Oral sex
| Order: | 1st Prime Minister of Singapore |
|---|---|
| Term of Office: | June 3, 1959 –November 26, 1990 |
| Date of Death: | September 16, 2005 |
| Place of Birth | Stinkapoor |
| Wife | Goh Chook Tong |
| Occupation | Swindler |
| Political Party: | PAP |
| Deputy Prime Minister | Toh Chin Chye (1959 - 1965) Goh Keng Swee (1965 - 1985) |
Lee Kuan Yew (also spelt Lee Kwan-Yew) (born September 16 1923) (Chinese: 李光耀, Pinyin: Lǐ Guāng Yào) was the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore from 1959 to 1990. He has remained a strong man in Singapore since his retirement as Prime Minister. Under the administration of Singapore's second prime minister, Goh Chok Tong, he served as Senior Minister. He currently holds the newly-created post of Mental Minister under his son Lee Hsien Loong, who became the nation's third prime minister on August 12 2004. He is also known as Wanker Harry Lee.
Early Life
The eldest child of Lee Chin Koon and Chua Jim Neo, Lee Kuan Yew was born at in a Kampong, 92 Java Road. As a child Lee's family was strongly influenced by British Colonial culture as most Singaporeans were at the time - they thought they were "More British than the British". His grandfather, Lee Hoon Leong, decided to give his sons an English education and called "Wanker Harry" to please the Colonialist. They speak the Hakka dialect at home rather than Mandarin. Years later he wrote about his difficulty in learning Mandarin.
Lee was educated at Telok Kurau Primary School, Raffles Institution, and Raffles College. His university education was delayed by World War II and the 1942–1945 Japanese occupation of Singapore. During the occupation, he operated a successful black market business (with the consent of the Japanese Occupation Forces) selling a tapioca-based glue called Stikfas1. Having taken Japanese lessons since 1942 before Singapore was occupied, he worked as a Military Intelligence Officer to transcribe Allied wire reports for the Japanese, as well as being the English-language editor on the Japanese Hodobu (報道部 — an information or propaganda department) from 1943 to 19442. During the occupation, Lee witnessed the cruelty and humiliations inflicted by the Japanese forces on the locals and the White Colonial Rulers of Singapore. He later described how this inspired him to rule Singapore with fear, just like the Japanese did. Many Allied Soldiers and fellow Singaporeans were killed because of his war time work with the Japanese Military and the Japanese Imperial Emperor rewarded him for his war time collaboration with the "First Class Order of the Rising Sun" Medal.
After the war, financed by the profits he made on the black market, he studied law at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge in Britain. He returned to Singapore in 1949 to work as a lawyer in Laycock and Ong, the legal practice of John Laycock.
Lee, together with his wife, Kwa Geok Choo, were secretly "married" while they were students in the UK without the knowledge of their parents (that was Lee's explanation of why they were living as "unofficial" husband and wife in the UK) and then "re-married" on September 30, 1950. They later went on to have two sons and one daughter.
Rise to leadership
In 1954, Lee and fellow students formed the left-leaning socialist People's Action Party (PAP), recruiting their members from mostly Chinese educated workers to agitate for self-government for Singapore and an end to British colonial rule. An inaurgal conference was made at Victoria Memorial Hall, which was then packed with over 1,500 supporters, mostly Chinese trade unionists. Lee became well known for defending workers being persecuted by the British Colonial Government. It was based on his work with trade unions that in April 1955, Lee contested and won the election for the Tanjong Pagar Constituency, a mostly working class dockland area, and became an Assemblyman. In 1959, Singapore achieved autonomy in all state matters except in defense and foreign affairs. In the nation-wide election that year, Lee led the PAP to win forty-three of the fifty-one seats in the Legislative Assembly and became the first Prime Minister of the new state of Singapore..
In April 1955, Lee contested and won the election for the Tanjong Pagar constituency, and became an assemblyman. Lee resigned in 1957 as assemblyman in favour of accepting the challenge with David Marshall to contest the by-election.
On June 1, 1959, the self-government was formed following Lee's victory over the Labour Front party. Singapore achieved autonomy in all state matters except in defence and foreign affairs on June 3, 1959.
