Lee Kuan Yew
| Order: | 1st Prime Minister of Singapore |
|---|---|
| Term of Office: | August 9, 1965 –November 28, 1990 |
| Date of Birth: | September 16, 1923 |
| Place of Birth | Singapore |
| Wife | Kwa Geok Choo |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
| Political Party: | PAP |
| Deputy Prime Minister | Toh Chin Chye (1959 - 1965) Goh Keng Swee (1965 - 1985) |
Lee Kuan Yew (Harry) (born September 16, 1923) (Chinese: 李光耀, Pinyin: Lǐ Guāng Yào), also known as Lee Kwan-Yew, was the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore from 1959 to 1990. He has remained the most influential politician 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 serves in the newly-created post of Minister Mentor under his son Lee Hsien Loong, who became the nation's third prime minister on August 12, 2004.
Early Life
Lee Kuan Yew was born in Singapore, where he 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 selling a tapioca-based glue called Stikfas1. Having taken Chinese and Japanese lessons since 1942, he was able to work as a transcriber of Allied wire reports for the Japanese, as well as being the English-language editor on the Japanese Hobudu (an information or propaganda department) from 1943 to 19442, though it has long been rumored that he was secretly passing intelligence to the British[1].
After the war, he studied law at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge in the United Kingdom. He returned to Singapore in 1949 to work as a lawyer in Laycock and Ong, the legal practice of John Laycock, a pioneer of multiracialism who, together with A.P. Rajah and C.C. Tan, had founded Singapore's first multiracial club open to Asians.
Rise to leadership
In 1954, Lee and a group of fellow English-educated, middle-class men formed the socialist People's Action Party (PAP) to agitate for self-government for Singapore and an end to British colonial rule. In April 1955, Lee contested and won the election for the Tanjong Pagar constituency, and became an assemblyman. In 1959, Singapore achieved autonomy in all state matters except in defence 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.
Prime Minister
Merger with Malaysia, then separation
Lee began to campaign tirelessly for a merger with Malaysia to end British colonial rule. He used the results of a referendum held on September 1 1962, in which 70% of the votes were cast in support of his proposal, to demonstrate that the people supported his plan. During Operation Coldstore, Lee crushed the pro-communist factions who were strongly opposing the merger and were allegedly 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 worried by the inclusion of Singapore’s Chinese majority and the political challenge of the PAP in Malaysia. Lee openly opposed the bumiputra policy and used the Malaysian Solidarity Convention's famous cry of "Malaysian Malaysia!", a nation serving the Malaysian nationality, as opposed to the Malay race. PAP-UMNO relations were seriously strained. Some extremists in UMNO also wanted Lee to be arrested.
Following that, racial riots took place, such as that on the Prophet 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: "For me, it is a moment of anguish. All my life, my whole adult life, I believed in merger and unity of the two territories." On that day, August 9 1965, the Malaysian Parliament passed the required resolution that would sever Singapore's ties to Malaysia as a state, and thus the Republic of Singapore was unceremoniously born. It had no natural resources, an inadequate water supply, and little indigenous defence capability. Lee now faced the formidable task of building this new nation.
Post-independence administration
In his biography, Lee Kuan Yew stated that he did not sleep well, and fell sick days after Singapore's independence, fearing that subsequent threats might come from Indonesia. As the British prime-minister at the time, Harold Wilson expressed concern upon learning of Lee's condition from the British High Commissioner, John Robb. In response to their concern, Lee replied:
"Do not worry about Singapore. My colleagues and I are sane, rational people even in our moments of anguish. We will weigh all possible consequences before we make any move on the political chessboard..."
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 1973, after years of the Konfrontasi under Suharto's regime.
Until recently, 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!". He was also said to be 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.
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 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. [2]
Decisions & policies
Lee had three main concerns: national security, economy and social issues during his post-independence administration.
The vulnerability of Singapore was deeply felt with threats from multiple sources including the communists, Indonesia (with its Confrontation stance), and UMNO extremists who wanted to force Singapore back into Malaysia. As Singapore gained admission to the United Nations, Lee quickly sought international recognition of Singapore’s independence. He declared a policy of neutrality and non-alignment, following Switzerland’s model. At the same time, he assigned Goh Keng Swee with the task of building the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and requested help from other countries for advice, training and facilities.
With the announcement of having the intentions to pull out or cut down the troops from Singapore and Malaysia, In 1967, he and Goh introduced the National Service, a conscription program that developed a large reserve force that can be mobilized in a short notice. In January 1968, Lee bought some AMX-13 French-made tanks and a total of 72 refurbished tanks in 1972.
Later, Singapore was able to establish strong military relations with other nations of ASEAN, the Five-Powers Defense Agreement (FPDA) and other noncommunist states. This partially restored the security of the country following the withdrawal of British troops in 31 October 1971.
The separation from Malaysia signifies a permanent loss 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. With advices from Dr. Albert Winsemius, Lee 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, the government maintained tight control of the economy, regulating the allocation of land, labour and capital resources. 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.
