MM Lee receives lifetime achievement award in Washington
DC
WASHINGTON: Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has
been given a lifetime achievement award in Washington.
He used the occasion at the US-Asean Business Council
event on Wednesday to urge the United States to remain engaged in
Asia or risk losing global influence.
Former US presidents George H W Bush and Bill Clinton sent messages
of support, as did President Obama whom he will meet at the White
House on Thursday.
Mr Clinton said: "His work as Prime Minister and now as Minister
Mentor has helped literally millions of people from Singapore and
all across Southeast Asia live better, more prosperous
lives."
Mr Bush said: "All of us who have worked with him have benefited
from his wisdom, his insight and his dedication."
The Minister Mentor received the lifetime achievement award
witnessed by US foreign policy giants like Henry Kissinger.
Mr Kissinger said: "He has become a seminal figure for all of us.
As I've said, I've known him for 40 years. I would say I have
learned, I've not learned as much from anybody as I have from Lee
Kuan Yew."
After receiving the award, Mr Lee praised President Obama for
effectively replacing the Group of Eight group of nations with the
broader G20 at a recent summit in Pittsburgh.
Mr Lee said: "The American President has taken a realistic view of
the changed world, although for the next two or three decades,
America will remain the sole superpower."
And on the evening before his visit to the White House, the
Minister Mentor also offered some advice to President Obama.
Mr Lee said: "If the US does not recognize that the Asia-Pacific is
where the economic centre of action will be, then it loses that
economic superiority or that lead that it has in the Pacific; it
will lose it worldwide."
The advice comes as America's Commander-in-Chief prepares to visit
Asia, where he will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) summit in Singapore.
- CNA/ir