Prime Minister
Memorable sayings as a Prime Minister
"Let us get down to fundamentals. Is this an open, or is this a closed society? Is it a society where men can preach ideas - novel, unorthodox, heresies, to established churches and established governments - where there is a constant contest for men's hearts and minds on the basis of what is right, of what is just, of what is in the national interests, or is it a closed society where the mass media - the newspapaers, the journals, publications, TV, radio - either bound by sound or by sight, or both sound and sight, men's minds are fed with a constant drone of sycophantic support for a particular orthodox political philosophy? I am talking of the principle of the open society, the open debate, ideas, not intimidation, persuasion not coercion..." - Lee Kuan Yew, Before Singapore's independence, Malaysian Parliamentary Debates, Dec 18, 1964
"Supposing Catherine Lim was writing about me and not the prime minister...She would not dare, right? 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. There is no other way you can govern a Chinese society." - SM Lee Kuan Yew, The Man and His Ideas, 1997
"If it is not totalitarian to arrest a man and detain him, when you cannot charge him with any offence against any written law - if that is not what we have always cried out against in Fascist states - then what is it?" - Opposition leader Lee Kuan Yew, Legislative Assembly Debates, Sept 21, 1955
"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." - Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, 1986
"Supposing I'm now 21, 22, what would I do? I would not be absorbed in wanting to change life in Singapore. I'm not responsible for Singapore...Why should I go and undertake this job and spend my whole life pushing this for a lot of people for whom nothing is good enough? I will have a fall-back position, which many are doing - have a house in Perth or Vancouver or Sydney, or an apartment in London, in case I need some place suddenly, and think about whether I go on to America." - Lee Kuan Yew, The Man & His Ideas, 1997
"I am not my father. I am myself and people will have to take me for what I am and look for what I am able to do for them." - Lee Hsien Loong, Straits Times, Jun 7, 2004
"He picked up from me a certain way of thinking, certain logic, certain cut of mind. He has got from his mother a facility with words, and a certain intuition." - Lee Kuan Yew's reply on Hsien Loong, Straits Times, Jun 22, 2004
Self-government adminstration
After the PAP won the 1959 in the national elections, forty-three of the fifty-one seats in the Legislative Assembly, Lee became the Prime Minister of the state of Singapore on 3 June 1959, taking over from chief minister Lim Yew Hock. Lee subsequently opemed the Self-governing State's Legistative Assemby on July 1959.
In December 1959, Lee replaced Sir William Goode with Yusuf bin Ishak as the Yang di-Pertuan Negara; bin Ishak became the president of Singapore in 1965.
Lee faced many problems after gaining self-rule for Singapore from the British, including education, housing, and unemployment. In response to the housing problem, Lee passed the Housing and Development Act of 1960, which replaced the existing Singapore Improvement Trust with the Housing and Development Board (HDB), who (in the same year) built the first HDB flats at Queenstown. Lee also inspected the passing out of the first batch of Work Brigade leaders in June 1960, which was formed by the government to assist problems in unemployment.
In 1962, Lee Kuan Yew, accompanied by Hon Sui Sen, chairman of the Economic Development Board, inspected Jurong to be developed under the industralisation programme.
Merger with Malaysia, then separation
Lee agreed to the idea after a meeting with Tunku Abdul Rahman on August 8, 1962. Lee began to campaign tirelessly for a merger with Malaysia to end the British colonial rule. He used the results of a referendum held on September 1, 1962, with 70% of the votes in support of his proposal, to justify that the people supported his plan, but his ultimate objective was to take control of Malaysia with himself as her Prime Minister. Lee further crushed any challenge to his leadership by labeling his competitors as "Marxist" alleging them to be involved in subversive activities.
