TOC wishes MM Lee Kuan Yew a happy 86th birthday and thanks him for his nation-building endeavour.
Ravi Philemon
“It is difficult for him not to interfere,” said Mr Goh Chok Tong as he took over from Mr Lee Kuan Yew as the Prime Minister of Singapore in 1990. Whether one likes him or not, no one can deny that this Cambridge-trained barrister who has promised to get up even from his sick bed or while being lowered into his grave, if he feels something is wrong with Singapore, has left an indelible mark in the modern history of Singapore.
A Stroll down Memory Lane
Mr Lee probably was politically awakened while he worked as a clerk and later as a cable editor at a Japanese propaganda agency during World War II. In his late 20s, Mr Lee joined Laycock & Ong and he campaigned for his boss John Laycock, a Singapore Progressive Party leader, in 1951. During this period, he became increasingly involved in a number of left-wing cases.
Whatever his detractors may say, there is no denying that if there is one quality this man had, it is the one called passion – Passion with a capital P.
Mr Lee never charged for the legal services he provided the unions. Former Straits Times news editor Felix Abisheganaden, who was acquainted with Mr Lee in the 1950s and 1960s, noted that he hardly ever charged the unions for his work. “You can never say that he was ever in his life after any kind of financial gain – never, never, never.” His stint in London, his involvement in the Malayan Forum and the influence of the British Labour Party had taught him that he had to be pro-labour and build his network power base through the trade unions. Right from the start, noted former People’s Action Party (PAP) chairman Toh Chin Chye, “It was the unions that provided the mass base. Lee Kuan Yew was the legal advisor, so he had a mass base.”
It was but the passion of Mr Lee and the team he led (with the likes of Mr Toh Chin Chye, Mr S Rajaratnam, Mr Goh Keng Swee and Mr S Devan Nair), which enabled PAP to sweep the 1959 general elections. It was his passion which persuaded the Malayan premier and leader of the Alliance Party, to include Singapore in the merger. It was his passion which caused him to campaign for a ‘Malaysian Malaysia’; and again, it was Mr Lee passion which was the major reason for the separation of Singapore from Malaysia.
“The ousting of Singapore, despite what history books might say, are anything but cordial,” says Mr M.G.G. Pillai in his article “Did Lee Kuan Yew want Singapore ejected from Malaysia?” Mr Pillai writes that Mr Lee then being in his 40s was brash. This prompted Tunku Abdul Rahman to condition that if Singapore were to remain a part of Malaysia, Mr Lee had got to get out of the picture. That was a condition which was too unacceptable to consider, even for an impassioned Mr Lee.
Maybe it was the ouster of Singapore from Malaysia which kindled Mr Lee to prove that Singapore could not only survive without Malaysia, but could also do better than Malaysia. Perhaps Mr Lee envisioned Singapore to be him and him to be Singapore; and driven by Napoleon Complex Mr Lee strived to keep Singapore ‘up there’, whatever the cause was. It’s highly possible that he had something to prove to those who ‘pooh-poohed’ his ideal of a ‘Malaysian Malaysia’.
The Present
Fast forward to the year 2009 and we find a Mr Lee who is still impassioned about Singapore. Recently he found it necessary to “bring the House back to earth” for their highfalutin idea that the Singapore National Pledge was an ideal. It was an aspiration he said – not an ideal. Never mind that the pledge is neither an ideal nor an aspiration, but a promise; “Nobody can speak with the knowledge that I have”, he said.
But what Mr Lee failed to realise was that the Nominated Member of Parliament, who tabled a motion calling for the House to reaffirm its commitment to the principles enshrined in the Singapore National Pledge, was actually echoing the call Mr Lee Kuan Yew made decades ago; only this time for a ‘Singaporean Singapore’. Did the ouster from Malaysia turn this man into a convert of cold-eyed pragmatism, which prescribes that there are no ideals except the ideal of pragmatism?