Lee designated English as the language of the workplace and the common language among the different races, while recognizing Malay, Chinese, and Tamil as the other three official languages. Most schools use English as the medium of instruction, although there are also lessons for the mother tongues.
In the 1970s, graduates of the Chinese-language Nanyang University were facing huge problem finding jobs because of their lack of command in the English language often required in the workforce, especially the public sector. Lee took the drastic measure to have Nanyang University absorbed by the English-language University of Singapore; the combined institution was renamed the National University of Singapore. This move greatly affected the Chinese-speaking professors who now have to teach in English. It 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.
Like many Asian countries, Singapore was not immune to the disease of corruption. Lee was well aware how corruption had led to the downfall of the Nationalist Chinese government in mainland China. Fighting against the communists himself, he knew he had to “clean house”. 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.
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. 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.
Legacy and Controversies
During the three decades in which Lee was in office, Singapore grew from a status of being a developing country, a euphemism for a poor economic status, to one of the most developed nations in the world, despite its small population and lack of natural resources. Lee has often stated that Singapore's only natural resources are its people and their strong work ethic. He is widely respected by many Singaporeans, particularly the older generation, who remember his inspiring leadership during independence and the separation from Malaysia. He has often been credited as the architect of Singapore's present prosperity (although 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 even an autocrat. Lee was once quoted as saying he preferred to be feared than loved. He has implemented some harsh measures to allegedly suppress political opposition, such as outlawing public demonstrations without an explicit police permit, the restriction of the press publication, 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 handed over the prime minister position to Goh Chok Tong. This leadership transition was meticulously planned and executed. The recruitment and grooming for the second generation leaders took place as early as 1970s. In the 1980s, Goh and the younger leaders started to assume important cabinet positions. Prior to the official transition, all other first generation leaders (the "old guards") were retired, including Goh Keng Swee, S. Rajaratnam and Toh Chin Chye. Being so thoroughly planned, the transition was quite a non-event in Singapore, even though it was the first leadership transition since independence. By stepping down while he was still mentally alert and in good health, Lee set himself apart from other strong contemporary Asian leaders such as Mao Zedong, Suharto, Ferdinand Marcos, and Ne Win, who had stayed in power for too long and left their countries in disarray.
As Goh Chok Tong became the head of government, Lee remained the cabinet in a non-executive position of Senior Minister and played a role he described as advisory. In public, Lee would refer to Goh as "my Prime Minister", in deference to Goh's authority. Nonetheless, Lee's opinions still carry weight with the public and in the cabinet. He still wields enormous influence in the country and is ready to use it when necessary. As he said in a 1988 National Day rally:
"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."
Minister Mentor
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 "Minister Mentor" by the new Prime Minister.
Lee was also very concerned about the status of Mandarin proficency among the younger Singaporeans during his years as Minister Mentor. In his one of his parlimentary talks, Lee had stressed that singaporeans must learn to juggle between English and Mandarin. Subsequently, he launched a television program, 华语! cool on January 2005 to attract younger television viewers to learn Mandarin.
Lee had stated that he was "emotionally and intellectually" against gambling concerning about the casino debate, but he had made no formal comments to challenge his son's plan on building a casino, stating that Having a casino is something the new leaders will have to decide.
In May 2005, Lee released a book, Keeping My Mandarin Alive, relating to his decades of effort to master Mandarin–a language which he said he had to re-learn due to disuse. In his own words, Lee said:
"...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 at adult life, it hasn't got the same roots in your memory."
The book was due to be released on June 2, 2005.
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.
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, while his 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. In 2004, the Economist magazine apologised to the Lee family for making such accusations of nepotism in its August 14th-20th 2004 edition.
In his biography, Lee stated that he was a fourth-generation Chinese Singaporean, contributing to the fact that his Hakka great-grandfather emigrated from the province of Guangdong to the Straits Settlements in the 19th century.
Values and Beliefs
Lee was one of the leading advocates of Asian values, though his interpretation of Asian values is open to debate. Using his support of Asian values, Confucian, and to a lesser extent, Buddhist virtues were widely promoted by Lee in the 1980's. This was evidenced in his visits to Chinese temples.
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 into a prosperous first-world nation.
In 2005, Lee wrote a book on Keeping my Mandarin alive which tells his personal experiences on Learning Mandarin.[3]
Awards
- Lee has received a number of state decorations, including the Order of the Companions of Honour (1970), Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (1972), the Freedom of the City of London (1982), the Order of the Crown of Johore First Class (1984), and the Order of the Rising Sun (1967).
- In 2002, Lee Kuan Yew was formally admitted to the Fellowship of Imperial College London in recognition of his promotion of international trade and industry, and development of science and engineering study initiatives with the UK.[4]
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
- The Economist's apology The Economist magazine's apology to Lee Kuan Yew and Lee Hsien Loong for its 2004 nepotism article
| Preceded by (none) |
Prime Minister of Singapore 1959-1990 |
Succeeded by Goh Chok Tong |