In my mind, Lee Kuan Yew is undoubtedly up there with all the famous statesmen in history, the wise premiers of ancient Chinese dynasties, the fabled leaders of Rome and Greece. True, all of them dealt with different times and circumstances so a fair comparison is not possible. Most of them dealt ruthlessly with their perceived rivals, using every tactic to gain power, but the thing is, once they came into their own, they did good for the majority.
Having grown up in the midst of Singapore's economic transformation from third-world to first-world country (in the economic sense, we're still a bit off in societal and cultural terms) and being fortunate enough to have lived abroad, I am now very impressed by LKY's accomplishments.
Of course he is not without fault. Definitely he crushed any opponent "like a coooccckkkrrrooach!" Some of his programs backfired-anyone remember Suzhou? But the fact that he created a corruption-free government that did good for the people is good enough for me. Just my opinion of course; I am no political scientist. Perhaps being older and a little wiser, I started to see good in most of what he architected. He couldn't have done it without other capable men around him, whose names embarrassingly escape my memory at the moment. But I salute them, Singapore's founding fathers.
Last weekend, in Lake Kawaguchi with friends, somehow we fell into a fascinating discussion of Singapore society. The oft-heard opinions of taxi-drivers, peers, the much-maligned-crony-ish Straits Times (sorry to any Straits Times journalist out there!), recent actions of the MM (can't keep up with all the new titles they keep inventing for him) were tossed up and dissected in a passionate after-dinner debate. Even in a lethargic state of food coma, we maintained a steady level of rapidfire chatter late into the night. Eventually the neighborhood dogs began to bark and howl in sync with our chorus and we slowly wrapped things up, switching to mundane topics like old SBC drama serials (oh the nostalgia!). Does anyone remember gems like "青春 1 2 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmWKTpoblc)?" Just hearing the theme song alone was enough to make us cringe from head to toe...
Ahhh, to be back in primary school again...
1 comment:
I agree. When I was younger, like 10 years ago, I was rash and filled with fire. I thought, what good do these leaders make? They took advantage of their times and situations and make an empire for themselves. Kuan Yew, Suharto, Rahman, Razak, Hussein and Mahathir - all seized their moments and gained control of SEA. But as I mature, like you, I see more and more good within their bad. It is undeniable that certain people adore them and some will hate them. My stand is I will give credit where it is due.
Kuan Yew, especially, has truly done many things to make Singapore into what it is today. Even I am not a Singaporean, I am proud of his achievements and study his policies and thoughts. He definitely allows Singaporeans to stand tall among the rest of the world. If you read public policies and developmental economics literature, you will be amazed with how many times the Singapore miracle is cited and mentioned. And with the current publicity given to GIC and Temasek, Singapore once again shows the world her ability to compete and win at the global field. LKY is no doubt legendary. It is an irony that many younger generation people like us only learn to appreciate him after we left SEA and venture to west like US. Through our experiences in US, we start to see things that we once overlooked and gained a new level of understanding on the world dynamics.
The other fathers you missed out are probably Goh Keng Swee, Rajaratnam etc,
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