From his days as a cable editor of the Japanese propaganda machine, through his years as an agitator for independence from Britain, to the merger and (soon after) ouster from Malaysia; from his time spent talking to the Americans during the Vietnam years to his role as a confidant of China’s leadership, Mr Lee has seen it all. And more importantly, he has raised a generation of pragmatists.
But in a rapidly changing world, pragmatism does not fire the imagination of many, especially the young. Singapore craves for a leader with the “bring back to earth” kind of charisma that Mr Lee possesses; but charisma which is tempered with humanity. Pragmatism sadly can never breed such a leader.
Mr Pillai argues in his article that “Singapore will eventually have to merge with Malaysia, but as an adjunct of Johore”, when Johor stops supplying water to Singapore. Perhaps we need problems of such magnitude to throw up true patriots like our founding fathers – patriots like Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
Happy birthday Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
Just a thought. If an independant candidate applied for a MP post, why does he get very little support? Is it because we don’t know what he’s about? It doesn’t help that ST only proclaims his flaws and the shortfalls of his plans. How might TOC be able to help?
TOC,
perhaps, you could offer an alternative website where interested and possible candidates could begin to prep their profiles before the PAP announces when they want everyone to vote for PAP. You could definitely charge for this service as election budget should allow for it…assuming the Elections Department decide this is illegal (in order to control media access?)
Better yet, a Singapore political wikipedia…any volunteers?
Credit shd also go to all S’poreans who sticked ard since 1965 to get what we have today. I shd think too much credit has gone to 1 person who may not replicate the same thing even if he had inherited an independent Sri Lanka or any other country. It is basically down to the average person who was wiling to slog it out, to give it a shot to a newly independent country 44 yrs old. Now we are going to hand all of these on a silver platter to foreigners.
I can never understand how through all these years people can calmly mention that Mr Lee worked for the Japanese in a highly sensitive position without skipping a beat. Maybe I am ill informed or have been totally confused with the concept but does that not make him a collaborator? I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have kinsmen who DIED fighting and disobeying the Japanese invaders so yeah, I would think it reasonable to say that calling Mr Lee a patriot is a rather bad joke to say the least.
39)
He did not step down from power. He died in 1997. All the while he was the Chinese Premier.
Passion degenerated to crave for power!
Ref: 53) True Patriot Down South on September 17th, 2009
3 years ago, in a foreign affair forum chaired by a reputated Journalist Ruan 次山, organized by Lian He Zao Bao, a public member raised a similar question, the Chinese newspaper did not published and the question of MM’s mysterious role in WW 2 went unanswered.
The question is, without Japanese language education, how did a 19 years old be trusted by the occupation force to work as a “translator” ?
This is not a joke, i think it is Singaporean’s desire to know the truth !
53) True Patriot Down South
I am very bothered by this as well, simply because a leopard never changes its spot. He will betray anybody or anything for his own gain when he comes to it, and we have seen it in the past (operation coldstore) and many times esp of late that he succumbed to his weakness of betrayal to his own country men & women in order for his power to survive.
I still remember back in the 90s, i saw a “comic” that talk about some history of singapore. They were selling it in school and somehow there is one part that tries to portray LKY as a hero. who was nearly round up and manage to escape….
anybody remember it?
#53) True Patriot Down South
This power hungry old man is becoming more and more dangerous person to the nation and its people. All opp members and parties please do something before he sell off the entire nation to the foreigner.
#59,
why u so pissed? just because Temasek’s portfolio value falls 30% on-year ?
But that is Temasek what. Not the old man waht.
GIC how ah?
most of us are getting PAP…
Poorer And Poorer?
lol…
56) Qin2 Kuai2 on September 17th, 2009 7.49 pm
The question is, without Japanese language education, how did a 19 years old be trusted by the occupation force to work as a “translator” ?
===============
LKY memoir did mention about him attending a few months Japanese Language lessons, but that was UPON Japanese ‘arrival’. In no time he got to work as a translator on the cable job that intercepted highly sensitive communication signals of the British troops and its allies.
