From an Opposition Role - and in between - and
into Absolute Power.
The speeches reflect the devious manipulator of
circumstances, and a master in the art of
duplicity.
"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, Sept 21,
1955
Well said in 1955, and
forgotten when LKY instigated Operation Cold Store in
1963.
" Repression, Sir
is a habit that grows. I am told it is like making love-it is
always easier the second time! The first time there may be pangs of
conscience, a sense of guilt. But once embarked on this course with
constant repetition you get more and more brazen in the attack. All
you have to do is to dissolve organizations and societies and
banish and detain the key political workers in these societies.
Then miraculously everything is tranquil on the surface. Then an
intimidated press and the government-controlled radio together can
regularly sing your praises, and slowly and steadily the people are
made to forget the evil things that have already been done, or if
these things are referred to again they're conveniently distorted
and distorted with impunity, because there will be no opposition to
contradict."
- Lee
Kuan Yew as an opposition PAP member during 1956 speaking to David
Marshall
As an underdog, LKY's speeches in Parliament have always
been eloquent in the calls for an open, accountable and transparent
government.
These protesting words reflect the actions of one who knows
how to act against the protestors.
"If we say that we
believe in democracy, if we say that the fabric of a democratic
society is one which allows for the free play of idea...then, in
the name of all the gods, give that free play a chance to work
within the constitutional framework."
- Opposition leader Lee Kuan
Yew, Singapore Legislative Assembly, Oct 4, 1956
Well said in 1956 when he
was standing on the Opposition side against Lim Yew
Hock.
"Repression can only go up to a
point. When it becomes too acute, the instruments of repression,
namely the army and the police, have been proved time and time
again in history to have turned their guns on their
masters."
- Opposition leader Lee Kuan
Yew, Straits Times, May 5, 1959
Is this the precursor of
what is to come ?
This is the driving force
in the short sighted policies of having the Chief of Defense Force
retiring after approximately 4 to 5 years in the office, and was
only changed recently to allow Senior Officers to serve beyond the
enforced retirement age of 45.
"If I were in
authority in Singapore indefinitely without having to ask those who
are governed whether they like what is being done, then I would not
have the slightest doubt that I could govern much more effectively
in their interests."
- Mr Lee
Kuan Yew, 1962
It was
during Chief Minister David Marshall's term that the Hock
Lee Bus riots broke out and saw the combined
actions against the Chinese Secondary School students actively
supporting the Trade Unions in their industrial actions
against unjust employment terms.
When David
Marshall resigned from a failed mission to London - of which LKY
was also a delegate in negotiating for self-government, it was left
to Lim Yew Hock to deal harshly with the daily agitation and mob
rule.
LKY was
representing the Trade Unions then, and was their legal
adviser.
"Let us get down to fundamentals.
Is this an open, or is this a closed society? Is it a society where
men can preach ideas - novel, unorthodox, heresies, to established
churches and established governments - where there is a constant
contest for men's hearts and minds on the basis of what is right,
of what is just, of what is in the national interests, or is it a
closed society where the mass media - the newspapers, the journals,
publications, TV, radio - either bound by sound or by sight, or
both sound and sight, men's minds are fed with a constant drone of
sycophantic support for a particular orthodox political philosophy?
I am talking of the principle of the open society, the open debate,
ideas, not intimidation, persuasion not
coercion..."
- Lee Kuan Yew, Before
Singapore's independence, Malaysian Parliamentary Debates, Dec 18,
1964
Amazing how the speech
changes between 1962 and 1964.
"We
must encourage those who earn less than $200 per month and cannot
afford to nurture and educate many children never to have more than
two... We will regret the time lost if we do not now take the first
tentative steps towards correcting a trend which can leave our
society with a large number of the physically, intellecually and
culturally anaemic."
- Lee Kuan Yew in
1967.
How
much were his parents earning when he and his siblings were
conceived ?
By his standard, he must be a
freak of nature - considering that his parents had to struggle all
their lives.
This was the
foundation stone laid for the poor rate of self-replacement for
Singaporeans in the Twenty-First Century - and the need to open the
flood gates for the arrival of Foreign
Talents.
"If you don't include your women
graduates in your breeding pool and leave them on the shelf, you
would end up a more stupid society...So what happens? There will be
less bright people to support dumb people in the next generation.
That's a problem."
- Lee Kuan Yew in 1983
National Day Rally
The level playing
field is now admittedly never level for dumb
people.
"We have to lock up
people, without trial, whether they are communists, whether they
are language chauvinists, whether they are religious extremists. If
you don't do that, the country would be in ruins." - Prime Minister
Lee Kuan Yew, 1986
The
Communists in the Soviet Bloc and China call their opponents
"Revisionists" - when those who oppose the Communists will call
themselves "Nationalists".
In Singapore, LKY
conveniently carry a broad brush to paint everyone - whom
he sees opposing him with his squinted eyes - as
Communists, racial and language chauvinists, religious extremists -
when those Singaporeans who dare to stand up against his
political views are all "Nationalists".
Ironically, the only
Communist in Singapore is the ONE - who has vision of his
own relevance into perpetuity while he controls Singapore
with an iron Stalinist fist.
