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Remembering Lee Kuan Yew

Continued from page 29

Mr Lees other remarks were always

intended to be in their countrys interest. This combination of insight, access
and credibility with both Chinese and
Western leaders allowed MrLee to play
a significant role in one of the most important issues in the world: The evolving US-China relationship.
UNVARNISHED VIEWS
FOR A LISTENING WORLD
Some might think a statesman should
be above politics and controversy,
something of a popular and secular
saint spouting about world peace. But
Mr Lee was never afraid of controversy. He did not court headlines deliberately, but neither would he self-censor
if it meant his views were less sharply
focused and expressed. As a 32-yearold, Mr Lee said: I have been accused
of many things in my life, but not even
my worst enemy has ever accused me
of being afraid to speak my mind.
This was one of his key strengths, in
Mr Kausikans view: The disciplined
clarity of his thought and expression
was one of the primary sources of the
influence Mr Lee wielded, disproportionate for the leader of a small country
like Singapore. His views were valued
because they were unvarnished and
gave a fresh and unique perspective. He
said things that leaders of much larger
and more powerful countries may well
have thought and may have liked to say,
but for one reason or another, could not

while maintaining the freedom to be

itself as a sovereign and independent
nation. Both parts of the equation a
maximum number of friends and freedom to be ourselves are equally important and interrelated.
Friendship, in international relations, is not a function of goodwill or
personal affection. We must make ourselves relevant so that other countries
have an interest in our continued survival and prosperity as a sovereign and
independent nation. Singapore cannot
take its relevance for granted. Small
countries perform no vital or irreplaceable functions in the international system. Singapore has to continually reconstruct itself and keep its relevance
to the world and to create political and
economic space. This is the economic
imperative for Singapore.
Yet Mr Lee also forged close personal friendships with world leaders,
amity that has helped Singapore in
many areas, from security to economics. His personal ties with regional
leaders such as late Malaysian Prime
Minister Tun Abdul Razak and Indonesian President Suharto smoothed
the way for the founding of ASEAN in
1967. His friendship with members of
United Kingdom Prime Minister Harold Wilsons government helped delay
the British troops withdrawal to late
1971, buying Singapore time to build
up its own defence forces. He also held
long-term friendships with world leaders and senior officials such as British
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher,

words: He put things succinctly and

with the right nuance.
Despite his personal friendships
with world leaders, he was not afraid
to stand up to a greater power where
needed. There were famous instances, such as in 1968, when he turned
down a direct appeal by Indonesian
President Suharto to pardon two Indonesian marines for the MacDonald
House bombing; and in 1994, when, as
Senior Minister, he refused American
appeals against the caning of Michael
Fay. In widely reported comments on
local television, he had said of the US:
The country dares not restrain or punish the individuals, forgiving them for
whatever they have done... Thats why
the whole country is in chaos. Drugs,
violence, unemployment and homelessness, all sorts of problems in its society.
Former President S R Nathan also
recalls how MrLee declined a gift from
late Chinese Premier Hua Guofeng on his
first visit to China in 1976. The gift was
a book by Australian academic Neville
Maxwell on the 1962 Sino-Indian war,
and Hua told Mr Lee that it was the
correct version of the India-China war.
Mr Nathan said: When PM took the
book, he looked at the front and back
cover and then handed it back to Premier Hua, saying, Mr Prime Minister,
this is your version of the war. There
is another version, the Indian version.
And in any case I am from South-east
Asia its nothing to do with us. Hua
showed no reaction, but a silence fell
in the room.

TAKING ON
THE WESTERN MEDIA
Mr Lee Kuan Yews candid views on democracy and development were often cited and
criticised by international media, particularly
those from the West. He was seen as the main
proponent of the Asian values debate, as it
was dubbed in the 1980s and 1990s. These special Asian characteristics meant that Western
democracy, law and order human rights, in
other words could not be universally applied.
The divide between East and West sharpened
particularly after the bloody 1989 Tiananmen
Square crackdown on student protesters.
For Mr Lee, this meant taking on his detractors and he had many in a long-running battle with Western news organisations
and academics. He took umbrage particularly
at cases where he perceived them as interfering in Singapore politics. Among his notable
Top: Then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and
critics were American journalist William Safire
Mr Lee at the Istana in 2012; Then Indonesian President and British journalist Bernard Levin from the
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Mr Lee at the Istana be- Times, whom Mr Lee challenged to a face-tofore the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting in 2009, when face interview on the BBC after Levin wrote a
Mr Lee was Minister Mentor. PHOTOS: REUTERS, TODAY FILE PHOTO

themselves prudently say. And so he

made Singapore relevant.
Speaking in 2009, Mr Lee had said
of Singapores foreign policy fundamentals: Independence was thrust
upon Singapore. The fundamentals of
our foreign policy were forged during
those vulnerable early years. They remain relevant because small countries
have little power to alter the region, let
alone the world. A small country must
seek a maximum number of friends,

