Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today, the 3oth of January 2008, is the 75th anniversary of Adolf
Hitler forming the government in Berlin with his appointment as
Chancellor in the Reichstag, Berlin, 30th January 1933. So I
thought of Lee Kuan Yew. Are there similarities?
In 1933 when Hitler formed the government, Germany was under the
yoke of the West. The Treaty of Versailles signed at the end of the
First World War in 1918 humiliated the Germans. They were required
to pay reparations to England, their navy was ordered reduced, air
force curtailed, the Rhineland was off limits and the Reichmark,
the Germany currency was not worth the paper it was printed
of.
For this defeated humiliated people came a Hitler who told them it
was time to rise again. Time to be proud again. Time to throw up
the unbearable yoke that was put over them by the victors Britain
and France. And he told them he would do it.
Although he did not win outright at the elections, he managed by
skullduggery and violence to force President Hindenburg to swear
him in as the Chancellor. And so began the Third Reich. And true
enough, Hitler did manage to make Germany the strongest mightiest
and economically strongest and most powerful European country from
1933 to 1939 and beyond. From shambles, Hitler managed to make
Germany the most powerful country in Europe.
And Lee Kuan Yew? In 1959, Singapore was nothing more than a
backwater and a sea port. Unemployment was high, poverty was all
around and people did not know which way to turn, or what was to
come. But Lee Kuan Yew becoming Prime Minister in 1959 did turn the
country around. From the sleepy shipping harbor that it was Lee
Kuan Yew and his policies managed to turn it into what it is today,
an international city.
So the similarities and the abilities between the two are striking.
From great adversity they managed to turn a difficult situation
around. But, just as Hitler, Lee Kuan Yew will eventually fail. For
Germany the failure was due to military defeat. For Singapore, it
will be because the basis of his policies have lost their appeal in
this modern age.
In 1959, it was easy for Lee to tell the people to support his
policies without complaint. It was a time when people were just
trying to survive. With heavy unemployment, with poverty and little
hope, the people of Singapore were prepared to pay any price,
sacrifice their rights and liberties in return for a better life;
in return for bread and butter.
So for a long time, he forced every Singaporean into resettlement
into HDB flats, he controlled the unions, he denied civil
liberties, he kept wages low in order to compete with other low
cost countries, he invited Western countries to set up assembly
line factories with cheap labor from Singapore, he controlled the
press with propaganda, he denied assemblies and protests. In other
words he controlled people's lives for one purpose and one purpose
alone; that is for economic development. The Singapore people who
were predominantly poor allowed him to control their lives any way
he wanted; as long as he managed to lift up their lives
economically.
But the problem now is different. Singaporeans have now reached a
certain level of education. A certain level of sophistication. They
are no longer the impoverished coolie of 1959. They cannot be
expected to tolerate those restrictions imposed on them such as in
1959. But the problem is, Lee Kuan Yew feels he can still make
Singaporeans obey his orders like before. And this is where he will
fail.
Singaporeans of today are not those of 1959. Today they expect a
little more than just food on the table. They expect some liberties
too. They expect a right to criticize the government. The right to
speak. The right to assemble. The right to a free press. The right
to live like Europeans, as they have the means to do so.
Very soon I expect more and more Dr. Chee Soon Juans to appear in
Singapore. As if one is not bad enough! You can see this happening
already. And just as Hitler fell, having been defeated militarily,
Lee Kuan Yew too will fall because there are too many Dr. Chee Soon
Juans. Who refuse to roll over, just because Lee says so.
Gopalan Nair
http://singaporedissident.blogspot.com/2008/01/adolf-hitler-and-lee-kuan-yew.html
