Lee Kuan Yew
| Order: |
1st Prime Minister of Singapore |
| Term of office: |
June 3,
1959–November
28,
1990 |
| Date of birth: |
September 16,
1923 |
| Place of birth |
Singapore |
|
Political Party: |
PAP |
Deputy
Prime Minister |
Toh Chin Chye (1959–1968)
Goh Keng Swee (1968–1984)
S Rajaratnam (1980–1985)
Goh Chok Tong (1985–1990)
Ong Teng Cheong (1985–1990) |
Lee Kuan Yew (Chinese:
李光耀; Pinyin:
Lǐ Guāngyŕo;
born
September 16, 1923;
also spelt Lee Kwan-Yew) was the first
Prime Minister of the
Republic of Singapore from
1959 to
1990. He has
remained the second most influential
politician
in Singapore (after the Prime Minister) since stepping down from office. Under
the administration of Singapore's second prime minister,
Goh
Chok Tong, he served as
Senior Minister. He currently holds the specially created post of
Minister Mentor under his son
Lee Hsien Loong, who became the nation's third prime minister and second
from the same family on
August 12,
2004. He is also
known informally as "Harry" to his close friends and family and thus his name is
sometimes cited as Harry Lee Kuan Yew, although this
first name
is never used in official settings.
Family background
In his memoirs, Lee mentions that he was a fourth-generation Chinese
Singaporean: his
Hakka great-grandfather, Lee Bok Boon (born 1846), emigrated from the Dapu
county of
Guangdong province to the
Straits Settlements in
1862.
The eldest child of Lee Chin Koon and Chua Jim Neo, Lee Kuan Yew was born at
92 Kampong Java Road in Singapore, in a large and airy bungalow. As a child Lee
was strongly influenced by British culture, due in part to his grandfather, Lee
Hoon Leong, who had given his sons an English education. His grandfather gave
him the name "Harry" in addition to his Chinese name (given by his father) Kuan
Yew.
Lee and his wife
Kwa
Geok Choo were married on
September 30, 1950.
They have two sons and one daughter.
Several members of Lee's family hold prominent positions in Singaporean
society, and his sons and daughter hold high government and government-linked
posts.
His elder son
Lee Hsien Loong, a former Brigadier-General, has been the Prime Minister,
since 2004, and Finance Minister of Singapore. He is also the Vice-Chairman of
the Government of Singapore Investment Company (GIC) (Lee himself is the
Chairman). Lee's younger son,
Lee
Hsien Yang, also a former Brigadier-General, is the President and Chief
Executive Officer of
SingTel, a pan-Asian telecommunications giant and Singapore's largest
company by market capitalisation (listed on the Singapore Exchange, SGX).
Sixty-two percent of SingTel is owned by
Temasek Holdings, a prominent government
holding company with controlling stakes in a variety of very large
government-linked companies such as Singapore Airlines and DBS Bank. Temasek
Holdings in turn is run by Executive Director and CEO
Ho Ching,
the wife of Lee's elder son, the Prime Minister. Lee's daughter,
Lee Wei Ling, runs the National Neuroscience Institute, and remains
unmarried. 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 the same firm.
He also has a younger sister, Monica. However, Lee has consistently denied
charges of
nepotism, arguing that his family members' privileged positions are based on
personal merit.
Early life
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 selling a
tapioca-based
glue called Stikfas
[1].
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 Hodobu (報道部 — an information or propaganda department) from
1943 to
1944[2][1].
After the war, he studied law at
Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge in the
United Kingdom (graduating with
Double Starred First Class honours), and briefly attended the
London School of Economics. 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.
Early political career 1951 to 1959
Pre
People's Action Party
Lee’s first experience with politics in Singapore was his role as election
agent for his boss John Laycock under the banner of the pro-British
Progressive Party in the 1951 legislative council elections. However, Lee
eventually realised the party’s future looked bleak as it was unlikely to have
mass support, especially from the Chinese-speaking
working class masses. This was especially important when the
1953
Rendel commission significantly expanded the electoral rolls to include all
local-born as voters, resulting in a significant increase in Chinese voters. His
big break came when he was engaged as a legal advisor to the trade and student
unions which
provided Lee with the link to the Chinese-speaking, working class world (Later
on in his career, his party the
PAP would use these historical links to unions as a negotiating tool in
industrial disputes).
Formation of the People's Action Party
On
November 21, 1954,
Lee, together with a group of fellow English-educated middle-class men whom he
himself described as “beer-swilling bourgeois” formed the socialist
People's Action Party (PAP) in an expedient alliance with the pro-communist
trade unionists. This alliance was described by Lee as a marriage of
convenience, since the English-educated group needed the pro-communists’ mass
support base while the communists needed a non-communist party leadership as a
smoke screen because the
Malayan Communist Party is illegal. Their common aims were to agitate for
self-government and put an end to British colonial rule. An inaugural conference
was held at the
Victoria Memorial Hall, packed with over 1,500 supporters and trade
unionists. Lee became
secretary-general, a post he held until
1992, save for a
brief period in 1957.
