Do you think TR is trying to incite disunity within the country?
They will spin stories without looking at the actual content and to
the point that it is out of context? Why the government did not do
anything to stop them?
An example would be the below article by TR. They took a few
sentences from 2 different interviews, disregarded the context of
why the issue was discussed and put it together. They spin it to
indicate as if Malays are not regarded as part of the country. This
would cause a lot of unhappiness amongst the Malay.
This is irresponsible news reporting.
Lee Kuan Yew: We are largely Chinese and Indians
September 29th, 2010 | Author: Your Correspondent
In a sign that age is catching up on him, PAP strongman Lee Kuan
Yew made an unusual gaffe when he appeared to forget about the
existence of the Malay community in Singapore in a remark made at
the Russia-Singapore Business Forum yesterday.
Speaking in response to a question on Russia’s growth over the next
decade, Lee claimed that Russia’s challenge was to develop its own
entrepreneurs like Singapore.
He then shocked the audience with a comment which is completely off
tangent:
“We’re trying to do that. But we
are hampered by culture. We’re largely Chinese and Indians. And
both Chinese and Indians, the best go into government, (they) don’t
go into enterprise.”
Singapore is not just largely Chinese and Indians. Ethnic Malays
form about 15 percent of Singapore’s population though it has
decreased slightly in recent years due to the relentless influx of
immigrants from China and India with the result that Indians now
form 9 percent of Singapore’s popuation, up from 7 percent 10 years
ago.
This is not the first time that Lee has made a controversial remark
about the ethnic minorities in Singapore.
In an interview with National Geographic magazine this year, he
said:
“Well, we make them say the
national pledge and sing the national anthem but suppose we have a
famine, will your Malay neighbour give you the last few grains of
rice or will she share it with her family or fellow Muslim or vice
versa?”.
He also added that it is a “good thing” that Singapore is accepting
so many Chinese immigrants (from mainland China) as they are more
“hard-striving” and “hard-driving” than locals.
At 87 years of age, Lee is probably the oldest living minister and
MP in the world. Though he admitted himself he is not doing much
work lately except “forecasting”, he is paid more than $3 million
dollars a year by Singapore taxpayers.
Lee has been dropping subtle hints in the media lately that he is
not quite ready to retire in the next general election, leaving
Singaporeans with little choice but to continue to put up with his
freudian slips in the near future.
http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/09...e-and-indians/
Challenge for Singapore is to grow pool of entrepreneurs: MM
Lee
by Hoe Yeen Nie
05:55 AM Sep 29, 2010
SINGAPORE - The challenge for Singapore and Russia is to grow their
pool of entrepreneurs, said Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.
"We're trying to do that. But we are hampered by culture. We're
largely Chinese and Indians. And both Chinese and Indians, the best
go into Government, don't go into enterprise," said Mr Lee at a
dialogue organised by the Russia-Singapore Business Forum yesterday
evening.
"The economy can be structured to allow enterprise but enterprise
itself must be done by entrepreneurs - people who say: 'Ah yes, I
will make that into a money-making venture'."
MM Lee arrived for the dialogue about an hour late as he had gone
for a check-up.
Moderator Michael Tay, executive director of the Russia-Singapore
Business Forum Organising Council, explained that Mr Lee had
suffered a fall the day before.
Mr Lee looked well and he took questions from the floor.
When asked about his most important lesson as a leader of
Singapore, Mr Lee said for Singapore to work, the system must be
kept incorruptible, meritocratic and efficient. It was these
traits, he added, that moved the country from being a purely Asian
one in the two, three decades after independence, to an
increasingly cosmopolitan one.
The hour-long session also saw
questions on Sino-Japan relations, as well as the future growth of
countries like Brazil, China, India and
Russia.
There were some lighter moments too.
"MM, are you happy?" Mr Tay asked.
"Sometimes, not all the time. A person who's happy all the time, I
think won't make much progress," Mr Lee replied, to laughter from
the audience.
The annual forum marks growing economic ties between Russia and
Singapore.
Political relations are getting warmer too.
Yesterday afternoon, the Russian Deputy Chairman Sergey Sobyanin
met Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the Istana.
Mr Sobyanin is in Singapore for the inaugural meeting of the
Russia-Singapore Inter-Governmental Commission, a high-level
grouping whose objective is to foster bilateral trade and
investment.
Mr Sobyanin co-chairs the commission with Senior Minister Goh Chok
Tong. The next meeting will take place in Moscow next year. HOE
YEEN NIE
http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore...eneurs--MM-Lee
Q: “So when, don’t take this the wrong way, but when you decided
to close the Chinese stream education and the college, what was the
rationale behind that and do you ever regret doing that?”
