by: Siew Kum Hong/
I consider myself a child of the ’80s. Born in 1975, I first became conscious of the world around me in the 1980s.
Even by Singapore’s standards, there were a lot of changes in that decade. Many of these changes have gone on to become integral and fundamental to what Singapore is today.
Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) were introduced in 1988. Much of the foundation of today’s transport system were laid, with the AYE, BKE, ECP and PIE being opened throughout the decade and the MRT being officially opened in 1988 (after a soft launch in 1987 with just five stations – I still remember my dad taking me to ride the train from Ang Mo Kio on its first day!). Even the hotly-debated topic today, the Elected Presidency, was first mooted in the 1980s.
Echoes from the darker events of the ’80s still resonate today as well. The much-hated graduate mother scheme has reared its head again in the pre-campaigning for the Elected Presidency, with questions have been asked whether Dr Tony Tan had supported or opposed it. The likes of Teo Soh Lung and Vincent Cheng, as well as others involved in social enterprise Function 8, have continued to raise questions about the 1987 so-called Marxist conspiracy.
One man dominated the landscape through all these developments and events: Mr Lee Kuan Yew. He was the Prime Minister through the entire decade, stepping down only in 1990. Mr Lee’s dominance of the 1980s was all the more reinforced with the retirement of his colleagues from the First Generation leadership throughout the 1980s, starting with Toh Chin Chye in 1981, continuing with Goh Keng Swee in 1984 and culminating with S. Rajaratnam in 1988. In comparison, Mr Lee took another 21 years more to leave the Cabinet, which occurred only this May in the wake of the General Elections.
What then were the 1980s like? If we had to identify one single theme from the decade, what would it be?
Unfortunately, I would have to say: repression. The scars of the 1987 detentions lasted for 30 years; it is only in recent years, that the former detainees have felt able to tell their own stories and ask the questions that have cast such doubt on the government’s official account. The treatment of Mr J.B. Jeyaretnam, the first opposition politician to win a parliamentary election in post-independence Singapore, left a sour taste, with Mr Jeyaretnam being disqualified from Parliament despite a strongly-worded judgment in his favour by the Privy Council. The actions against Mr Francis Seow sent a warning signal to other would-be dissidents, while the muzzling of the Law Society and hence the legal profession continues today.
These events from the 1980s, followed by the defamation suits in the 1990s and criminal prosecution of the civil disobedience activists in the 2000s, did much to silence dissent and instill the much-discussed climate of fear in Singapore. It is only this year, that this climate of fear has been reduced, if not dissipated.
Mr Lee was a driving force, if not the main player in the government, in all of these events. So as I looked back at the 1980s, I could not help but think of Mr Lee. He was truly a giant in Singapore’s history. Sadly, he was also the dominant figure in this repressive decade.
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This article is part of a series where contributors were asked for their personal take on who shaped the decades.
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Time to move on Singapore. Singapore is more than LKY/PAP. Why live under a shadow. Time to claim independence for yourself. The people have awakened, new leadership is required.
He could have gone down in history as a great man. But unfortunately..it looks like history has already turned against him in the final few years of his life.So Sad!…but I guess those who life by the sword must be prepared to die by the sword!
popcorn8 August 2011
ahMENG
That was a good one.
Haven’t laughed so much for a long time.
Cheers.
…
actually i plagarise from a chinese comic book somewhere in desker road regardin the snake with 4 leggs..
it was a wellknown hokkien history talkcock session…
“LKY, GCT, CSJ and everybody else is on TOC’s website today. But who gets the most comments? Lee Kuan Yew.”
- TOC Facebook, 8 August 2011
But that doesn’t mean he’s the most popular. On the contrary, it probably means he’s the most hated, at least among TOC readers. Because on an alternative-politics blog, it is the dissenting voices who want to be heard and who get to be heard. Blogs such as TOC are providing the outlet for alternative political views which, historically, have been suppressed in the MSM and the traditional feedback channels.
