Lee Kuan Yew: A life examined

Lee Kuan Yew: A life examined

In the week of Mr Lee Kuan Yew's 90th birthday, international media outlets from The Economist to the South China Morning Post dissected his achievements and leadership style, lauding the elder statesman's commitment to long-term planning but singling out his use of repressive laws.

After attending a Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy conference on Monday on his "big ideas", The Economist, in its Asia blog Banyan, wrote that Mr Lee's leadership was "less about big ideas than a big personality".

The former prime minister was a pragmatist and empiricist who always went with what worked and was prepared to change his mind when the facts changed, the writer added.

Mr Lee's "big ideas" were that social order and the rule of law were necessary elements for the success of the country, said the blog, which is published without naming the writer.

"So Singapore's (law) imposes harsh punishments - including caning and the death penalty - for some crimes, and retains a draconian act allowing detention without trial of those deemed a threat to national security," the writer said.

But whether Mr Lee was right in using such repressive laws, and bringing defamation suits against political opponents, remains an open question, he suggested. However, he acknowledged that the praise Mr Lee has attracted this week is understandable.

"Singapore is, by almost any reckoning, a success story: prosperous, stable, orderly, efficient, clean, largely free of corruption and playing an influential international role out of all proportion to its tiny size and a population of just 5.3 million."

"And even Lee Kuan Yew's fiercest critics would find it hard to argue that none of this is thanks to his leadership." Mr Lee's legacy, said the South China Morning Post in an editorial on Tuesday, is the success story of modern Singapore.

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But the Hong Kong newspaper signalled disagreement with "the authoritarian limits on personal liberties he saw as being for his countrymen's good". "He still makes no apology for them, citing integrity, a sense of duty, no abuse of power and meritocracy as basic principles of Singapore's success," it wrote.

"He admits Singapore is 'loosening up' under younger leaders. We trust he is wrong when he expresses fears this may come to no good."

Mr Lee's uncomfortable relationship with those espousing civil liberties and human rights was also a topic American journalist Tom Plate touched on in a post on the Asia Media website, which is hosted by the Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where Mr Plate teaches. "Lee had been known to despise Western journalists whose sole homework for the interview would be to review negative human-rights reports and dreary old clips about caning and chewing gum," he wrote.

Mr Plate related how, when Mr Lee was asked why he bothered to sit down for interviews with him, the Singaporean responded with a look as if he was crazy, telling the American that it was his job to "influence the people who influence people's opinions about Singapore". "The response was telling," he wrote.

"For all his enormous towering and sometimes-scary ego, he cared most about making his little country look good and important."

In Brazil, former central bank governor Henrique Meirelles wrote in a weekly column that apart from New York City, Singapore "is another good example of management by results".

It was long-term vision, focus on results and search for administrative excellence "even with short-term political losses" that led to its success, he wrote.

Singapore's future after Mr Lee was also broached, with The Economist grouping it, along with the low birth rate, as among the difficulties the country is up against. It wrote: "Even now, more than two decades after he stepped down as prime minister, and even though his own son now holds that office, people worry about what Singapore will be like without him."

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Regional media on Mr Lee

The Economist, in its blog on Asian politics and culture, Banyan "Mr Lee has always eschewed a personality cult - even when he was prime minister, his photograph did not adorn public buildings - and he long refused to allow any building or institution to bear his name. He said he had visited too many countries where the names of former leaders were being erased from public places. But he relented after he turned 80. So it was perhaps also appropriate that the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy should mark its ninth birthday and Mr Lee's 90th by holding a day-long conference on his 'Big Ideas'.

His leadership, however, was less about 'big ideas' than a big personality. He is, as many speakers noted, a pragmatist and empiricist. Like (former Chinese leader) Deng Xiaoping, he is interested less in theory than in what works, and has often been prepared to change his ideas when the facts change."

The South China Morning Post, in an editorial

"Faced with the challenge of a lack of natural resources, Lee launched a programme to transform Singapore into a major exporter of finished goods and attract foreign investment. He has his detractors, especially for the authoritarian limits on personal liberties he saw as being for his countrymen's good. He still makes no apology for them, citing integrity, a sense of duty, no abuse of power and meritocracy as basic principles of Singapore's success.

He admits Singapore is 'loosening up' under younger leaders. We trust he is wrong when he expresses fears this may come to no good."


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