To some people, it is more important to be right than to be liked. Such a statement could easily be applied to Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s former prime minister and minister mentor, who ruled with single-mindedness and, some say, an iron fist. Despite his critics and detractors on home ground and abroad, few would argue with Lee’s astounding success in leading the transformation of this tiny island in Southeast Asia from a poor colonial backwater in 1959, when Singapore held its first election as a full self-governing state under the Commonwealth, into a thriving First World nation with the world’s sixth-highest GDP today.

Lee was firm and unapologetic in executing the policies he believed were right for the nation. “I’m very determined. If I decide that something is worth doing, then I’ll put my heart and soul to it. The whole ground can be against me, but if I know it is right, I’ll do it. That’s the business of a leader,” he states in Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas (Han Fook Kwang, Warren Fernandez and Sumiko Tan, 1998).

The stern patriarch of modern Singapore has gained renown and respect disproportionate to the trifling land mass of this little speck on the world map. Lee’s story and Singapore’s can, hand- in-hand, be summarised in the words of other world leaders, academics and newsmen who had known him or spoken with him over the years.

“More than 40 years ago, Lee Kuan Yew transformed what was a poor, decrepit colony into a shining, rich, and modern metropolis — all the time surrounded by hostile powers. With his brilliant, incisive intellect, he is one of the world’s most outspoken and respected statesmen,” Rupert Murdoch said when Lee’s book From Third World to First:The Singapore Story:1965– 2000 (Lee Kuan Yew, 2000) was published.

Another weighty endorsement came from the late Margaret Thatcher, whom Lee counted as a great friend and political ally in the 10-plus years they worked together as prime ministers of their respective countries. She said, “In office, I read and analysed every speech of Lee’s. He had a way of penetrating the fog of propaganda and expressing with unique clarity the issues of our times and the way to tackle them. He was never wrong.”

Her successor John Major, too, was quoted in Conversations with Lee Kuan Yew: Citizen Singapore: How to Build a Nation (Tom Plate, 2010), saying: “Lee Kuan Yew can justifiably be called the father of modern Singapore. He has steered through policies that have been copied across Asia, and have greatly lifted the profile and representation of Singapore. It is a legacy that will endure.”

Singapore Tatler looks at some of the venerable statesman and philosopher king’s long- standing beliefs that have shaped policies and guided the country’s path from infancy to its firm footing in the First World.

 

Leadership with Integrity

No one who is even just slightly acquainted with Lee’s beliefs will be surprised by his stark views on the intrinsic vulnerability of the nation-state he helped to create.

Take, for example, his characterisation of Singapore’s imperative need for strong leadership as laid out in Hard Truths To Keep Singapore Going (Lee Kuan Yew, 2011), a compact progression of realpolitik rationalisation if there ever was one: “Without a strong economy, there can be no strong defense. Without a strong defense, there will be no Singapore. It will become a satellite, cowed and intimidated by its neighbours. To maintain a strong economy and a strong defense all on a narrow base of a small island with over four million people, the government must be led by the ablest, most dedicated and toughest. The task will become more complex as a more educated and confident electorate believe that Singapore has created a sturdy base and need not be as vulnerable as before. What will never change is that only the best can lead and secure such a Singapore.”

The People’s Action Party search for such leaders has been continuously refined over the years. Hard Truths states that oil company Shell’s method of selecting its executives is one of the models used, and that character, motivation and “helicopter quality” (the ability to assess situations through analysis, sense of reality and imagination) are some of the things potential candidates are assessed on. Crucially, “integrity and honesty are vital”.

Related to this is the issue of high ministerial pay, which Lee has defended thus: “You make a good minister after two terms. Then you understand Singapore, you understand the people, you understand the workings of government, you understand what is possible. Why do we pay them high wages? Because otherwise you serve half a term and you say, ‘I’m off ’.”

While the matter remains a contentious one, there is no doubt that the core principle at the heart of this policy remains dearly cherished by most Singaporeans: the importance of a government that is not just competent, but untainted by corruption.

The Bilingual Education System

From its very inception to its present incarnation, Singapore’s bilingual education system has never been without controversy. Almost half a century later, mother tongue advocates are still lamenting the decline of Chinese, Malay and Tamil, while those who are weaker in their mother tongue – particularly Chinese students from non-Mandarin-speaking households – continue their struggle to pass the subject.

Lee believed that English was a valuable language of instruction because of its widespread use in the global economy, and because Singapore’s different ethnic groups needed to share a neutral common language for the sake of national cohesion. Learning one’s mother tongue served a different purpose – these were languages linked to ancient Asian cultures that would help to impart moral values and a strong sense of cultural identity.

His own championing of the Chinese language stems from a mix of cultural pride and hardnosed political expediency. Disinterested in learning Chinese as a child, he became troubled by his lack of linguistic connection to his ethnic roots as a young man. “There is a sense – I would not say of humiliation – but definitely of inadequacy, that I have not the same facility and control over my own language,” he has written.