And when he got the first hand information of impending Japanese defeat, he quickly left the job (without official resignation) and went off to ‘quiet places’ for long vacation, followed by his higher education in Cambridge.
Super duper shrewd fellow!
Patriotism my foot. For a person who lets foreigners invade our country freely, I consider him a greater problem than people like Mas Selamat.
Nicely written, Ravi.
leekuanyew is the most passionate man in the HOLE of singapoor
whenever singapoor in trouble..leekuanyew is never aroun
from the riots to the strike versus the bird flu..pig diseaes and without a doubt the sar flus as well to the extend of convertin a flyin sia ambulance in 48 hours turnaroun and his last best passion? fired the sia chief pilot negotiator and deport him to australia…
that is leekuanyew passion..remember that..it will alway be there
60) Sam Thong Fire
“why u so pissed? just because Temasek’s portfolio value falls 30% on-year ?”
Why should I be pissed? Ho Ching says:
<>
Let’s just hope they don’t get more “comfortable”
Opps Ho’s words were missing:
“So as far as we’re concerned, we’re in a fairly comfortable position”
@ 62) notalone
I’m sorry, you’re allowing HIS memoirs to tell you the actual account of what transpired, as opposed to simply being his version of what happened?
If this was a financial audit of a company, it would be like the director telling everyone that he never defrauded anyone and claiming that’s enough due diligence. You have to go to the source. Sadly, more and more of those of his age are dead or would not make reliable witnesses…is there anyone left alive to share the truth?
#68
words of wisdom.
Ravi Philemon, you have showed your true colours in this article. Shame on you for promoting this endorsement of a non-democratic dictator.
But in a rapidly changing world, pragmatism does not fire the imagination of many, especially the young.
Absolutely right in the context of the statement above. The young of today is living in a make belief world, living the high life when they hardly can afford it, wanting the sky when they haven’t learn to walk. Being pragmatic is having your feet planted on the ground.
The founding leaders of Singapore were a pragmatic lot dealing with actual situations on the ground that had got us to where we are today. The future leaders have to deal with the young of today. Where do we go from here?
XD@70, this is a loaded article. lots of subtlities. Especially aimed at someone who has a hatchet in his bag and fights with knuckle-dusters.
62) notalone on September 18th, 2009 1.23 am
Hello,
Anyone who knows the characteristics and culture of Japanese, you would know that they would never trust outsiders to do highly confidential work especially in a war time.
So, why should they trust the 19 years bright kid ?
and MM said, he went hiding after he noticed that Japanese military police in WW2 Kempeitai trailed him… how capable was he to escape from the notorious Kempeitai, while more than 50,000 Singaporean adults were arrested and died in massacre ?
There are plenty of loopholes in his story
Do you notice that in past 44 years since Singapore gained indeoendent, our relationship with Japan was super good and hardly a demand for war compensation except we begged them to come in for investment ?
Put aside his later life and anything he did afterward, his war time collaboration was truly disgusting. I wonder if any other the tranlation work he did inevitably led to the torture and death of any of his countrymen.
Singapore was not built by one man.
“I wonder if any other the tranlation work he did inevitably led to the torture and death of any of his countrymen.”
What do you think one can translate during WW2 ? Translating Japanese literature work to English ? Or translating Chinese informer/traiter information to Japanese killer that lead to the capture and death of Singapore patriots ?
LKY is afflicted with P.P.S. – Post Power Syndrome.
58) Yamamoto on September 17th, 2009 9.05 pm I still remember back in the 90s, i saw a “comic” that talk about some history of singapore. They were selling it in school and somehow there is one part that tries to portray LKY as a hero. who was nearly round up and manage to escape….
anybody remember it?
———————————————————————————————————–
Yes it was a “Historical” comic (title was along the lines of riding the tiger or taming the tiger) allegedly about Singapore’s stuggle for independance.
The book was basically the Mr.Lee/PAP version of your typical Marvel Super Hero comic what with all those bulging muscles. They may as well have dressed him up in a red cape with the cresent moon and stars.
