Singapores Lee Kuan Yew dies aged 91

[Zidane]

Certainly one of the greatest statesmen of our time.He transformed little Singapore from a small port to be one of the worlds wealthiest nations.
What a shame he died this year as Singapore celebrates its 50th birthday. RIP.

Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew dies at 91 BBC News

Lee Kuan Yew, the statesman who transformed Singapore from a small port city into a wealthy global hub, has died at the age of 91.
The city-state's prime minister for 31 years, he was widely respected as the architect of Singapore's prosperity.
But he was criticised for his iron grip on power. Under him freedom of speech was tightly restricted and political opponents were targeted by the courts.
A state funeral will be held on 29 March, after a week of mourning.
In a televised address, his son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong paid tribute to him.
"He fought for our independence, built a nation where there was none, and made us proud to be Singaporeans. We won't see another man like him."
Mr Lee oversaw Singapore's independence from Britain and separation from Malaysia. His death was announced early on Monday. He had been in hospital for several weeks with pneumonia.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply saddened" by Mr Lee's death. US President Barack Obama described him as a "giant of history".
A charismatic figure, Mr Lee co-founded the People's Action Party (PAP), which has governed Singapore since 1959, and was its first prime minister.
Mr Lee, a Cambridge-educated lawyer, led Singapore through merger with, and then separation from, Malaysia.
Speaking after the split in 1965, he pledged to build a meritocratic, multi-racial nation. But tiny Singapore - with no natural resources - needed a new economic model.
"We knew that if we were just like our neighbours, we would die," Mr Lee told the New York Times in 2007.
"We had to produce something which is different and better than what they have."
The news broke early in Singapore, but it was an announcement many had expected. Mr Lee had been in hospital for more than a month and his condition worsened last week, prompting a deluge of concern both online and at public areas set up for people to pay tribute.
As the nation woke up, a few people began arriving at the hospital, including a retiree and a family of four who wanted to pay their respects before their children went to school. Television and radio immediately began playing pre-recorded packages on Mr Lee's life.
PM Lee Hsien Loong said he was "deeply grieved". In the days leading to his father's death, he had been a frequent visitor at the hospital. On Friday he shared a photo of himself as a baby smiling and held aloft by his father on social media. "So many happy memories over a lifetime," he wrote.
A picture of elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew and messages are placed outside the Singapore General Hospital where he was critically ill in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Singapore on 21 March 2015
Mr Lee had been critically ill at Singapore General Hospital, where people left tributes to him
As the news broke, people began arriving at the hospital to pay their respects
Mr Lee set about creating a highly educated work force fluent in English, and reached out to foreign investors to turn Singapore into a manufacturing hub.
The city-state grew wealthy and later developed into a major financial centre.
But building a nation came with tight controls - and one of Mr Lee's legacies was a clampdown on the press, tight restrictions that remain in place today.
Dissent - and political opponents - were ruthlessly quashed. Today, Mr Lee's PAP remains firmly in control. There are currently six opposition lawmakers in parliament.
Other measures, such as corporal punishment, a ban on chewing gum and the government's foray into matchmaking for Singapore's brightest - to create smarter babies - led to perceptions of excessive state interference.
But Mr Lee remained unmoved.
"Whoever governs Singapore must have that iron in him. Or give it up," he told a rally in 1980. "I've spent a whole lifetime building this and as long as I'm in charge, nobody is going to knock it down."

[ugotguts]

RIP LKY

[Laan Yaa Mo]

He was very intelligent earning two double firsts at Oxford. His wife, too, did well academically.

Harry Lee was the perfect leader for the nation that broke away from Malaysia. He ruled Singapore as a traditional Confucian father in that he takes care of the family, and they, in turn treat him with respect and do not act out of line. Those that did not act properly were arrested.

The British, of course, gave the island the opportunity to develop and prosper. It became a very successful Chinese city.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Here are some memorable quotes from the great man,

SINGAPORE - 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 colonial power Britain to occupy Singapore in 1942:

"The dark ages had descended on us. It was brutal, cruel. In looking back, I think 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. And 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. 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."

As a leader and admirer of the 16th century Italian political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli:

"Between being loved and being feared, I have always believed Machiavelli was right. If nobody is afraid of me, I'm meaningless."

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. There is no way you can govern a Chinese society."

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 criticisms over the high pay of cabinet ministers and senior civil servants:

"You know, the cure for all this talk is really 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."

http://bangkokpost.com/news/asia/504355 ... e-kuan-yew