Lee Kuan Yew has died

Warrigal

Warrigal

SF VIP
Location
Sydney, Australia
A remarkable man who was Singapore's first Prime Minister after separation from Malaysia in 1959.
He ruled almost as a dictator but in doing so he set Singapore on a path to peace and prosperity.
"Cometh the hour, cometh the man".

Vale, Mr Lee.

Singapore mourns death of former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew as world leaders pay tribute to "true giant of history"

Tue 24 Mar 2015, 10:47am


People bow as they pay their respects to the late former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew in the constituency which he represented as Member of Parliament since 1955. (Reuters/Edgar Su)

Singapore has been plunged into mourning and world leaders have united in tribute after the death of the country's first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew.
Mr Lee died on Monday at the age of 91 in a Singapore hospital, where he had been since February suffering from pneumonia.

His son, prime minister Lee Hsien Loong gave an emotional television address to the nation. "He fought for our independence, built a nation where there was none, and made us proud to be Singaporeans," he said. "We won't see another like him."

Local media reported more than 11,000 people turned up at the main gate of the Istana state complex to get condolence cards and leave flowers, as a private family wake began inside the former British colonial headquarters. Tearful mother Sharon Tan and her five-year-old son Ryan Mackay were among the first to arrive outside the Istana.

"I brought Ryan here to share an important part of Singapore's history to him and also to help him understand why mummy is so sad," she said.
Despite growing anticipation of his death, sales manager June Tay Mae Sann said "it was still very different when it happened".

Key dates in the life of Lee Kuan Yew



Take a look back at the key dates in the life of the man widely credited with the city state's economic success.

Mr Lee's coffin will be transported atop a ceremonial gun carriage to Parliament House on Wednesday, where he will lie in state for the public to pay respects until his state funeral and cremation on Sunday. World leaders paid tribute to the iron-fisted politician who transformed a 'colonial backwater' into a world financial centre after Britain granted Singapore self-rule in 1959.

US president Barack Obama called Lee "a true giant of history".
Australian prime minister Tony Abbott said Australia owed its strong relationship with Singapore to the former leader.

Mr Lee's blend of economic reform allied with political authoritarianism was of particular appeal to communist China as it opened up in the early 1980s.
President Xi Jinping praised Lee as an "old friend of the Chinese people" and said he was "widely respected by the international community as a strategist and a statesman".

Economic legacy comes at 'a cost'

The opposition Workers' Party, whose leaders were among those harried for years by Mr Lee, joined the rest of the nation of 5.5 million in mourning him. But the Cambridge-educated lawyer was also criticised for jailing political opponents and driving his critics to self-imposed exile or financial ruin as a result of costly libel suits. Singapore strictly controls freedom of speech and assembly.

While it has become more liberal in recent years, it still uses corporal and capital punishment and ranks 150th in the annual press freedom ranking of Reporters Without Borders -- below Russia and Zimbabwe among others.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, acknowledged Mr Lee's economic legacy but said "it also came at a significant cost for human rights". He said it may now be time for a national "conversation" on greater political liberalisation. In a sign that things may not change soon, the government on Monday designated Singapore's only free-speech zone, known as Speakers' Corner, as a place for honouring Lee Kuan Yew.

In his last book, One Man's View of the World, published in 2013, Mr Lee looked back at his career and concluded: "As for me, I have done what I had wanted to, to the best of my ability. I am satisfied."
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I spent time In Singapore when I worked for DuPont. I helped open a plant over there. I think one of the things that impressed me most about Singapore was the how clean it was. No littering and people were very respectful, although still did not understand about such things as politeness and being courteous to others. They like to push and shove and jump lines and so forth. Pretty rude when it came to that. The shopping on Orchard Road was fantastic, especially the designer items that were very affordable. I bought my young wife many gifts before returning home and then I learned about declaring your items to pay tax on what you bought. Also, the women are very beautiful over there.

Yew's picture was plastered around at a lot of places that I visited.
 

Singapore's singular success is certainly in large part due to Yew's beneficent policies, however the Singapore story can hardly be expected to be replicated in other parts of the world simply because Yew can not be replicated.
 
I have to admit that I thought Singapore got their independence from Great Britain.
 
Some history:
1959: Singapore was granted limited self-rule by colonial ruler Britain and Mr Lee was sworn in as prime minister at the age of 35.
1963: Malaysia and Singapore merged under the Malaysian Federation.
1965: Singapore was evicted from the Malaysian Federation, after political storms and race riots highlighted the fragility of the union. Singapore became an independent republic.
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Dame Warrigal said:
Some history:
Click to expand...

The last time that I was there was in 1990. I think it was the year of the Horse on their calendar. Although I was there on business for DuPont, I had a rather large expense allowance. Actually, I had no ceiling on my expenses. One supervisor and two engineers, (myself included), went over there to set up a new plant. I am trying to think of the name, but it escapes me at the moment. I am talking about the area. It had something to do with birds. Oh, yeah, It was near the Jurong Bird Park, which I never got to visit. But, I had a great time over there. We spent most of our free time in downtown Singapore City. We went to Old Singapore and I got a haircut from a barber that only used his scissors and a razor. The chair was outside in the street.

I ate some pretty nasty food. Smoked fish, which wasn't bad, but we all used our chopsticks to pick off the food and then put it right into our mouth. Not very appetizing, that's for sure. The weirdest thing I had was monkey brains. I just tasted them to see what the fuss was all about. Nasty, that's the best way to describe it. And then there is Durian. It is shaped and colored like a cantaloupe, but has spines on it. When they cut it, the smell could clear out an arena full of people. Talk about stink. They don't even allow it to brought on-board airplanes.

Getting off topic, so I will stop.
 
Considering that during the Cold War there was a US fear that countries in SE Asia would fall like dominoes to Communism, I'm very surprised that Americans are unaware of Malaysia and Singapore at that time. There were communist insurgencies in Malaysia and Indonesia but Lee Kuan Yew stood as a bulwark against it in Singapore. He was a very significant figure in AE Asian development and history.

There is a brief article in the Wall St Journal: http://www.wsj.com/articles/john-curtis-perry-lee-kuan-yews-power-of-forgiveness-1427220525
 
Warrigal said:
A remarkable man who was Singapore's first Prime Minister after separation from Malaysia in 1959.
He ruled almost as a dictator but in doing so he set Singapore on a path to peace and prosperity.
"Cometh the hour, cometh the man".

Vale, Mr Lee.
Click to expand...
A benevolent dictator is still a dictator and a segment of the population was never heard.
 
A great statesman and a major influence on stability in that area.

It could have ended up another Vietnam.
 

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