LKY has made tons of mistakes for our nation (of course, this megalomaniac wouldn’t classify them as mistakes) but his biggest mistake is to live long enough to see the advent of the Internet. His image is now well and truly sullied. We can now see his true colours. His dark and evil side has been revealed. All thanks to the Internet. If he had quietly retired years ago before the Internet came along, we could now be excusing him and blaming others for his past sins. Or better still, if he had died-ed when we were still thoroughly enamoured of him, also before the Internet, we would now be glorifying and deifying him and worshiping him as the greatest statesman of all time. Too bad, the Internet spoiled all that for him. Thank you, O Great Internet!
LKY dun need to wait till in his grave to start turning, he can practise now in the comfort of his mattress.
just pity his family members for being associated with him. if i were them i would purposely go overseas for a short getaway to get away from meeting him.
:P
iVOTEahMENG,
maybe LKY like traditional Chinese prefer sons to daughters?
LKY should have groomed all his children to be future PM, then by meritocratic standards, let fair competition determine the outcome. surely he would ensure his children compete on even footing among themselves right?
:D
The Internet rings the the death knell of many a tyrant in the middle east, Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Lybia. If they are nor down yet, their hold on power is now rocked by nationwide bloody upheavals. These are countries where the political police are more brutal than those in Singapore. Coupled with hopeless prospects for finding jobs, the lid blew.The saving grace in Singapore maybe the fact that our people can still find jobs, albeit with more and more difficulty as swarms of indiscriminate foreigners are allowed into the country. This regime has better rethink this pumping of people into Singapore in terms of whether it is bensficial to the citizenry or to themselves. All the gagging of the public, the suppression of information in the traditional media and the strong arms of the ISD and judiciary are not going going to stop the flow of communication amongst the citizenry in the age of the Internet.The suppression machinery of LKY have to be dismantled before it is too late. First in the inventory list is the ISD of the ISA.
mice is nice9 August 2011
iVOTEahMENG,
maybe LKY like traditional Chinese prefer sons to daughters?
LKY should have groomed all his children to be future PM
…………….
you see when daughter was a youn lass..she was fat and ugly made her the ugly duckin..2nd son was a rebel i believed it was him who got slapped by the father himself in front of the whole class to enforce family disciplined
and this ugly duckin daughter hate the papa so much knowin his father hatred for injun( that you most don’t know..do you)
purposely married/eloped with a injun doctor who was forced into exile in germany never to return again..
without a doubt the ugly daughter left just to stand by her statement..
atlast her happiness didn’t last long..
she wandered all over the world and endup somewhere in latin america where she found peace and paradise in the world of latino art cultures…she only returned liked i said before to be with her mother till her last dyin breath…
as for the 2nd son..he never was interested in politics..which is why he never stand for any smc or grc candidatcy…do you know the 2nd son is a man of principle? he buy his owned breakfast…no runner no bodyguard…
as for his heir ley..mama’s pet boi
no choice he was groomed as putyi…
The ghost of LKY will haunt Singapore and many Singaporeans for a long time to come. Eventually his nightmare will fade away. There was a time during his reign in this little island state that many thought he was a god. It is not surprising, as in many regimes, the ruled often regarded their ruler “as the one and only”. It was after the ruler’s demise that rationalization took its course. After a while, people will begin to wonder, “Was he that great a man as some people have made him up to be?”
LKY was an atheist. He is an agnostic now. He will soon embrace god…..
Actually i enjoy reading the comments more than the article! thnx u lot for the interesting input!
Stop singing about greatness of this man. Without humility there is never greatness. Make a song and dance about his intelligence. He never realised that intelligence is a divine gift. Every human being regardless of the level of his or her intelligence bears the hallmark of a human being. An intelligent man no doubt a man who lives by his wits and shrewdness but a great man never
@ Not greatness without humility
You can’t expect him to keep quiet, right?
You need to apply different methods at different times.
Of course we could have done with less govt control in past years. But as with everything else, any meaningful change takes time. And we have come a long way since the 70s and 80s.
It isn’t perfect, but we haven’t done too badly either. We are extremely lucky to have LKY stick his neck out for us in the 50s when he could have just practised law, lived comfortably and left fellow Singaporeans to our fates. We always need to remember that people like that are one in a million and that it was our fantastic fortune that he appeared at that point in time of our history, made a difference and made things what they are right now. Any lesser leader would have resulted in Singapore remaining as a fishing village today.