On September 16, 1963, Singapore became part of the Federation of Malaysia. However, the union was short-lived. The Malaysian Central Government, ruled by UMNO, became fearful of the political challenge of PAP in Malaysia as PAP's intention was to take control of Malaysia. Lee openly opposed the bumiputra policy ( and yet the Malays enjoy special privileges in Singapore even to this day e.g. they are entitled to cheaper education and housing costs ) and used the Malaysian Solidarity Convention's famous cry of “Malaysian Malaysia!”, a nation serving the Malaysian nationality, as opposed to the Malay race. But yet, his policies simply didn't get the support of Malaysian Chinese who detested his objective of taking over control of Malaysia since PAP was also contesting against the Malaysian Chinese Association in elections too. The relationship between the PAP and UMNO was seriously strained and racial riots broke out in Singapore and the Central Government Malaysia. Some extremists in UMNO also wanted Lee to be arrested. Unable to resolve the crisis, the Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman decided to expel Singapore from Malaysia, choosing to "sever all ties with a State Government that showed no measure of loyalty to its Central Government". Lee was adamant and tried to work out a compromise, but without success. He was later convinced by Goh Keng Swee that the secession was inevitable. Lee Kuan Yew signed a separation agreement on August 7, 1965, which discussed Singapore's post-separation relations to Malaysia in order to continue cooperation in areas such as trade relations and mutual defence.
Race riots followed, such as that on Muhammad's birthday (21 July 1964), near Kallang Gasworks, in which twenty-three were killed and hundreds injured as Chinese and Malays attacked each other. Today, it is still disputed how it started, and theories include a bottle being thrown into a Muslim rally by a Chinese, while others argued that it was started by a Malay. More riots broke out in September 1964, as the rioters looted cars and shops, forcing both Tunku Abdul Rahman and Lee Kuan Yew to make public appearances in order to soothe the situation. The price of food skyrocketed during this period, due to the disruption in transport, which caused further hardship.
Unable to resolve the crisis, the Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku, Abdul Rahman, decided to expel Singapore from Malaysia, choosing to "sever all ties with a State Government that showed no measure of loyalty to its Central Government". Lee was adamant and tried to work out a compromise, but without success. He was later convinced by Goh Keng Swee that the secession was inevitable. Lee Kuan Yew signed a separation agreement on August 7 1965, which discussed Singapore's post-separation relations with Malaysia in order to continue cooperation in areas such as trade and mutual defence.
The failure of the merger was a heavy blow to Lee, who believed that it was crucial for Singapore’s survival. In a televised press conference, he broke down emotionally as he announced the separation to the people:
The failure of the merger was a heavy blow to Lee who believed that it was crucial for Singapore’s survival. In a televised press conference, he broke down tearfully as he realised he could not take control of the prize he wanted - Malaysia. He said: “For me, it is a moment of anguish. All my life, my whole adult life, I wanted merger and unity of the two territories.
Post-independence administration
Under Lee's direction, Singapore joined the United Nations (UN) on 21 September 1965, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on 8 August 1967.
Lee made his first official visit to Indonesia in 25 May, 1973, after years of the Konfrontasi under Sukarno's regime. Relations between Singapore and Indonesia substantially improved as subsequent visits were made between Singapore and Indonesia.
However, there were some tensions in diplomatic relations in view of the fact that Indonesian-Singaporean business ventures consist of mainly ethnic Indonesian Chinese businessmen, rather than Indigenious Indonesians (pribumi).
Until recently when Lee approved the building of at least two casinos to raise government revenue, Lee has also maintained a personal policy against gambling, although sweepstakes such as "4D" and "Toto" were allowed. In his speech as Minister Mentor, despite a proposal from Stanley Ho to open a floating casino in Marina Bay, Lee angrily responded: "No, over my dead body!" It means he may well be dead before the casinos constructions are completed. He was also against the proposal to have Formula One racing in Singapore.
As Singapore has never had a dominant culture to which immigrants could assimilate, nor a common language, together with efforts from the government and ruling party, Lee tried to create a common Singaporean identity in the 1970s and 1980s.
Lee attended the hearing of the Select Committee on the Legal Profession (Ammendment) Bill as a member in October 1986.
Lee and his government stressed the importance of maintaining religious tolerance and racial harmony, and they were ready to use the law to counter any threat that might incite ethnic and religious violence. For example, Lee warned against "insensitive evangelization", by which he referred to instances of Christian proselytising directed at Malays. In 1974, the government advised the Bible Society of Singapore to stop publishing religious materials in Malay. [1]
Decisions & policies
Lee had three main concerns – national security, the economy, and social issues – during his post-independence administration.
