No wonder he's dead, smart people like LKY would've endured for the
GREATER GOOD OF SINGAPORE.
What use is a MAN to his country and his family when he's
dead?
Without LKY prospering and leading Singapore, you would be
sleeping on the foot stone of the Lim Bo Seng statue in the middle
of the dirty Singapore River.
What use of a MAN to his country and his family when
he's a bastard?
Dear Ukraine Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
I refer to the 24 Sept 2010 Straits Times report of the statements
made by Mr Alexander Gorin during the visit of Minister Mentor Lee
Kuan Yew to Ukraine.
Mr Gorin reportedly said that MM Lee is a thinker, philosopher and
practitioner who created a state and guided it from Third World to
First. There are many misconceptions in his statement that
needs clarification. Mr Gorin needs to understand that:
1. Singapore wasn’t created by MM Lee in 1965. It was
founded in 1819 by Sir Stamford Raffles. It was Raffles who
saw the potential of our strategic maritime location. Raffles
proved to be correct and Singapore quickly became an important
international port of call which led to a thriving entrepot
trade.
2. Singapore has been thriving for nearly 150 years before MM
Lee took over in 1959. Even at independence in 1965, our per
capita GDP was already the fourth highest in Asia behind Japan,
Hong Kong and Brunei.
3. Singapore joined Malaysia in 1963 and was booted out in
1965. If there was anyone who created the state of Singapore,
it was Malaysia’s prime minister Tungku Abdul Rahman since he was
the one who booted Singapore out and thereby ‘created’ the state of
Singapore.
4. The supposed Singapore success formula of foreign
investment led export industrialisation wasn’t the brainchild of MM
Lee. It was the brainchild of Dr Albert Winsemius, a Dutch
economist sent by the United Nations to Singapore in 1960 to help
Singapore industrialise. Singapore went from Third World to
First following Dr Winsemius’ plan rather than MM
Lee’s.
5. Between 1961 and 1965, Singapore did not pursue
export industrialisation but pursued import substitution
instead. Only with our separation from Malaysia in 1965 which
rendered import substitution untenable did Singapore finally embark
on Dr Winsemius’ formula. Thus, MM Lee didn’t act on Dr
Winsemius’ recommendations immediately and only adopted it when
faced with no other choice. It seems therefore that our split
from Malaysia in 1965 was the key factor that led Singapore to
adopt export industrialisation rather than some conscious decision
by MM Lee.
6. Singapore is not the only success story but is just one of
four East Asian economic miracles alongside Hong Kong, Taiwan and
South Korea. You will not find a similar statesman
extraordinaire responsible for the other three economic
miracles. This shows that you don’t need a statesman
extraordinaire for a country to succeed. If we were to ask
ourselves what is so special about these four economies, there is
only one obvious answer, they are all East Asian societies.
Not only that, China too has been rising rapidly over the
last twenty years. The Singapore success is very much an East
Asian success rather than the success of any one
man.
Thank you
Ng Kok Lim
Taken from Temasek Review
http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/09/27/mm-gets-top-coverage-in-ukraine-media/