Live and let live. I wish LKY more years of good health and happiness.
Does Engineering experts agree that in singapore, no amount of engineering can prevent flood here?
Rodolfo 9 August 2011
We are extremely lucky to have LKY stick his neck out for us in the 50s when he could have just practised law, lived comfortably and left fellow Singaporeans to our fates. We always need to remember that people like that are one in a million…
_____________________________________________
Practising law could have given him a comfortable life, but it’s his ambition to monopolise the land, country, law, courts etc that motivated him – powerhungry, in short. Did he really care about the people? Fat hope. But he knew that he needed their support, so he gave the people the minimum to shut them up, used the education system, military, & media to brainwash the people.
Yes, it is one in a million who are able to spot this opportunity and seize it. But make no mistake. He did it for himself; don’t for a moment think he is altruistic.
Rodolfo, 9 August 2011
“We are extremely lucky to have LKY stick his neck out for us in the 50s when he could have just practised law, lived comfortably and left fellow Singaporeans to our fates.”
he is practising law by changing the Constitution wad. the Constitution is legally binding, & even the supposedly highest office in this land has to abide by.
as a S’porean i would have been more than happy to have my life left to fate. but he & his minions are setting up road blocks, stumbling blocks & high walls that make my life harder than fate had installed for me. for that he is rightly blamed.
LKY can do S’poreans a big favour by rolling up his loose tongue. even those ah mah around my neighbourhood dun talk like him.
:P
For all his shortcomings he DID a good job then.
Today the sight of him SICKENS many and what more when he makes statements that HURTS.
History knows best.
Of all the qualities possessed, and the opportunities given to him time and again, he could have established Singapore as a class of its own – a country that survives without natural resource by sheer passion, persistence and creativity of its people.
Many of Singapore’s talents could have turned into entrepreneurial captains of industries equal to those like in Korea, Taiwan, Finland, Denmark with the knowledge and creativity found through niche marketing, value adding and en masse knowledge application on the part of citizens.
He did not. He turned paranoid and egoistic preferring to take shortcuts of easy taxing and profiteering from people’s assets and lands to entrench in arch-capitalism for his own gain to stay in power.
His reliance on concept about talent and meritocracy and foreign talent is very fluffy and loose and as proven by events, did not work.
At the end, what he has succeeded is to have attracted or surrounded himself with doubtful people who took the opportunity to play to his ego for their own million dollar self-rewards with none of the so-called leadership or talent working.
The quality of his cabinet drops to the dismal yes-man and ball-licking opportunities who sang to his tune.
He resigned to the fate that his leadership theories and assumptions produced only a mundane team who only went for easy taxing and profiteering scams like GLCs that thrive on cronyism.
The ordinary citizens cannot survive such arch-capitalism that produce mundane land sale profiteering and cronyism and a divided society. One third of people are living from hand to mouth losing their retirements and joy of living. Families are split because of problems with jobs and rising costs of living and housing created by such profiteering capitalism at the government level.
He has no choice but to sacrifice the people by turning to IRs, land sale profiteering to keep him and his party in power. The moment IR-led property play lose their steam, he will notice everything he has tried to achieve – a unique Singapore with creativity and entrepreneurship is a castle in the air and he will once again stare at empty dreams after playing the last-ditched IR, property play and foreign talent trump cards
Many of our own citizen best scientists and engineers with talents have migrated instead of staying around to serve and despotic tyrant.
Singapore will be back to the grind again with a hollow self-praising leadership which sucks.
Had he united the people with fair opportunities given to all and empowering in en-masse knowledge application, Singapore would have taken a different route today.
The ruthless use of isa to silence political opponents is sickening to the core. It also show how incompetent lky is, inability in putting forward good argument to counter opposition. So isa is the easy way out.
I used to support lky as a brainwashed singaporean.. now… no more.
Time to make Sph related downgrade as alternative media, there should be a donation and awareness drives to promote tre and toc and other websites.