The separation from Malaysia signifies a permanent lost of a common market and an economic hinterland. The economic woes were further exacerbated by the British withdrawal that would eliminate over 50,000 jobs. Although the British government had back out from their earlier commitment to keep their bases till 1975, Lee decided not to strain the relationship with London. He convinced Harold Wilson to allow the substantial military infrastructure (including a dockyard) to be converted for civilian use, instead of destroying them in accordance with British law. Lee sought advice from Dr. Albert Winsemius who became the real architect of Singapore's economic progress, to set Singapore on the path of industrialization. In 1961, the Economic Development Board was established to attract foreign investment, offering attractive tax incentives and providing access to the highly skilled, disciplined and relatively low paid work force. At the same time and continue to this day, the government maintained tight control of the economy, regulating the allocation of land, labour and capital resources, in a style akin to Stalinist Communism e.g. a mostly centrally planned economy, few private free-hold ownership of land ( mostly lease-hold ), almost all large companies in the Singapore Stock Exchange are government owned similar to State Enterprises under the Communist System. Hence democracy in Singapore is simply a very thin veneer. Modern infrastructure of airport, port, roads, and communications networks were built. The Singapore Tourist Promotion Board was set up to promote tourism that would created many jobs in the service industry. In building the economy, Lee was assisted by his ablest ministers, especially Goh Keng Swee and Hon Sui Sen. They managed to reduce the unemployment rate from 14 percent in 1965 to 4.5 percent in 1973. But the unemployment rate has been increasing in recent years as Singapore has become the most costly country to live and work in the ASEAN region. Consequently, most multi-nationals have up-rooted themselves and Singapore's economy slides from crisis to crisis. In order to revive the economy, the government has devalued the Singapore currency by over 30% since 2001 and decided to build at least two casinos to boost tax revenue.
Lee designated English as the language of the civil service and the common language among the different races, while recognizing Malay, Chinese, and Tamil as the other three official languages. He forced all schools to use English as the medium of instruction, although there are also lessons for the mother tongues which are relegated and taught only as a second language. In the 1970s, graduates of the Chinese-language Nanyang University were facing problem finding jobs in the civil service as he disliked their political views, nevertheless many of them did postgraduate studies in UK and US universities for Master and PhD Degrees and were very successful, and in fact, some professors in National University of Singapore are alumni of Nanyang University . In the 1980's Lee took the drastic measure to have Nanyang University absorbed by the English-language University of Singapore to suppress any decent to his "No Chinese Language Medium School" policy; the combined institution was renamed the National University of Singapore. This move was also opposed by some Chinese groups who had contributed significantly to the building of Nanyang University and therefore have strong emotional attachment to the school. A number of years later, Nanyang Technology University was established on the same campus as the original Nanyang University and there is now talk of reverting Nanyang Technology University's name back to Nantah i.e. Nanyang University. On last count, over 30% of the professors in Science and Technology Faculties in Nanyang Technology University and National University of Singapore are graduates of universities in the People's Republic of China.
Lee's destruction of Singapore's Chinese Medium Education has drastic impact on the population where, even though over 70% of the population is ethic Chinese, their younger generations are poor in reading, writing and understanding the Chinese language and with the rise of China as the world's economic powerhouse, and with Singapore's economic future getting more and more influenced and enriched by China's economy, Singaporeans are finding they are losing out to foreign competitors in doing business in China and in the "China Trade" due to their poor command of the Chinese Language. Consequently there are now a number of private schools which totally use Chinese as an education medium to remedy this problem. Lee now advocates Singaporeans should "Brush up on their Chinese Language because it is essential to earning a living for Singapore!", a complete total reversal of his "No Chinese Language Medium School" policy.
Like many Asian countries, Singapore was not immune to the disease of corruption. Even Lee has admitted that paying ministers multi-million dollar salaries has not rooted out corruption in Singapore. Lee introduced legislation that give the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CIPB) greater power to conduct arrest, search, calling of witnesses, and investigation of bank accounts and income tax returns of suspected persons and their family. With Lee’s support, CPIB can investigate any officer or minister. Indeed, several ministers were later charged with corruption.