Anyway……about Mr.Lee escaping from the sook ching round up and subsequent massacre, it seemed that according to Mr.Lee’s on account, he managed to get away after being gathered with the other chinese at the holding area by fooling a Japanese guard into allowing him to go home to retrive some personal belongings and never returning. Now lets put this into perspective:
1. Most of us guys have been in the SAF. Even as a soldier in wayang outfit like the SAF will you let anyone go just like that after all the bloody effort taken to round the whole lot up?
2. What belongings? As far as historical accounts by survivors go, they were told to bring only a limited food supply, perhaps a few articles of clothing. Can you imagine a Japanese soldier saying :’ oh poor thing, you did not follow our instructions and came empty handed? its ok, run along and get it now.’
3. People who were not massacred were given a crude pass stamped on their body or a piece of cloth or paper which will allow them minimum restricted safe passage and some freedom to move around (not always of course). Having run away Mr.Lee would not have had a valid pass but amazingly he not only managed to survive but also obtain employment with the Japanese!
Total BS if you ask me. Smells like a ton of fish left in the sun.
Another fact about Mr Lee’s conduct during WW2: He was a Black marketeer
selling tapioca-based glue called Stikfas. Now we all know that in times of hardship more often than not the black market is all about exploitation. Who do you think were his products aimed at?
Someone fetch a lynch rope please.
Cool article.
68) OnlineShmonline on September 18th, 2009 9.29 am
Yes there are people of his age who know a lot about what actually went on off the record. They are still around but won’t be for long. I know of 4 personally and there are no doubt more. There are numerous civil servants from the 50′s and 60′s too who did the work and could show the current crop of civil servants a thing of 2 about serving the people.
Singapore is and must be for Singaporeans first.
The people must step up and do what they know is best for the country.
The country is for you and you all- each and every one – have to let this be known.
To do anything less is to demonstrate apathy and confirms that the people are content with the status quo.
Embrace your individual power and empower yourselves to make a change.
Singapore has soooooo much still to offer the world in so many ways by being a place that looks after its people first. Do this and the comfort of happiness and content will be there as you all know it can be.
Don’t lose the uniquely Singaporean Identity that once made the country an inspiration and can make it the inspiration to all it was meant to be once more.
“he managed to get away after being gathered with the other chinese at the holding area by fooling a Japanese guard into allowing him to go home to retrive some personal belongings and never returning.”
Wow, a Japanese guard so fool-able than Singaporean ? Why should a guard let his victim go and get this thing if the guard know that that the victim is going to die 100% anyway, and to allow his thing for what ? To fix the Japanese and buy his vote ? LKY think he going for some vocation using Jetplane like he does currently ? So the con behaviour start long long time ago.
to 79) True Patriot, nicely put together.
It is simply too obscene to link the words ‘Passion and Patriotism’ to LKY.
I believe the truth about him and what he stands for will eventually be revealed.
We only need to ask ourselves, “what sort of man will it take to earn the trust of the notorious Japanese and work for them during the occupation of Singapore ?”
He is selling SG off to China! What patriotism are we talking about?
Mr. Lee K Y , a good start but a very bad ending.
Yes JW, I agreed with you 200% that Mr. Lee KY, a good start but a very bad ending. Mr. Lee KY is now mad after power and money and afraid to loose it. Sad to say that he will save a tree and sacrifice the forest. Anything or anyone that comes into his way have to be demolished.
I only have secondary education and am a father of 4 boys with 8 grandchildren. I paid a heavy price for not stopping at two. When my children were young I told them what to do and what not to do. When my boys grown up and knew what was right and what was wrong, I began to release my control over them because if not, I believed that my boys can never be better than me.
Today, my 4 boys are married with 2 children each all Canadian citizens earning good income and living comfortablely. If I were to stopped my first boy from migrating to study in Canada 20 years ago, today my 4 boys may be still single and competing for their 3 basic meals with the FTs.