Lee started learning Chinese in earnest in 1955 at the age of 32, spurred by the need to reach out to Mandarin-speaking voters. That year, he made his first speech in Mandarin, which the usually eloquent politician described as “the most taxing speech I ever made in my life”. He also greatly admired the integrity and discipline of the Chinese-educated student activists in the pre- independence era, and would later send all three of his children to Chinese-medium schools.

Today, Singaporeans who have gone through the bilingual education system are reminded of its unusual nature each time we are asked by a foreigner not in the know: how come you speak such good English? As for proficiency in our mother tongues, there is no doubt that some have proven more adept than others. Still, this ingrained habit of navigating the cultural codes and cues of different languages, as well as the penchant to jumble and juxtapose them in unusual ways, has become an integral part of who we are.

Setting a World Standard in Public Housing

They appear, without fail, in every single National Day music video – those instantly recognisable concrete blocks in various hues that dominate Singapore’s landscape. The Housing & Development Board (hdb) flat remains one of the most powerful symbols of Singapore’s success story, and a marker of proper mortgage-paying adulthood for most Singaporeans.

Before the hdb flat came into existence, most Singaporeans lived in crowded squatter colonies with poor sanitation. A post-second World War population boom also created a dire housing shortage. In 1960, the hdb was set up to solve these problems. In its first five years alone, it built 50,000 flats.

“We were an immigrant community with no common history. Our peoples came from many different parts of Asia. Home ownership helped to quickly forge a sense of rootedness in Singapore. It is the foundation upon which nationhood was forged,” Lee said in a 2009 speech. “Singaporeans know that the hdb flat gives them a tangible and valuable stake. If Singapore prospers, their flat values will appreciate and they will share in the growth. Home ownership motivates Singaporeans to work hard and upgrade to better flats for a better quality of living. The hdb story reflects the social mobility in Singapore.”

The achievement of housing the majority of the population in these well-maintained and increasingly beautifully designed structures has not gone unnoticed by the world. In 2008, hdb won the United Nations Public Service Award for the Home Ownership Programme, and in 2010 it received the un-Habitat Scroll of Honour Award for providing one of Asia’s and the world’s greenest, cleanest and most socially conscious housing programmes.

Creating a Garden City

Inspired by a 1968 visit to Boston, where he found out that cars were regularly checked so their parts would not emit pollution, Lee took the idea of creating a clean and green city back to Singapore. It was not just a question of aesthetics. A green environment could be enjoyed by the rich and poor alike, and would help to prevent political resentment, he believed.

It would also help Singapore to stand out from its competitors in the region, the neat and verdant greenery telegraphing the forward- thinking competence of the city-state to potential investors.

Environmentalism has become a 21st century buzzword, and it can be easy to forget how ahead of its time the idea of a Garden City was, particularly at a time when pragmatic concerns seemed more pressing for a new nation. It has remained a key tenet of the republic’s identity. The most high profile initiatives of this ongoing greening of Singapore include the clean-up of the Singapore River, the creation of Gardens By The Bay, and, of course, the iconic tree-lined boulevards leading from Changi Airport that show off the little red dot’s best side to visitors.

But there are a million little details that go into the greening of a city, even a small one like Singapore. And Lee personally involved himself in many of these decisions, taking ideas and consulting experts from all over the world. “I sent them on missions all along the Equator and the tropical, subtropical zones, looking for new types of trees, plants, creepers and so on. From Africa, the Caribbean, Latin, Middle, Central America, we’ve come back with new plants. It’s a very small sum. But if you get the place greened up, if you get all those creepers up, you take away the heat, you’ll have a different city,” he said in Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas.

Expectations of Eloquence

In his book Lee Kuan Yew: The Crucial Years, author Alex Josey writes: “Lee is best in debate. In English, if not in Malay, he is no great platform speaker... This is because he directs his words to a man’s common sense, not to his emotions.”

While stirring oration may not be his style, his particular brand of combative articulation has set a high standard for Singapore’s leaders in terms of lucid public discourse. Lee is also highly regarded as a statesman by international leaders, not least because of his noted powers of expression.

This is not to say that the former prime minister does not have the occasional moment of waxing lyrical. In 1988, for example, he said of New Zealand: “I could come back here in 100 years and I’d be sure to find this place, still green grass, still sheep and cows and wheat and fruit trees... When I project myself forward 100 years for Singapore, I cannot tell you that it will exist.”

Singapore’s future then was perhaps still shaky in his mind. In Hard Truths, published more than 20 years later in 2011, he seems much more optimistic about the future of this unlikely nation. In fact, his vision for Singapore is positively – and somewhat uncharacteristically – seductive: “Across the board, in the next 10 years, maybe even in the next 20 years, we can make a quantum leap. The Western media no longer talk about Singapore as a sterile place. It’s a fun place, a buzzing commercial and economic centre. We’ll have become more cosmopolitan, with people from other regions, China, India, the US, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. It’s our destiny.”