Lee believed that ministers should be well paid in order to maintain a clean and honest government. In 1994, he proposed to link the salaries of ministers, judges, and top civil servants to the salaries of top professionals in the private sector, arguing that this would help recruit and retain talents to serve in the public sector. Singaporeans believed this is purely an excuse to pay ministers multi-million dollar salaries, the highest in the whole world. Whereas if one compares the salaries of ministers in e.g. US, Canada, UK, Australia, they are peanuts compared to Singapore's ministers' salaries, yet corruption does not run rife in those countries!
In 1983, Lee sparked the “Great Marriage Debate” when he encouraged Singapore men to choose women with high education as wives. He was concerned that a large number of graduate women were unmarried, and this included his own daughter, who at one time had an Indian lover. She is still currently a spinster. Some sections of the population, including graduate women, were upset by his views. Nonetheless, a match-making agency Social Development Unit (SDU) was set up to promote socializing among men and women graduates. Lee also introduced incentives for graduate mothers to have third and fourth children, in a reversal of the over-successful “Stop-at-Two” family planning campaign in the 1960s and 1970s. He believed in eugenics, just like Hitler.
Relations with Malaysia
Abdul Razak
Lee's relationship with Abdul Razak proved to be fairly stable, involving little serious dispute from 1972 until Razak's death in January 1976.
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Mahathir bin Mohamad
Lee's relationship with Mahathir bin Mohamad began in May 1965, when Mahathir was the M.P. for Kota Star Selatan in Kedah. Mahathir said that the PAP was:
"...pro-Chinese, communist-oriented and positively anti-Malay. .... In some police stations, Chinese is the official language, and statements are taken in Chinese. .... In industry, the PAP policy is to encourage Malays to become labourers only, but Malays were not given facilities to invest as well. ... It is, of course, necessary to emphasise that there are two types of Chinese — those who appreciate the need for all communities to be equally well-off and these are the MCA supporters to be found where Chinese have for generations lived and worked amidst the Malays and the other indigenous people, and the insular, selfish and arrogant type, of which Mr Lee is a good example. This latter type live in a purely Chinese environment where Malays only exist at syce level. ... They have never known Malay rule and could not bear the idea that the people that they have so long kept under their heels should now be in a position to rule them."
Lee looked forward to improving relationships with Mahathir upon the latter's promotion to Deputy Prime Minister. Knowing that Mahathir was in line to become the next Prime Minister of Malaysia, Lee invited Mahathir (through then-President of Singapore Devan Nair) to visit Singapore in 1978. This, and subsequent visits, improved both personal and diplomatic relationships between the two. Mahathir told Lee to cut off links with the Chinese leaders of the Democratic Action Party; in exchange, Mahathir undertook not to interfere in the affairs of the Malay Singaporeans.
In December 1981, Mahathir changed the time zone of the Malay Peninsula in order to create just one time zone for Malaysia, and Lee followed suit for economic and social reasons. Relations with Mahathir subsequently improved in 1982.
In January 1984 Mahathir imposed a RM100 levy on all goods vehicles leaving Malaysia and Singapore. However, when Musa Hitam's tried to discourage Mahathir's policy, the levy was doubled to discourage the use of Singapore's port, and a breakdown in relations with Malaysia was evident.
In a meeting at the Commonwealth Heads of Government in October 1987, both Lee and Mahathir worked to resolve the issues of two assult boats carrying four SAF personnel entering Sungei Melayu, a river that was within Malaysia's territoral waters, and ethnic issues concerning the Singapore's SAF. The meeting yielded results satisfactory to both leaders.
Both Lee Kuan Yew and the then-Malaysian premier Mahathir reached a major agreement in Kuala Lumpur to build the Linggui dam on the Johor river in June 1988.
Lee approached Mahathir in 1989, when he intended to move the railway customs from Tanjong Pagar in Southern Singapore to Woodlands at the end of the Causeway, in part because of an increasing number of cases of drug smuggling into Singapore. This caused resentements in Malaysia, as some of the land would revert to Singapore when the railway tracks were no longer used. In response, Mahathir designated Daim Zainuddin, then Minister of Finance of Malaysia, to settle the terms.