Each of my boys own a bungalow with 2 cars which don’t cost them a bomb. The only problem is that they cannot visit me but I can visit them and stay any period I wanted. It is not that they cannot afford but it is the Singapore government that do not permit them come into Singapore because they did not come back to serve the NS.
Why only Singaporean boys must serve NS? Do boy FTs becoming citizen need to serve NS? Do the government trust the services of our own NS boys? Why do we need the Nepalness to guard our mininsters? If you are the employer, will you employ a Singaporean boy who have last served 3 years of his life as an officer and with NS liabilities to age 45 or would you choose to employ a FTs boy with no NS liabilities to age 45 with lower pay and longer working hours? The answer is obvious. My boys were right from the start to stay away from Singapore and have no regrets.
If I have not let my boys have their ways and let them venture their life, today their lives will be a very sad and sorry and competing with the FTs over the miserable low pay. So life can be better for Singapore without the tight control of the PAP.
Good start? We would have been much better off if he had left us to the British like Hongkong was.
So he was able to walk away from the detention camp (so does that mean he spoke Japanese to the guard) and was later employed by the Japanese as a translator .As pointed out, I am surprised the Japanese would trust a Chinese with such a sensitive position, after killing so many of them.
I am still lost because I remember reading somewhere that he was actually doing underground anti-japanese work and that he was helping the British and thus was a hero of sorts. It was also mentioned that the Japanese found this out and were trailing him so he had to disappear to Malaysia. Can anyone verify this.
Its actually amazing that the Japanese, the Communist, the British, the other founding members (those detained under cold storage) all trusted him. Its seems only the Malaysians did not trust him and were wary of him. Someone also mentioned that he was not around for the major historical events like the riots, detension etc. Is this true?
“So he was able to walk away from the detention camp (so does that mean he spoke Japanese to the guard) and was later employed by the Japanese as a translator .As pointed out, I am surprised the Japanese would trust a Chinese with such a sensitive position, after killing so many of them.”
No one will trust a person unless the person do something to make the Japanese believe him. Is it that hard to guess what that something is ?
“Someone also mentioned that he was not around for the major historical events like the riots, detension etc. Is this true?”
If he want himself to look good, and yet mastermind all these, why should he be around ? He just to disassociate himself with bad events to make other (scapegoat, dog, lackey) look bad while himself look good.
Like father, like son. It is no hard to see the old fart is imparting this valuable skill to his son. Just look at how the son disappear completely when his decision and action lead to fcuk up and screw up, and using lackeys and dogs to pacify the public, which generally lead to disastrous ramification to his party’s image.
Unfortunately, such wayang act fool no one, especially in the internet’s age. The problem with old fart is that he keep repeating the same old tricks and not updating those tricks that any people can see through them easily.
@88) Daniel on September 22nd, 2009 1.10 pm
Seeing how UMNO tried that same sodomy charge at Anuar Ibrahim (despite public laughing behind their back), it works because enough ‘stakeholders’ are involved to make it work.
Same in Singapore. People Applying Power, kind judges and journalists with journalistic integrity all come together to ensure the same old situations resulting in the ungrateful people who oppose the god-like vision of our leaders being taken to task.
btw, you should realize I’m joking about all the qualities in the para above. :)
Ya-Lah,
Passion – for FT of caucasian origin, kow-tow to them but treat Singaporeans much like slaves esp males. After 44 yrs still got NS. Why pay regulars so good salary and in the same time still retain NSF?
Low crime rates and no corruption in govt agencies alone is not enough. We need leaders that understand people’s plight!
All of us hoped one day the truth will see the light of day. No body live forever. UK oldest person was 113 year old who passed away a few month ago. No matter how much good deeds one acheived in life when one squadered it away in old age just simply negate all those good deeds. All we could see are :
1) Greed via legalised corruption
2) uncaring gahment
3) Dictatorship
4) building a dynasty in a supposedly democratic country
5) Nepotism and croynism accepted practices within the ruling party