MM Lee Kuan Yew said it was vital for Singapore, a predominantly
ethnic Chinese state to stand up to its bigger, majority-Muslim
neighbours, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Lee, a founder of the People's Action Party (PAP) that has ruled
Singapore uninterrupted since independence in 1965, also criticised
Singapore's opposition parties, saying the city-state would
eventually collapse if they were elected.
"We need a government that will have the gumption and skill to say
'no' to our neighbours in a very quiet and polite way that doesn't
provoke them into doing something silly," said Lee at a forum on
the sidelines of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund (IMF)
meetings in the island republic.
"My main critics want me to be as liberal, open and contentious and
adversarial with the opposition as the West," said Lee, who was
independent Singapore's prime minister from 1965 to 1990.
Lee and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers were the
key speakers at the forum.
Those who wanted Singapore to embrace a more liberal style of
democracy failed to see the limits of its geography, said Lee,
whose son, Lee Hsien Loong, is Singapore's prime minister.
Lee Kuan Yew, who turns 83 on Saturday, holds the title of Minister
Mentor in his son's cabinet.
Lee said the attitude of
neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia towards Singapore was shaped by
the way they treat their own ethnic Chinese minorities.
"Our neighbours both have problems with their Chinese. They are
successful. They are hardworking and therefore they are
systemically marginalised," he said.
Indonesia and Malaysia "want Singapore, to put it simply, to be
like their Chinese -- compliant", Lee said.
Although Singapore and Malaysia have deep economic ties, relations
between the two countries which separated in 1965 after a brief
union, have often been prickly.
Relations between Singapore and Indonesia hit a low in 1998 when
then-President B.J. Habibie referred to Singapore as a little red
dot in a sea of green -- a reference to the fact the city-state of
4.4. million people is surrounded by two large, predominantly
Muslim countries.
Lee acknowledged that there was growing support for opposition
parties among Singapore's voters, but said the office of the
elected presidency had been put in place to prevent a profligate
opposition government from touching the island's vast monetary
reserves.
"Without the elected president and if there is a freak result,
within two or three years, the army would have to come in and stop
it," Lee said.