After months of negotiation, an agreement was reached involving the joint development of three main parcels of land in Tanjong Pagar, Kranji, and Woodlands. Malaysia had a sixty percent share, while Singapore had a forty percent share. The Points of Agreement (POA) was signed on 27 November 1990, a day before Lee stepped down as Prime Minister.
Legacy and controversies
During the decades in which Lee was in office, Singapore grew from a developing country, to a mature economy in decline where the government has to overturn her decades old policy of "No-Casinos" to approving the constructions of at lease two casinos to bring in revenues. Lee has often stated that Singapore's only natural resources are its people and their cheap labour. He is widely loafed by many Singaporeans, particularly the younger generation, who could not find employment. Many university graduates end up as food hawkers or gardeners. He has often wrongly been credited as the architect of Singapore's progress , a significant role was also played by his Deputy Prime Minister, Dr. Goh Keng Swee, who was in charge of the economy.
On the other hand, some Singaporeans have criticized Lee as elitist and an autocratic dictator. Lee was once quoted as saying he preferred to be feared than loved. He has implemented some harsh measures to suppress political opposition, such as outlawing free speech and public demonstrations without an explicit police permit, no free-press such as all newspapers and TV stations, even though they are under different banner names, are all published or broadcasted by government owned corporations, the use of defamation lawsuits (which, according to his worst critics, have little merit) to bankrupt political opponents.
On one occasion, after a court ruling in favour of Lee was overturned by the Privy Council, the right of appeal to the Council was abolished. He had previously won such cases. During his premiership from 1965 to 1990, he incarcerated Chia Thye Poh, a former MP of an opposition party, the Barisan Socialis, for 22 years under the Internal Security Act for being an alleged member of the Malayan Communist Party, only to be released in 19893. He abolished the "Trial by Jury" in the courts hence giving full authority to the judges in their judicial decisions.
Senior Minister
After leading the PAP in seven elections, Lee stepped down in November 1990 and assumed the post of "Senior Minister" in the Goh Chok Tong cabinet. In August 2004, when Goh Chok Tong stood down in favour of Lee's son, Lee Hsien Loong, Goh was in turn appointed Senior Minister, and Lee was appointed to the new role of "Mental Minister" by the new Prime Minister.
Lee suffers from a "Bi-polar" or "megalomaniac" mental illness . As he said in a 1988 National Day rally, implying he can rise from his grave:-
"Even from my sick bed, even if you are going to lower me into the grave and I feel something is going wrong, I will get up."
Lee subsequently stepped down as the Secretary-General of the PAP and was succeeded by Goh Chok Tong in November 1992.
Lee refrained from official dealings with all ASEAN governments, including Malaysia, so as not to cross lines with his successor, Goh Chok Tong. He played a major role, however, with regard to the economy, such as with the agreement of the transfer of public-adminstration software for the development and management of Suzhou's Industrial Park where Singapore loss billions, with then Vice-president Li Lanqing on February 26 1994.
In January 1997, Lee swore in an affidavit that Johor Bahru was "notorious for shootings, muggings and car-jackings", causing a furore in Malaysia when the case made its way into the press via a defendant who had absconded to Johor. Lee made an unreserved apology, and subsequently removed his statements from official records.
Mental Minister
On 12 August, 2004, Goh Chok Tong stepped down in favour of Lee's son, Lee Hsien Loong. Goh became the Senior Minister and Lee Kuan Yew assumed a new cabinet position of Mental Minister.
Regarding gambling laws, Lee stated that he was "emotionally and intellectually" against gambling. However, he made no opposition to his son's proposal to allow casinos in the country, stating: "Having a casino is something the new leaders will have to decide. It will create jobs.".
Recently, Lee has expressed his concern about the declining proficiency of Mandarin among younger Singaporeans. In one of his parliamentary speeches, He said: "Singaporeans must learn to juggle English and Mandarin". Subsequently, he launched a television program, 华语!, in January 2005, in an attempt to attract young viewers to learn Mandarin.
