Success Stories of Lee Kuan Yew

I just watched the DVD of the Success Stories of Lee Kuan Yew, and I was very lucky to borrow it from a neighbor.

I am very inspired by Mr Lee. Indeed, some may say that he was overly strong in his decisions and punishments, however, without it, I do wonder what route will Singapore take in these 40 years.

Particularly in one part of the show, it narrated that Lee Kuan Yew has not only given Singapore the direction to grow, but what moral values we should have, what languages we talk, who to marry, how many children to bear, even what are the things we should eat. Then at that very moment I realized.. Lee was not just a Prime Minister to us.. He acts more like our father, and showers us with his fatherly concern that I don't see any other Prime Minister doing anywhere else the world.

Perhaps I am not well informed, nor widely read on politics, but I have hardly, hear of any other Prime Minister anywhere else that is like a fatherly figure and thinks for his citizens the way a father thinks for his child.

And I also realized, just like a child that is rebellious and not grateful for his father's teachings, that's how most Singaporeans react to Lee (not to say all, but most, really).

It saddens me to see most Singaporeans talking bad about the one Prime Minister in the world that managed to curb corruption, bring prosperity and harmony to its citizens. And not acknowledging, that what Singapore is today, is the results of what Lee did in the past 40 years. And I have heard with my own ears that many Singaporeans did not even want to pay tax (which is very little compared to other countries) and they feel that the government owes it to them to make the roads, bridges, clean places for them to stay. The people of Singapore and the government are not tied up as one, but separated in the mind. And I do feel that its because the Singapore government has spoiled us badly. We grew up all in a super clean environment and has never seen nor experience anything drastic before, because we had a super efficient government to protect us from all that. We are very much like children who are blessedly protected by Lee and his good governing of this country. Just like how a father protects his family from harm.

Most people do talk about the ministers taking too much pay, that its just like corruption, but in the legal way. I do not deny the the ministers pay are high. But what most Singaporeans do not see, as they were bred here and raised here in this CLEAN Singapore, how it is to be a corrupted country with corrupted ministers on top. Because Singaporeans had not experienced it before, most do not know the consequences. If ever, corruption is given even the slighted chance to remotely develop, business will take more than double the time to set up, the rich gets richer, the poor will find it super hard to make a living, and have any dreams of prosperity. Even the rich will find it difficult to do business, as the officials come every now and then to create trouble and ask for money. And the nation's prosperity will fall. The top officials, who are corrupted, will find it much easier to extort money from the rich businessman, than to want to govern the country properly.

Lee, on the other hand, grew up in a period where he saw many corruptions and social unrest going on. To make a comparison with low pay for ministers and chance of corruption to breed, I am pretty sure that the logical way is to give a higher pay and get corruption completely out of the way.

Lee fought hard to keep peace in this small vulnerable country of four races. If any of the four races gain any slight power, it would have been so easy to tip over the whole harmony of this place. So Lee was strong and firm in his punishments in social unrest. Which, I personally do not think its a bad thing. Imagine Singapore fighting the way that Indonesia was fighting 1998, Singapore would have been completely gone. We are a small country, and we simply cannot afford this kind of social unrest. It would take us decades to repair.

And for Lee, he has never had any scandals in this political life, which I greatly admire him for. Most ministers, being men, have many affairs or many secret events. But clearly he is one clean man who thinks for his country and his citizens ahead of his own pleasures.

I am grateful to be a citizen of his country and am honored to have known him in his lifetime.