SINGAPORE
is a "freak", because it is lacking in terms of geopolitics,
economics, size, population and culture, said former communist
leader Fang Chuang Pi, dubbed the"Plen" by
Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
He added
that, in his assessment, the country had "narrow room for manoeuvre
in various areas and will run into difficulties in
future".
He gave
this assessment of Singapore as an unnatural country, a freak of
history, in an interview with Malaysia's Chinese-language
newspaper, Nanyang Siang Pau, in which he disclosed that he had
discussed the Republic's prospects with the Senior Minister when
they met in Beijing in August 1995.
Mr
Fang and his wife at the interview in
Thailand. Pic/ Nanyang Siang Pau
He told Mr
Lee: "I said that Singapore was a 'freak', but a 'freak' was often
a genius, and most geniuses died young. For in terms of
geopolitics, economics, size and population, Singapore is
congenitally deficient."
The two
men also discussed the issue of culture, he added.
"It is like duckweed, floating at the harbour.
When it absorbs fertilisers, it will flourish very quickly. But
once it rains and floods set in, it will perish," he said in an
interview conducted in a restaurant in Haadyai, near the
Thai-Malaysian border.
http://ourstory.asia1.com.sg/independence/ref/plen3.html
