Lee Kuan Yew, founder of Singapore, changing with times
By Seth Mydans and Wayne Arnold
Published: August 29, 2007
(Page 2 of 3)
The continued U.S. dominance in the region can be seen in the weight of its economy. Lee said that if its current market problems lead to a slowdown in domestic consumption, all Asian economies will shrink.
Even China's vigorous quest for raw materials in the region, he said, is driven in large part by the United States, which along with Europe is the main market for Chinese products.
As the United States focuses on the Middle East, Lee said, the Chinese are busy refining their policies and building the foundations of more cooperative long-term relationships in Asia. "They are making strategic decisions on their relations with the region," he said.
And this is where tiny Singapore sees itself as a model for the world's most-populous country. "They've got to be like us," Lee said, "with a very keen sense of what is possible, and what is not."
Every year, he said, Chinese ministers meet twice with Singaporean ministers to learn from their experience. Fifty mayors of Chinese cities visit every three months for courses in city management.
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Singapore's secret, Lee said, is that it is "ideology free," an unsentimental pragmatism that infuses the workings of the country as if it were in itself an ideology.
"Does it work?" Lee said. "Let's try it and if it does work, fine, let's continue it. If it doesn't work, toss it out, try another one."
The yardstick, he said, is, "is this necessary for survival and progress? If it is, let's do it."
Hoping to attract more tourists, for example, Singapore is building two huge casinos, despite Lee's expressed distaste for them.
"I don't like casinos," he said. "but the world has changed and if we don't have an integrated resort like the ones in Las Vegas - Las Vegas Sands - we'll lose.
"So, let's go," he said. "Let's try and still keep it safe and mafia-free and prostitution-free and money-laundering-free. Can we do it? I'm not sure, but we're going to give it a good try."
Even on social issues, themes he habitually argues with an aggressiveness that can seem inflexible, Lee sounded almost mellow.
"I think we have to go in whatever direction world conditions dictate if we are to survive and to be part of this modern world," he said. "If we are not connected to this modern world, we are dead. We'll go back to the fishing village we once were."
For example, on the issue of homosexuality, he said, "we take an ambiguous position. We say, O.K., leave them alone, but let's leave the law as it is for the time being and let's have no gay parades."
Although gay sex remains technically illegal in Singapore, the government has indicated it will not actively enforce the law.
China, Hong Kong and Taiwan already have more liberal policies regarding gays, he noted. "It's a matter of time," he said. "But we have a part Muslim population, another part conservative older Chinese and Indians. So, let's go slowly. It's a pragmatic approach to maintain social cohesion."
As for the set of "Asian values" of hierarchy, respect and order that Singapore is founded on, he said, "It's already diluted and we can see it in the difference between the generations. It's inevitable."
In his own family, generational values are changing. From father to children to grandchildren, he said, command of the Chinese language had weakened, along with the culture it embodies.
"They had a basic set of traditional Confucian values," he said of his children, two sons and a daughter. "Not my grandchildren."
One grandson has just begun his studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he said; the other is heading to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
This well-educated younger generation is part of what Lee said was a social dichotomy in which the top 20 percent is as cosmopolitan as any - well educated, surfing the Internet, traveling the world without constraint. "This is not a closed society," he insisted.
But at the same time, he said, the government must protect the less well-off, less well-educated people from information that might upset or confuse them - people "who are not finding it so comfortable to suddenly find the world changed, their world, their sense of place, their sense of position in society."
These are the people who he said had to be pulled into the future as he seeks to make Singapore "a first world oasis in a third world region." (Continued)
By Seth Mydans and Wayne Arnold
Published: August 29, 2007
(Page 2 of 3)
The continued U.S. dominance in the region can be seen in the weight of its economy. Lee said that if its current market problems lead to a slowdown in domestic consumption, all Asian economies will shrink.
Even China's vigorous quest for raw materials in the region, he said, is driven in large part by the United States, which along with Europe is the main market for Chinese products.
As the United States focuses on the Middle East, Lee said, the Chinese are busy refining their policies and building the foundations of more cooperative long-term relationships in Asia. "They are making strategic decisions on their relations with the region," he said.
And this is where tiny Singapore sees itself as a model for the world's most-populous country. "They've got to be like us," Lee said, "with a very keen sense of what is possible, and what is not."
Every year, he said, Chinese ministers meet twice with Singaporean ministers to learn from their experience. Fifty mayors of Chinese cities visit every three months for courses in city management.
Related Articles
Excerpts from an interview with Lee Kuan Yew
Vulnerable to rising seas, Singapore envisions a giant seawall
Today in Asia - Pacific
South Korean hostages head back home from Afghanistan
Thailand lifts ban on YouTube
Suicide bomber misses German patrol, hits Afghan troops
Singapore's secret, Lee said, is that it is "ideology free," an unsentimental pragmatism that infuses the workings of the country as if it were in itself an ideology.
"Does it work?" Lee said. "Let's try it and if it does work, fine, let's continue it. If it doesn't work, toss it out, try another one."
The yardstick, he said, is, "is this necessary for survival and progress? If it is, let's do it."
Hoping to attract more tourists, for example, Singapore is building two huge casinos, despite Lee's expressed distaste for them.
"I don't like casinos," he said. "but the world has changed and if we don't have an integrated resort like the ones in Las Vegas - Las Vegas Sands - we'll lose.
"So, let's go," he said. "Let's try and still keep it safe and mafia-free and prostitution-free and money-laundering-free. Can we do it? I'm not sure, but we're going to give it a good try."
Even on social issues, themes he habitually argues with an aggressiveness that can seem inflexible, Lee sounded almost mellow.
"I think we have to go in whatever direction world conditions dictate if we are to survive and to be part of this modern world," he said. "If we are not connected to this modern world, we are dead. We'll go back to the fishing village we once were."
For example, on the issue of homosexuality, he said, "we take an ambiguous position. We say, O.K., leave them alone, but let's leave the law as it is for the time being and let's have no gay parades."
Although gay sex remains technically illegal in Singapore, the government has indicated it will not actively enforce the law.
China, Hong Kong and Taiwan already have more liberal policies regarding gays, he noted. "It's a matter of time," he said. "But we have a part Muslim population, another part conservative older Chinese and Indians. So, let's go slowly. It's a pragmatic approach to maintain social cohesion."
As for the set of "Asian values" of hierarchy, respect and order that Singapore is founded on, he said, "It's already diluted and we can see it in the difference between the generations. It's inevitable."
In his own family, generational values are changing. From father to children to grandchildren, he said, command of the Chinese language had weakened, along with the culture it embodies.
"They had a basic set of traditional Confucian values," he said of his children, two sons and a daughter. "Not my grandchildren."
One grandson has just begun his studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he said; the other is heading to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
This well-educated younger generation is part of what Lee said was a social dichotomy in which the top 20 percent is as cosmopolitan as any - well educated, surfing the Internet, traveling the world without constraint. "This is not a closed society," he insisted.
But at the same time, he said, the government must protect the less well-off, less well-educated people from information that might upset or confuse them - people "who are not finding it so comfortable to suddenly find the world changed, their world, their sense of place, their sense of position in society."
These are the people who he said had to be pulled into the future as he seeks to make Singapore "a first world oasis in a third world region." (Continued)