UMNO’s
Tunku Abdul Rahman and
MCA’s
Tan
Cheng Lock were invited as guests to give credibility to the new party.
In Opposition
Lee contested and comprehensively won the
Tanjong Pagar seat in the
1955 elections. He
became the opposition leader, pitting himself against
David Saul Marshall’s
Labour
Front-led coalition government. He was also one of PAP's representatives to
the two constitutional discussions held in
London over the
future status of Singapore; the first being led by Marshall and the second by
Lim Yew
Hock, Marshall's hardline successor. It was in this period when Lee had to
contend with rivals from both within and outside of the PAP. While Lee had to
keep a safe distance from his pro-communist colleagues as they actively
participated in mass and often violent actions to undermine the government’s
authority, he also consistently maintained his opposition to the ruling
coalition, often attacking the latter as incompetent and corrupt. Lee’s position
in the PAP was seriously under threat in 1957 when pro-communists took over the
leadership posts, following a party conference which the party's left wing had
stacked with fake members
[3]
. Fortunately for Lee and the party's moderate faction, Lim Yew Hock ordered a
mass arrest of the pro-communists and Lee was reinstated as secretary-general.
After the communist 'scare', Lee subsequently sought and received a fresh and
stronger mandate from his Tanjong Pagar constituents in a by-election in 1957.
The communist threat within the party was temporarily removed as Lee prepared
for the next elections. It was during this period when he had the first of a
series of secret meetings with the underground communist leader,
Fong Chong Pik (or Fang Chuang Pi) whom Lee referred to as the Plen, short
form for
plenipotentiary.
Prime Minister, pre-independence 1959 to 1965
Self-government administration 1959 to 1963
In the national elections held on
June 1,
1959, the
PAP won forty-three of the fifty-one seats in the legislative assembly.
Singapore gained self-government with autonomy in all state matters except in
defense and foreign affairs, and Lee became the first prime minister of the
state of Singapore on
June 3,
1959, taking over
from Chief Minister
Lim Yew
Hock. Before he took office, Lee demanded and secured the release of
Lim
Chin Siong and
Devan Nair
who were arrested earlier by
Lim Yew
Hock's government.
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 established the
Housing and Development Board (HDB), an agency which began a massive public
housing construction program to relieve the housing shortage.
Merger with Malaysia, then separation 1963 to 1965
After Malaya Prime Minister
Tunku Abdul Rahman proposed the formation of a federation which would
include Malaya, Singapore, Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei in
1961, Lee began to
campaign 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 who 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 the
United Malays National Organisation (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 in UMNO also wanted Lee to
be arrested.
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 co-operation 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 particular
conference is used as evidence by supporters of Lee that he had not
intentionally instigated the breakup of Malaysia):
"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. ... Now, I, Lee Kuan Yew,
Prime Minister of Singapore, do hereby proclaim and declare on behalf on the
people and the Government of Singapore that as from today, the ninth day of
August in the year one thousand nine hundred and sixty-five, Singapore shall be
forever a sovereign democratic and independent nation, founded upon the
principles of liberty and justice and ever seeking the welfare and happiness of
the people in a most and just equal society."
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
created. Singapore's lack of natural resources, a water supply that was beholden
primarily to Malaysia and a very limited defensive capability were the major
challenges that Lee and the Singaporean Government faced.
Prime Minister, post-independence 1965 to 1990
In his biography, Lee Kuan Yew stated that he did not sleep well, and fell
sick days after Singapore's independence. 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..."
Lee began to seek international recognition of the Singapore's Independence.
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, just a few
years after the
Konfrontasi under
Sukarno's
regime. Relations between Singapore and Indonesia substantially improved as
subsequent visits were made between Singapore and Indonesia.
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 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 evangelisation", 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 and policies
Lee had three main concerns – national security, the economy, and social
issues – during his post-independence administration.
National security
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 British announcement of having the intentions to pull out or cut
down the troops from Singapore and Malaysia, In
1967, he and Goh
introduced 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.
Economic issues
The separation from Malaysia signified 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
were backing 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 advice 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. In the balancing of labour and capital, specifically the
labour unions and employers of Singapore, a form of triparite
corporatism was introduced to provide stability and consistent economic
growth that arguably ended exploitation and major strike activity
simultaneously. Modern infrastructure of airport, port, roads, and
communications networks were built. The
Singapore Tourist Promotion Board was set up to promote tourism that would
create 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.
Designating official languages
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.
Lee discouraged the usage of Chinese dialects by promoting Mandarin to be
supplanted as the "Mother Tongue" of ethnic Chinese, in view of having a common
language of communication within the Chinese community. In 1979, Lee officially
launched the first Speak Mandarin Campaign. Lee also cancelled the broadcasting
of all television programmes in dialects, with the exception of news and operas,
for the benefit of the older audience. However, the policy worked at the expense
of Chinese dialects; it was recently observed that most of the younger Chinese
Singaporeans are no longer able to speak Chinese dialects fluently, thus
encountering some difficulty when communicating with their dialect-speaking
grandparents.
