Lee Kuan Yew: “From Third World To First” – Some Excerpts
S. Sivathasan
Selecting excerpts from Lee Kuan Yew is as difficult as selecting from Thirukkural. The whole work may need to be quoted. The difference with the former is that to understand in context, the whole requires to be read. Anyone wishing to be initiated in politics, particularly Tamils from Sri Lanka wherever they may reside have a compulsion to digest both volumes of his autobiography. I read them only a few months after publication and that too by borrowing because availability for purchase was difficult. I thought a few Sri Lankans would have read them. I now know that only a miniscule might have.
Lee Kuan Yew | Photo courtesy The Age
Volume I of about 700 pages deals principally with the politics of creating Singapore as a separate state, the emotional trauma Lee experienced in doing it, how adroitly he managed his mission and the way he gathered around him men of intellect, scholarship and character. Volume II of equal size is a textbook on political consolidation, economic growth and social integration of a small state. Unswerving and dedicated leadership launched a new state into the comity of advanced economies and of modernized societies. More significantly 2050 will see Singapore among the most advanced states, in multiple respects.
Without doubt one man’s initiative and persistent surveillance achieved it. Years back he said famously “Even when I am being lowered into the grave, if I see something going wrong in Singapore, I will get up”. His greatest emphasis is on character and he had the credentials to dwell on it. He has drawn much on Confucius. Tamils have Thiruvalluvar to benefit from. The story of Singapore has been an unqualified success. The world knows who the architect was. Some excerpts from his writing to provide the lure.
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73. The foundations for our financial centre were the rule of Law, an independent judiciary, and a stable, competent and honest government that pursued sound macro-economic policies, with budget surpluses almost every year. Read More
