilateral relations and China's construction for modernization".
Even during his last few China visits, Lee often expounded when meeting with Chinese leaders on nurturing talent and the need for further promoting people-to-people exchanges.
Jin, the Renmin University professor, recalled his encounter with Lee in 2007 at a symposium in Singapore, in which Lee displayed his admiration for Deng Xiaoping.
"Lee was asked by a visiting scholar from China for advice on China's future reform and opening-up," said Jin. "Lee said, 'You have Mr. Deng Xiaoping already. He is way better than me. Just follow him!'"
In addition to his identity as a frequent visitor to China and guest of Beijing, he was internationally known as an insightful observer of China-related affairs who was often sought out for advice.
His books, articles and comments on China's evolving role in regional and global contexts — either positive or negative, in the eyes of ordinary readers — often put him in the media spotlight.
Some observers have regarded him as a bridge that connected China and the rest of the world, while others described him as a mirror that reflected "how China looks in the eyes of the region and other parts of the world".
"Generally, China pays respect to him," professor Jin said. "The two sides may differ in some issues, because Singapore is another country, after all. ... It was perfectly natural for Lee to act out of national interests and deliver some differing opinions."
Zhang, the veteran diplomat, said Lee was a man known for his "nonstop pursuit of new knowledge". Lee always learned new skills and kept pace with the changing world, including his Internet interactions with ordinary people and his fluency in the Chinese language, Zhang added.
"Why have people always paid great attention to his insights and referred to him for advice on hot spot issues around the world? Because he often saw what people could not see," the former ambassador said.
Lee Kuan Yew at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, in this May 23, 2011, file photo. [Photo by Xu Jingxing/Asianewsphoto]
Lee Luan Yew's Chinese connections
Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's former Prime Minister, is one of the few world leaders who have met with China's five top leaders. Lee has visited China as many as 33 times since his first visit in 1976.
Lee is acclaimed as the "founder of close Sino-Singapore relations" by present Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is also Lee's oldest son.
Major meetings with Chinese leaders
1976 Mao Zedong met with Lee in Beijing
1978 Deng Xiaoping visited Singapore and had a meeting with Lee
1988 Deng Xiaoping met with Lee during Lee's visit in Beijing
2000 Zhu Rongji met with Lee in Singapore during the China-ASEAN leaders' meeting
2002 Jiang Zemin met with Lee in Beijing
2004 Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao met with Lee in Beijing
2010 Xi Jinping visited Singapore and had a meeting with Lee
2011 Xi Jinping met with Lee in Beijing
File photo of Singapore's former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew taken on March 20, 2013. The country's Prime Minister's Office said on Wednesday that Lee remains critically ill in the ICU and has deteriorated further. [Photo/Xinhua]
Health condition
In a book published in 2013, the Asian statesman said he feels weaker by the day and wants a quick death.
The longtime fitness buff has visibly slowed since his wife of 63 years Kwa Geok Choo died in 2010.
The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) first announced Lee Kuan Yew was in hospital because of sever pneumonia in a statement on Feb. 21, and updated on Feb. 26 saying that he was still warded.
A statement on Feb. 28 said Lee's condition had improved slightly, and he was continuing with his antibiotics. The statement noted he remained sedated and on mechanical ventilation at the intensive care unit in Singapore General Hospital.
The PMO released statements on March 6 and on March 13 respectively, saying Lee Kuan Yew's condition remained largely unchanged, and he continued to be watched closely by his doctors.
Lee's condition worsened due to an infection and remained critially ill in the ICU, said the PMO on March 18.
Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew meets with US President Barack Obama in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, in this October 29, 2009 file photograph. [Photo/Agencies]
Profile
Singapore's 91-year-old founding father and its first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew was born on Sept 16, 1923. Lee ruled for 31 years until 1990.
Lee has been credited with transforming the city-state from a sleepy tropical port to a wealthy, bustling financial hub with one of the highest incomes in the world.
Early life
His ancestral home is at Dabu county, Meizhou city, Guangdong province. He once attended Raffles Institution. His education was disrupted by World War II, but went on to study in England after the war. He briefly attended the London School of Economics before moving to the University of Cambridge, where he read law at Fitzwilliam College and graduated with a rare Double Starred (double First Class Honors).
Political career
A founding member of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP), Lee became prime minister in 1959 when Britain was gradually handing over colonial power to the new local administration. Singapore joined Malaysia in a federation in 1963, but the two split two years later.
The PAP has returned to power in every election since 1959 and currently holds 80 of the 87 seats in parliament.
He stepped down as prime minister in 1990 in favor of his deputy Goh Chok Tong. Goh in turn handed the reins to Lee Hsien Loong in 2004.
Even after Lee retired, he continued to work for the government, first as "senior minister," a non-executive advisory post created for him, and from 2004 until 2011 as "minister mentor".
He is still an MP for the port district of Tanjong Pagar but retired from advisory roles in government in 2011.
Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew speaks to the audience during the Arab and Asian dialogue in Singapore April 27, 2007.[Photo/IC]
Political legacy
Lee Kuan Yew, as the founding father of Singapore, left abundant political legacies behind, from which this Southeastern Asian country is still benefit.
Attaching much importance to legislation
One of the major ruling concepts promoted by Leeis legislation, to which he attached much importance. He believed that legislation provides the basic framework for social stability and development.
He thought that law needs to demonstrate humanity and respect people's rights, however law also should limit abuse of power, which will lead to the falling apart of the social order. One of Lee's abiding beliefs has been in the efficacy of corporal punishment in the form of caning.
Promoting economic development
Lee encouraged innovation and opening to the outside world. He said that the quality of a nation's manpower resources is the single most important factor determining national competitiveness. It is the people's innovativeness, entrepreneurship, team work, and their work ethic that gives them that sharp keen edge in competitiveness.
Under his ruling, the implementation of internationalized economic polices has made Singapore one of the most important manufacturing bases of export and import.
He promoted development of infrastructure and forged Singapore into an oasis of development. Singapore also makes full use of the advantages of being a port of reshipment and provides international and authorized financial service.
Emphasizing importance of knowledge
Lee set English as Singapore's first official language and Chinese as the second to let people form an English thought pattern. He emphasizes the importance of knowledge in economic transformation but also rejects the classical separation between scholarship and entrepreneurship.
"Those with good minds to be scholars should also be inventors, innovators, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs; they must bring new products and services to the market to enrich the lives of people everywhere," he said.
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II shakes hands with then prime minister Lee Kuan Yew as she arrived in Singapore, Feb 18, 1972. [Photo/IC]
Art of diplomacy
Singapore is a small country in both area and population, but it has a unique influence on Asia and even the world, which owes much to its founding father and first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew.
To set foot firmly in the world, Singapore needs to be strong enough. As a tiny country, Singapore cannot compete with big countries in natural resources or military power. So economy is the best way out.
Lee warned the government and the people that they should always have a strong sense of urgency.
Under his leadership, Singapore witnessed the rapid rise and became an economic power in just one generation.
Singapore became an independent country at a time when the cold war was like a raging fire. How to survive among the big powers became a problem for Lee.
Lee is famous for pursuing balanced diplomacy. He once said that if there are two competing big powers in a region, then there is space for small countries to switch sides. He implemented the idea of nonalignment.
Singapore maintains friendly relations with the United States, but does not have formal allies.
He adopted the policy of neutrality and did not easily choose sides. But when the time came, Singapore would have its own voice and make its position clear.
