Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Former Singapore Prime Minister
Lee Kuan Yew said a nerve disease that causes him to walk with an
unsteady gait has
not affected his mind, the Straits Times newspaper
reported today.
“I have no doubt at all that this has
not affected my mind, my will nor my resolve,” the
newspaper quoted Lee as telling reporters yesterday. “People in
wheelchairs can make a contribution. I’ve still got two legs, I
make a contribution.”
Singapore’s 88-year-old founding father has
sensory peripheral neuropathy, which impairs feeling in his legs,
his daughter Lee Wei Ling wrote in a column in the Sunday Times
yesterday. He was 86 when the condition was first noticed, said his
daughter, who is the director of the National Neuroscience
Institute.
While Lee’s brain and muscles function
normally, the lack of feeling in his legs upsets his balance, she
wrote.
Lee, whose son Lee Hsien Loong is prime
minister, has retreated from politics since the People’s Action
Party that he co-founded won May elections with the smallest margin
of the popular vote since independence in 1965. He stepped down
from his cabinet position of Minister Mentor in May and resigned
from the party’s top decision-making body last month.
From 1959 until 1990, Lee served as prime
minister, overseeing the island’s independence from Great Britain.
During his tenure, Singapore grew from a fishing village to the
world’s largest container port as Lee developed a tightly
controlled state economy that encouraged foreign investment.
Lee’s daughter also has sensory peripheral
neuropathy and underwent training to improve her balance. Her
father can’t do as much “strenuous exercises” because of his age,
she wrote. He does treadmill exercises and is taking medication,
which will help him continue to work, she said.
--Editors: John Brinsley, Nicholas Wadhams
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-07/singapore-s-lee-kuan-yew-says-nerve-disease-hasn-t-affected-mind.html
But how does he know it hasn't affect his mind?
A mad man also won't admit that he is mad, only
outsiders will know.
I think that the disease has affected Lee Kuan Yew's
mind, that is why he says he is unaffected.