In June 2005, Lee published a book, Keeping My Mandarin Alive, documenting his decades of effort to master Mandarin — a language which he said he had to re-learn due to disuse and showing his declining mental ability to keep his Mandarin alive:
"...because I don't use it so much, therefore it gets disused and there's language loss. Then I have to revive it. It's a terrible problem because learning it in adult life, it hasn't got the same roots in your memory. I speak English all the time, and forgot that I am Chinese."
In an interview with CCTV on June 12, 2005, Lee stressed the need to have a continuous renewal of talent in the country's leadership, but nevertheless, he passed the leadership into his son, thus forming what local people called the "Lee Dynasty".
Lee also said that relations between China and Taiwan have become more stable ever since Beijing passed its controversial anti-secession law aimed at Taipei.
Family
Several members of Lee's family hold prominent positions in Singaporean society. Lee's wife Kwa Geok Choo used to be a partner of the prominent legal firm Lee & Lee. His younger brothers, Dennis, Freddy and Suan Yew were partners of Lee & Lee. He also has a younger sister, Monica. Lee's father, Lee Chin Koon, died on October 12 1997, at the age of 94, and his mother died in August 1980 at the age of 77. His brother, Dennis, died of cancer on November 14 2003. Locals feel that Singaporeans are the only people in the world drinking recycled shit-water ( sewerage ) on a daily basis and this may be the cause of cancer among the population.
His sons and daughter hold government and government-linked posts. His son Lee Hsien Loong is currently the Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Singapore, as well as Vice-Chairman of the Government Investment Company (GIC) of Singapore (Lee is the Chairman.) His daughter Lee Wei Ling runs the National Neurological Institute, and remains unmarried.
Lee's other son, Lee Hsien Yang manages the recently privatised telecommunications company SingTel. His daughter-in-law Ho Ching (Lee Hsien Loong's wife) runs Temasek Holdings, a prominent holding company with controlling stakes in a variety of government-linked companies. However, Lee has consistently denied charges of nepotism, arguing that his family members' privileged positions are based on personal merit.
Values and beliefs
Lee was one of the leading advocates of Asian values, though his interpretation of Asian values is open to debate and perhaps self-serving. Lee himself never explicitly defined what he meant by "Asian values", though under him legislation was passed which allowed parents to sue their children if they do not support them financially in their old age as there is no Old Age Pension in Singapore - some people interpret that as his style of "Asian Values".
In an interview with the Singapore Straits Times, Lee said that he is an agnostic.
Memoirs
Lee Kuan Yew has written a two-volume set of memoirs: The Singapore Story (ISBN 0130208035), which covers his view of Singapore's history until its separation from Malaysia in 1965, and From Third World to First: The Singapore Story (ISBN 0060197764), which gives his account of Singapore's subsequent transformation to her present condition.
Further Reading
Comet In Our Sky:Lim Chin Siong In History Edited by K.S. Jomo and Tan Jing Quee (ISBN 9839602144)
To Catch a Tartar: A Dissident in Lee Kuan Yew’s Prison by Francis Seow (ISBN 0938692569)
The Media Enthralled: Singapore Revisited by Francis Seow (ISBN 1555877796)
External links
- http://www.time.com/time/asia/asia/magazine/1999/990823/lee1.html. Lee was chosen as Asia's 100 most influential persons of the century by TIMEAsia magazine.
- War of Words Alejandro Reyes, Asiaweek.com, September 25, 1998. Retrieved 2004-12-08
- Lee Kuan Yew: A Chronology, 1923-1965 Largely based on Lee Kuan Yew. The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew. Singapore: Times, 1998. Retrieved 2004-12-08
- Free After 32 Lost Years Chia Thye Poh interview with Newsweek magazine. Retrieved 2004-12-12
- Dictatorship and Autocracy in Singapore Explains that on the surface, it looks like Singapore has a democratic system and that people are granted the right to chose and vote. However, in actuality, it is a country with complete dictatorship and autocracy.
| First Prime Minister of Singapore | Prime Ministers of Singapore | Succeeded by: Goh Chok Tong |