Mr Lee: “No, I regret not doing it faster because politically, if
there’d been a violent electoral protest in the next elections
because they’re so wedded to the idea that language means, culture
means, life means everything. But I’m a pragmatist and you can’t
make a living with the Chinese language in Singapore. The first
duty of the government is to be able to feed its people, to feed
its people in a little island. There’s no hinterland and no
farming, you have got to trade and you have got to do something to
get people buy your goods or services or get people to come here
and manufacture themselves, export, ready-made markets and
multinationals which I stumbled on when I went to Harvard for a
term in 1968 and I said oh, this could solve my unemployment
problem. So we brought the semiconductors factories here and one
started, the whole herd came and we became a vast centre for
production of computers and computer peripherals. But they all
speak English, multinationals from Japan, Europe, whatever European
country they come from, they speak English. So Chinese-educated
were losing out and they were disgruntled because they got the
poorer jobs and lesser pay. So eventually our own Members of
Parliament were Chinese-educated and graduates from the Chinese
university said okay, we have got do something. We’re ruining these
people’s careers. By that time, the university was also losing its
good students and getting bum students. Because they took in poor
students, they graduated them on lower marks and so the degree
became valueless. So when you apply for a job with a Chinese
university degree, you hide your degree and produce your school
certificate. So I tried to change it from within, the Education
Minister was Chinese-educated and English-educated to convert it
from within because most of the teachers have American PhDs. So
they did their thesis in English but they’ve forgotten their
English as they’ve been teaching in Chinese, so it couldn’t be
done. So I merged them with the English speaking university. Great
unhappiness and dislocation for the first few years but when they
graduated, we put it to them do you want your old university degree
or you want English university degree? All opted for the English
university degree. That settled it.”
Q: “In recent events as China begins to ascend, I mean, would
you?”
Mr Lee: “No, no. It makes no difference. We are not going to tie
ourselves to China to the extent it makes us hostage. I mean, we
have many investments there because the older generation are
Chinese-educated, they feel comfortable but the younger generation,
they have enough Chinese who want to go there and do business and
they can ramp it up if you want because once you are able to listen
and speak and read without writing, you can pick it up. And not
everybody wants to go there and we’ve been offering scholarships to
their top universities, Beijing, Qinghua, Hudan, very few takers.
They say nah, I want to go to America or Britain because they know
they’re coming back here and competing in English.”
Q: “Do you think that, I mean, one question I wanted to ask you was
building a country from scratch is obviously an enormous
achievement, accomplishment.”
Mr lee: “No, it’s not a nation. It’s a society in transition. You
need a few hundred years to build a nation.”
Q: “Oh really?”
Mr Lee: “Yes.”
Q: “You have a lot of countries running around claiming they’re
nations. You don’t think they really are nations?”
Mr Lee: “Well, we make them say
the national pledge and sing the national anthem but suppose we
have a famine, will your Malay neighbour give you the last few
grains of rice or will she share it with her family or fellow
Muslim or vice versa?”
Q: “Depends on the person, doesn’t it? No, it doesn’t?”
Mr Lee: “No, I think there comes a time, I read a book by Edward
Wilson who was Harvard.”
Q: “I know who he is.”
Mr Lee: “And he wrote about human beings.”
Q: “Actual past ones.”
Mr Lee: “And he described the Maoris. So when two tribes were
fighting, the third tribe will come and see which tribe is more our
side, more genes like us and they joined that side. So it’s an
instinct. Can you overcome that instinct? Edward Wilson says
culture can overcome because he’s American, he knows a mix of
Europeans and others. But it takes many, many years. Yes, they all
do the military service, equal treatment, equal pay, equal
hardship, job opportunities but we live in concentric circles.
Cross marriages, yes a few, usually the parents are most unhappy.
Then where do you belong, the children of the cross marriages?
Sometimes they get reabsorbed in their father ethnic group and they
carry the father’s surname. Sometimes, if you become a Muslim then
whether you’re male or female, you join the other side. But it has
happened to the margins more and more. But I think the instinct,
the human instinct is still there. I mean, it’s in America.”
Q: “I live in New York which is similar to Singapore in a
way.”
Mr Lee: “No, I mean, I used to talk to an Indian. He was the
administrator of Agra and we were driving back to Delhi. This was
in the late 1970s. So he was telling me he was writing a thesis on
Shakespeare, a highly-educated man. At that time, English-educated,
that generation. So I said, supposing I pretend as a caste,
supposing I pretend I’m a Brahmin, high caste and I invite you to
dinner, he said yeah I’ll come. You give me a good dinner, I’ll
come. Now supposing I want to marry your daughter? He says that’s
different. The most thorough inquiries will be made. So I said
supposing I tell you I came from Calcutta and how you’re going to
find me. He says no, you’ve got to live somewhere in Calcutta, you
must have your family, your neighbours, your friends in Calcutta,
we’ll find out. Then we’ll know what caste you belong to.”
Q: “So as long as you have enough human trail people will figure
out who you are.”
Mr Lee: “Yes, and in Japan, they do it a different way. They
exclude the Chinese and the Koreans who have been there for
generations. They’re still not Japanese citizens. Some had become
since the West started criticizing them because you may have a
Japanese name and you speak perfect Japanese, but for promotions,
where is your home village? Never mind, I come from Tokyo, Osaka or
Kobe. No where is your home domicile and they will trace you
there.”
Q: “So what you’re saying now is this somewhat contradictory to the
programme that you have here where you have the quotas? It’s really
human nature, the people hang out with their own kind. Can you
legislate that? Can you do anything about that?”
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2009/12/...eo-transcript/ (See here
for the full transcript to understand why this was mentioned)
http://sammyboy.com/showthread.php?t=76225
