Lee Kuan Yew, founder of Singapore, changing with times
By Seth Mydans and Wayne Arnold
Published: August 29, 2007
SINGAPORE: Lee Kuan Yew, who turned a malarial island into a modern financial center with a first world skyline, is peering ahead again into this city-state's future, this time with plans to seal it off with dikes against the rising tides of global warming.
"Let's start thinking about it now," he said during an interview last week, in what could be the motto for a lifetime of nation building. Ever since its difficult birth in 1965, when it was expelled from Malaysia, he said, Singapore has struggled to stay alive in a sea of economic and political forces beyond its control.
"If the water goes up by three, four, five meters," he said, laughing, "what will happen to us? Half of Singapore will disappear."
For all his success, Lee remains on the alert! for perils that may exist only on the distant horizon: the rising role of China in the region as the United States looks the other way, the buffeting of the world economy, even climate change.
Vigorous and strong-minded and on the verge of his 84th birthday, Lee talked at length about his country's vulnerabilities, its slow movement toward a more open, worldly society and the influence of China, India and the United States in world affairs.
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A British-educated lawyer, Lee is one of Asia's remarkable personalities, a world figure whose guest book is filled with the names of international political and financial leaders.
His creation, modern Singapore, is an economic powerhouse with one of the world's highest per capita incomes, high-quality schools, health care and public services that have made it a magnet for global labor. Foreigners make up roughly a fifth of its 4.5 million residents.
In his office in the former headquarters of the island's British colonial rulers, Lee sat back in a zippered blue jacket, sipping small cups of hot water and laughing often, as different as could be from the bare-knuckled political infighter he has described himself as.
"I've done my bit," said Lee, who stepped down as prime minister in 1990 and now watches over the country - and occasionally takes part in political disputes - with a seat in the cabinet and the title of minister mentor. His eldest son, Lee Hsien Loong, is prime minister.
"To understand Singapore," he said, "you've got to start off with an improbable story: It should not exist." It is a nation with almost no natural resources, without a common culture, a fractured mix of Chinese, Malays and Indians, relying on its wits to stay afloat and prosper.
"We have survived so far, 42 years," he said. "Will we survive for another 42? It depends upon world conditions. It doesn't depend on us alone."
This sense of vulnerability is Lee's answer to all his critics, to those who say his country is too tightly controlled, that it leashes the press, suppresses free speech, curtails democracy, tramples on dissidents and stunts entrepreneurship and creativity in its citizens.
"The answer lies in our genesis," he said. "To survive, we have to do these things. And although what you see today - the superstructure of a modern city - the base is a very narrow one and could easily disintegrate."
Asked whether, looking back, he felt he might have gone too far in crushing his opponents, sometimes with ruinous lawsuits, sometimes with long jail terms, he answered, "No, I don't think so. I never killed them. I never destroyed them. Politically, they destroyed themselves."
One of his concerns now, Lee said, is that the United States has become so preoccupied with the Middle East that it is failing to look ahead and plan in this part of the world.
"I think it's a real drag slowing down adjusting to the new situation," he said, a lapse that worries Southeast Asian countries that count on Washington to balance the rising economic and diplomatic power of China.
"Without this draining of energy, attention and resources for Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, there would have been deep thinking about the long-term trends - working out possible options that the U.S. could exercise to change the direction of long-term trends more in its favor," Lee said.
American diplomats in the region insist that the United States has not turned its back on Southeast Asia, noting that high-level visits continue, from President George W. Bush, from cabinet secretaries and from the military.
That may be true on a day-to-day basis, Lee said, "because of the machine."
"Your ambassadors are here," he said. "Your chambers of commerce are here. Your State Department, trade and Treasury and so on, they are on the ball in keeping the shop going."
(Continued)