German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt

and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping.
Said Mr Chan Heng Chee: He put
great store in developing personal relationships. These relationships bought
Singapore space. It was not just a
question of bonhomie and sociability,
though I have seen Mr Lee charm
his hosts in the US. They sought his
company for his strategic insights, his
understanding of the region and his
take on the world. He had a way with

scathing article on Singapore and Lee in the

United Kingdom press. After Levin declined,
Mr Lee took out full-page paid advertisements
in several British newspapers to lay bare the
facts and reveal that Levin had refused to take
part in the televised debate.
Mr Lee put it best in a 1988 address to
the American Society of Newspaper Editors
in Washington, DC: Singapores domestic
debate is a matter for Singaporeans. We allow
American journalists in Singapore in order to
report Singapore to their fellow countrymen.
We allow their papers to sell in Singapore so
that we can know what foreigners are reading
about us. But we cannot allow them to assume a role in Singapore that the American
media play in America, that of invigilator,
adversary and inquisitor of the administration. If allowed to do so, they will radically
change the nature of Singapore society, and
I doubt if our social glue is strong enough to
withstand such treatment.

Even to this day, I sometimes get

asked about this incident (by) people
who cannot bring themselves to believe
that the PM of a small country like Singapore would have dared to incur Chinese displeasure by such a response.
COMMANDING
THE WORLD STAGE
Another, related strength was his ability to command the world stage as few

others could. When Mr Lee requested

an audience, he got it whether it was
an interview with CNN and other international media, a personal audience
with Chinese leaders or tete a tete discussions in the capitals of the West.
Among testaments to his strategic
insights was being called The Grand
Master by eminent American strategic
thinkers. Former US President George
H W Bush once said: In my long life
in public service, I have encountered
many bright, able people. None is more
impressive than Lee Kuan Yew.
Former US Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger has also said: There is no
second Lee Kuan Yew in the world. Normally one would say that the leader of
a country of the size and population of
Singapore would not have a global influence ... But precisely because Singapore
can survive only by competition with
much more powerful neighbours, and
precisely because its well-being depends
on stability and progress in the area,
his views were always in a much larger
context than the technical problems of
the Singaporean economy and so he always had a tremendous influence on us.
Mr Lee himself said at the age of
89 in One Mans View Of The World:
I continue to make appointments to
meet people. You must meet people,
because you must have human contact
if you want to broaden your perspective. Besides people in Singapore, I
meet those from Malaysia, Indonesia,
and, from time to time, China, Europe
and the United States. I try not to meet
only old friends or political leaders, but
people from a variety of fields, such as
academics, businessmen, journalists
and ordinary people.
Asked how he wished to be remembered, he said: I do not want to be remembered as a statesman ... I do not
classify myself as a statesman. I put
myself down as determined, consistent,
persistent. I set out to do something,
I keep on chasing it until it succeeds.
That is all ... Anybody who thinks he is a
statesman ought to see a psychiatrist.
His was a role and reputation built
not on any single statement or thought.
Mr Lee was valued on the world stage
because of his decades of engagement
across the region and the world at the
highest level, and his ability and effort to analyse and present what he
saw in the clearest, unvarnished way.
He spoke and acted in a way that was
unique to him, valued by so many and
of continuing relevance to world affairs.
In doing this, Mr Lee lived up to
the imperative he set for Singapores
survival: Make Singapore relevant to
others, so it is in their interest to have
Singapore around.
His departure leaves the international stage empty in a way that no one
in Singapore or indeed across Asia can
readily fill. Simon Tay and Denyse Yeo

Simon Tay is chairman of the Singapore

Institute of International Affairs (SIIA)
and associate professor at the National
University of Singapores Faculty of Law.
Denyse Yeo was an editor at the SIIA.