By Philip
Lim
SINGAPORE, Sunday 23
January 2011 (AFP) -- Singapore's founding father Lee
Kuan Yew has urged local Muslims to "be less strict on Islamic
observances" to aid integration and the city-state's
nation-building process.
Singapore has a predominantly Chinese population, with minority
races including Muslim Malays and Indians, and Lee has always
stressed the importance of racial harmony.
"I would say today, we can integrate all religions and races except
Islam," he said in "Lee Kuan Yew: Hard Truths to Keep Singapore
Going," a new book containing his typically frank views on the
city-state and its future.
"I think we were progressing very nicely until the surge of Islam
came and if you asked me for my observations, the other communities
have easier integration -- friends, intermarriages and so on..." he
stated.
"I think the Muslims socially do not cause any trouble, but they
are distinct and separate," Lee added, calling on the community to
"be less strict on Islamic observances."
During the book's launch on Friday, the self-described "pragmatist"
warned Singaporeans against complacency, saying the largely ethnic
Chinese republic was still a nation in the making.
Describing Singapore in the book as an "80-storey building on
marshy land," Lee said it must contend with hostility from larger
Muslim neighbours.
"We've got friendly neighbours? Grow up... There is this drive to
put us down because we are interlopers," he said, citing alleged
Malaysian and Indonesian efforts to undermine Singapore's crucial
port business.
Singapore was ejected from the Malaysian federation in 1965 in
large part due to Kuala Lumpur's preferential policies for ethnic
Malays, and has since built up Southeast Asia's most modern
military to deter foreign aggression.
Turning to local politics, Lee said the ruling People's Action
Party (PAP), which has been in power since 1959 when Singapore
gained political autonomy from colonial ruler Britain, will someday
lose its grip on power.
"There will come a time when eventually the public will say, look,
let's try the other side, either because the PAP has declined in
quality or the opposition has put up a team which is equal to the
PAP... That day will come."
"In the next 10 years to 20 years, I don't think it'll happen.
Beyond that, I cannot tell."
Lee said that despite a survey showing the contrary, he believed
Singaporeans were not yet ready for a non-ethnic-Chinese prime
minister.
"A poll says 90 percent of Chinese Singaporeans say they will elect
a non-Chinese as PM. Yes, this is the ideal. You believe these
polls? Utter rubbish. They say what is politically correct," he
stated.
He also defended the policy of promoting marriage between
highly-educated Singaporeans, a policy seen by critics as a form of
social engineering, and dismissed the notion of love at first
sight.
"People get educated, the bright ones rise, they marry equally
well-educated spouses. The result is their children are likely to
be smarter than the children of those who are gardeners," he
said.
"It's a fact of life. You get a good mare, you don't want a dud
stallion to breed with your good mare. You get a poor foal."
People who are "attracted by physical characteristics" may regret
it, he said.
Lee also revealed that he had donated to charity all his earnings
of S$13 million ($10 million) since stepping down as prime minister
in 1990 after 31 years in power.
Singapore's cabinet ministers are the highest paid in the world as
part of a strategy to prevent corruption and attract talent from
the private sector.
Lee, who holds the special title Minister Mentor, now serves as an
adviser to his son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who came to
power in 2004.
Amid all the hard-edged talk, Lee showed his tender side when asked
about his late wife Kwa Geok Choo, who died aged 89 in October last
year.
"It means more solitude. No one to talk to when the day's work is
done," Lee said in the book, the result of exclusive interviews
with journalists from the country's leading daily, The Straits Times.
http://www.mysinchew.com/node/51920