Must go parallel or various ways… Talk to people or loved ones and friends about the websites and also not to vote tcb not to vote tKl the rest are fine like tKl especially tsj, we must defend this democracy position although pappies still controls and manipulate policies and rules…
Tt so c
If they kelong then they prepare to lose more votes and more seats as people effective feedback system is destroyed completely… Taxi fares and other bills going to increase, prs and new citizens going to come in very very massive due to fta foreign policies but
Pappies gamble maybe big as even as citizens they might not vote th
Recruitment of abled, highly qualified and warmed hearted really people serving politicians must start. Websites should set up some channels or corners to let these people or even volunteers or advisers including financial gurus to aid the non pappies parties in time to come
Sorry click wrong button below is complete one :
Time to make Sph related downgrade as alternative media, there should be a donation and awareness drives to promote tre and toc and other websites.
Must go parallel or various ways… Talk to
people or loved ones and friends about the websites and also not to vote tcb not to vote tKl the rest are fine like tKl especially tsj, we must defend this democracy position although pappies still controls and manipulate policies and rules…
Tt so comfortable with Sph and deputy chairman of gic think about it why he wants to downgrade his pay and become figurehead president? He is warmhearted to help? Nope, look at the mess of education policies and also gic very very massive losses and also selling singaporeans benefits to foreigners through pro foreigners, tan association is not fair to singaporeans or it’s clan members to endorse tt, probably they have some interest, did not want to offend pappies or forced..
Tcb mentioned that fare hike is no good for people but declined to comment… He is definitely not people president.
Tan see jay knows pappies very well, he knows how to keep them in check, not even tKl knows so well I believe..
If the pappies kelong then they prepare to lose more votes and more seats as people effective
feedback system is destroyed completely… Taxi fares and other bills going to increase, prs and new citizens going to come in very very massive
due to fta foreign policies but Pappies gamble maybe big as even as citizens they might not vote the pappies as they are well informed and also votes until counted out then considered as 1 vote.
Recruitment of abled, highly qualified and warmed hearted really people serving politicians must start better and more dynamically. Websites should set up some channels or
corners to let these people or even volunteers or advisers including financial gurus to aid the non pappies parties in time to come…
Happy national day, I might not last that long in singapore as a singapore, life is getting harder and harder and harder each day…… Biz not easy to do really
Do not vote tt!!!!!!
@Rudolfo: “Any lesser leader would have resulted in Singapore remaining as a fishing village today.”
Was Singapore a fishing village or a premier entrepot city in the 60s when LKY bursts upon the scene? Please don’t confuse him with Raffles.
I humbly think LKY deserve 51%/49%,compared to 50%/50% communist party of Chine should get(chairman MaO)but I think his old friend Chiang of taiwan should get 52%/48%,LKY is in the middle.
What do You guys think?
@Fair
It’s not Fair, comparing LKY to Mao and Chiang.
I am quietly waiting for the day when he leaves the earth. When will that day come?
Thank you for this good article. This should be a page in the real history of Singapore, the true version. I can share your feelings and feel your anxiety and frustrations. I am what may be termed as a “colonial baby”. I remember feeling the anxiety not as a colonized person, but as an abandoned subject, when the British withdrawed from Singapore. There was fear but there was also hope. We were all then very nationalistic, people as well as government; for a while that is….the years after is as what you have written in this article. The aljunied magic has happened in the recent election, perhaps the rays of change may come through and hope restored, and Singaporeans can be truly proud again, as citizens, as a nation; without being coerced or paid to be proud.
“The power system continues only as long as individuals try to get something for nothing. The day when a majority of individuals declares or acts as if it wants nothing from the government; declares that it will look after its own welfare and interests, then on that day the power elites are doomed.” — Anthony Sutton Source: The Best Enemy Money Can Buy
@Citizen
God forbid, LKY will live to be 120. By then, I will be 115.
@abeltan
I fully agree with you. We have to get out of our “empty” souls. The greatest reward in life are our own children, have more, have more, many many more.
While it cannot be denied that he has done a lot of good things for Singapore in the past, he has also equally caused great harm & damage to the country's socio-political system as a whole.
His worst failure as a human being, I think, is his lack of tolerance towards those who opposed him or even his views. There is really no reason for him to behave the way he did in his own selfish ways.
And when his PM son is now serving our country more for power & monetary rather than atruistic reasons, people will now start to question whether all his past achievements were calculated to benefit himself more than anything else ?