Lee Kuan Yew Hailed as the Founding Father of Modern Singapore
Transforming Singapore from a British colonial backwater into a global trade and financial center
Lee Kuan Yew (September 16, 1923–March 23, 2015) is hailed as the first prime minister of Singapore — the founding father of modern Singapore. With a strong leadership, he, as a highly-regarded visionary, propelled the tiny city-state from a British colonial backwater to a global trade and financial powerhouse. Over three decades from 1959 to 1990, Lee developed policies to improve living standards and education levels, ensure security and stability, and attract foreign investment. He remained in public service until he passed away in 2015 at the age of 91.
Lee Kuan Yew was born in 1923 into a Chinese family in Singapore dating back to the 19th century. After being educated at Raffles College, Singapore, he briefly enrolled at the London School of Economics and Political Science before earning a law degree in 1949 at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, England. He was called to the Bar, Middle Temple, London, in 1950 and practiced law in Singapore. He became advisor to several trade unions.
In 1954, he founded the People’s Action Party and was Secretary General up to 1992. He became Singapore’s Prime Minister in 1959, serving successive terms until he resigned in November 1990, when he was appointed Senior Minister by his successor Goh Chok Tong. He was re-appointed again after the 1991, 1997 and 2001 general elections. He was appointed Minister Mentor by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, his oldest son, in August 2004, and was reappointed again after the 2006 general elections. He stepped down as Minister Mentor in May 2011 and was appointed Senior Advisor to the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation.
A mildly authoritarian style of government that sometimes infringed on civil liberties
Lee’s political career was marked by his outstanding political leadership, which drew a mixture of praise for his market-friendly policies and criticism at home and abroad for his strict controls over the press, public protest, and political opponents.
Lee noted that Singapore needed a strong economy in order to survive as an independent country, and he launched a program to industrialize Singapore and transform it into a major exporter of finished goods. He encouraged foreign investment and secured agreements between labor unions and business management that ensured both labor peace and a rising standard of living for workers. He sometimes resorted to press censorship to stifle left-wing dissent over his government’s policies.
Lee realized for his country an efficient administration and spectacular prosperity at the cost of a mildly authoritarian style of government that sometimes infringed on civil liberties. By the 1980s Singapore under Lee’s leadership had a per capita income second in East Asia only to Japan’s, and the country had become a chief financial center of Southeast Asia.
Lee Kuan Yew in 1986: “We have to lock up people, without trial, whether they are communists, whether they are language chauvinists, whether they are religious extremists. If you don’t do that, the country would be in ruins.”
For other hardline measures, long hair for men was outlawed in the 1970s — the Bee Gees and Led Zeppelin cancelled gigs due to the ban. The sale of chewing gum remains forbidden. People must be caned for graffiti as punishment.
Tributes poured in from around the world
On March 23, 2015, when Lee passed away, in keeping with his famously no-nonsense, pragmatic approach, business carried on as normal throughout the city.
“Lee Kwan Yew’s passing is as much a loss for the international community as it is for Singapore,” China’s President Xi Jinping said.
Former U.S. President Barack Obama described Lee as “a true giant of history” whose advice on governance and economic development had been sought by other world leaders down the years.
Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement: “His place in history is assured, as a leader and as one of the modern world’s foremost statesmen. He was always a friend to Britain, if sometimes a critical one, and many British prime ministers benefited from his wise advice, including me.”
