Lee Kuan Yew and Modern Singapore

Lee Kuan Yew, GCMG, CH (born Harry Lee Kuan Yew, 16 September 1923), is a Singaporean politician.  Often referred to as the Father of Singapore or by the initials LKY, he was the first Prime Minister of Singapore, governing for three decades. He is also widely recognised as the founding father of modern Singapore.

As the co-founder and first Secretary-General of the People’s Action Party (PAP), he led the party to eight victories from 1959 to 1990, and oversaw the separation of Singapore from Malaysia in 1965 and its subsequent transformation from a relatively underdeveloped colonial outpost with no natural resources into a “First World” Asian Tiger.  He is one of the most influential political figures in Asia.

Singapore's second prime minister, Goh Chok Tong, appointed him Senior Minister in 1990. He held the advisory post of Minister Mentor, created by his son Lee Hsien Loong, when the latter became the nation's third prime minister in August 2004. With his successive ministerial positions spanning over 50 years, Lee is also one of history's longest-serving ministers. On 14 May 2011, Lee and Goh announced their retirement from the cabinet after the 2011 general election. 

Legacy

During three decades in which Lee held office, Singapore grew from being a developing country to one of the most developed nations in Asia, despite its small population, limited land space and lack of natural resources. Lee has often stated that Singapore's only natural resources are its people and their strong work ethic. He is widely respected by many Singaporeans, particularly the older generation, who remember his inspiring leadership during independence and the separation from Malaysia. Indeed, for many people in Singapore and other countries, Lee is inextricably linked with their perceptions of Singapore.

Lee has also been widely praised by other world leaders.  Henry Kissinger once said that Lee was "One of the asymmetries of history".  Richare Nixon remarked that if Lee lived in another time and place, he would have attained the world stature of a Churchill, a Disraeli, or a Gladstone.  Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush called Lee a "remarkable leader and statesman" and "one of the brightest and most effective world leaders that I have ever known" respectively during the launch of his book, "Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going".

On the other hand, many Singaporeans have criticised Lee as being authoritarian and intolerant of dissent, citing his numerous mostly successful attempts to sue political opponents and newspapers who express an unfavorable opinion.   Reporters Without Borders, an international media pressure group, has asked Lee, and other senior Singaporean officials, to stop taking libel actions against journalists.

In 2004 the National University of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy was named after him, one of the first cases of an institution in Singapore doing so.

Quotes

• If it is not totalitarian to arrest a man and detain him, when you cannot charge him with any offence against any written law - if that is not what we have always cried out against in Fascist states - then what is it?… If we are to survive as a free democracy, then we must be prepared, in principle, to concede to our enemies - even those who do not subscribe to our views - as much constitutional rights as you concede yourself. Opposition leader Lee Kuan Yew, Legislative Assembly Debates, 21 September 1955
• If Singapore is a nanny state, then I am proud to have fostered one. Lee Kuan Yew, in a wry aside to critics who have accused him of governing Singapore like a nanny state, From Third World to First, The Singapore Story: 1965-2000, Lee Kuan Yew. 2000
• When I call a man openly, you're a liar, you're dishonest, and you do not dare to sue me, there's something basically wrong. And I will repeat it anywhere and you can't go and say, oh, I have apologised; let's move on. Can you commit a dishonourable—maybe even one which is against the law—an illegal act and say, let's move on because I've apologised? You may move on but you're going to move on out of politics in time. Lee Kuan Yew on James Gomez in 2006.
• But we either believe in democracy or we not. If we do, then, we must say categorically, without qualification, that no restraint from the any democratic processes, other than by the ordinary law of the land, should be allowed… If you believe in democracy, you must believe in it unconditionally. If you believe that men should be free, then, they should have the right of free association, of free speech, of free publication. Then, no law should permit those democratic processes to be set at nought. Lee Kuan Yew, 27 April 1955

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Kuan_Yew