In the 1970s, graduates of the Chinese-language
Nanyang University were facing huge problems finding jobs because of their
lack of command in the English language, which was often required in the
workforce, especially the public sector. Lee had to take drastic measures, and
had 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 would 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 had strong emotional attachments to the
school.
Government policies
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 (CPIB) greater power to conduct
arrests, search, call up witnesses, and investigate bank accounts and income tax
returns of suspected persons and their family. With Lee’s support, CPIB was
given the authority to 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.
Relations with Malaysia
Mahathir bin Mohamad
Lee looked forward to improving relationships with
Mahathir bin Mohamad 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. The first and subsequent visits improved both personal and diplomatic
relationships between them. 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 June 1988, Lee and
Mahathir
reached a major agreement in
Kuala
Lumpur to build the Linggui dam on the Johor River. 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 resentment 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.
Senior Minister 1990 to 2004
After leading the PAP in seven victorious elections, Lee stepped down on
28
November 1990,
handing over the prime minister position to
Goh
Chok Tong. He was then the longest serving Prime Minister ever.
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 when 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 in the cabinet
with 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 much weight with the public and in the
cabinet. He continues to wield 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."
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-administration software for the
development and management of Suzhou's Industrial Park with then Vice-president
Li Lanqing
on
February 26, 1994.
Minister Mentor 2004 to present
On 12
August 2004 Goh
Chok Tong stepped down in favour of Lee's eldest son,
Lee Hsien Loong. Goh became the Senior Minister and Lee Kuan Yew assumed a
new cabinet position of
Minister Mentor.
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".
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 Cool!, 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:
"...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."
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, saying:
"In a different world we need to find a niche for ourselves, little corners
where in spite of our small size we can perform a role which will be useful to
the world. To do that, you will need people at the top, decision-makers who have
got foresight, good minds, who are open to ideas, who can seize opportunities
like we did. ... My job really was to find my successors. I found them, they are
there; their job is to find their successors. So there must be this continuous
renewal of talented, dedicated, honest, able people who will do things not for
themselves but for their people and for their country. If they can do that, they
will carry on for another one generation and so it goes on. The moment that
breaks, it's gone."
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 1980s. This was evidenced in his visits to
Chinese temples.
Legacy and memoirs
Legacy
During the three decades in which Lee was in office, Singapore grew from
being a
developing country to one of the most
developed nations in the world, despite its small population, limited land
space 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 being the architect of Singapore's present prosperity, although
the role was also played by his Deputy Prime Minister, Dr
Goh
Keng Swee, who was in charge of the economy.
Controversies
On the other hand, some Singaporeans and foreigners have criticized Lee as
elitist and
even an
autocrat. Lee was once quoted as saying he preferred to be feared than
loved.
Lee has been criticized for implementing some harsh measures to suppress
political opposition and
freedom of speech, such as outlawing public demonstrations without an
explicit police permit, the restriction of the press publication, and the use of
defamation lawsuits to
bankrupt
political opponents. On this issue, Devan Nair remarked that Lee's technique of
suing his opponents into bankruptcy or oblivion was an abrogation of political
rights. He also remarked that Lee is 'an increasingly self-righteous know-all',
surrounded by 'department store dummies'. In response to these remarks, Lee
sued.
On one occasion, after a court ruling in favor of Lee was overturned by the
Privy
Council, the government had the right of appeal to the Council abolished.
During Lee's premiership from 1965 to 1990, he incarcerated
Chia
Thye Poh, a former MP of an opposition party, the Barisan Socialis, for
twenty-two years under the
Internal Security Act without trial for being an alleged member of the
Malayan Communist Party, only to be released in 19893.
Also, in order to give full authority to the judges in their judicial decisions,
Lee abolished the "Trial by Jury" in the courts.
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.
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), the
Order of Great Leader (1988) and the
Order of the Rising Sun (1967).
- Lee also received other decorations which include the highest honour of
Honourary Fellowship of the Edinburgh Royal College of Medicine (1988), and
Man
for Peace (1990)
- 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.[3]
References
-
↑ Ooi,
Jeff (2005).
"Perils of the sitting duck". Retrieved Nov. 6, 2005.
-
↑
Pillai, M.G.G. (Nov. 1, 2005).
"Did Lee Kuan Yew want Singapore ejected from Malaysia?". Malaysia Today.
-
↑
Mauzy, Diane K. and R.S. Milne (2002). Singapore Politics Under the People's
Action Party. Routledge
ISBN 0-415-24
|
Comments |
|
I am not sure but I think Mr. Lee Kuan Yew ran in the
Singapore AAA, at the same time as I did. If I remember he was quite tall and
very pleasant to talk to.
Dr. Daibhidh D ex RAF Seletar. 1953/54 |