Singaporean statesman and prime minister (195990), born in Singapore City. He studied law at Cambridge and qualified as a barrister in London before returning to Singapore in 1951 to practise. He founded the moderate, anti-Communist People's Action Party in 1954, and entered the Singapore Legislative Assembly in 1955. He became the country's first prime minister in 1959, remained in power for 31 years, and oversaw a successful programme of economic development. He resigned as premier at the end of 1990, but remained in the government as senior minister in the premier's office.
Lee Kuan Yew|
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| Prime Minister of Singapore | |
|---|---|
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In office 3 June 1959 – 28 November 1990 |
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| Deputy |
Toh Chin Chye (1959 to 1968) Goh Keng Swee (1968 to 1984) Sinnathamby Rajaratnam (1990 to 1993) Goh Chok Tong (1985 to 1990) Ong Teng Cheong (1985 to 1990) |
| Preceded by | None (post created) |
| Succeeded by | Goh Chok Tong |
| Born |
16 September 1923 Singapore |
| Constituency | Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency (Tanjong Pagar) |
| Political party | People's Action Party |
| Spouse | Kwa Geok Choo |
Since stepping down from office he has remained one of the most influential politicians in Singapore. He currently holds the specially created post of Minister Mentor under his son Lee Hsien Loong, who became the nation's third prime minister and second from the same family on August 12, 2004. He is also known informally as "Harry" to his close friends and family and thus his name is sometimes cited as Harry Lee Kuan Yew, although this first name is never used in official settings.
Family background
In his memoirs, Lee mentions that he was a fourth-generation Chinese Singaporean: his Hakka great-grandfather, Lee Bok Boon (born 1846), emigrated from the Dapu county of Guangdong province to the Straits Settlements in 1862.
The eldest child of Lee Chin Koon and Chua Jim Neo, Lee Kuan Yew was born at 92 Kampong Java Road in Singapore, in a large and airy bungalow. As a child Lee was strongly influenced by British culture, due in part to his grandfather, Lee Hoon Leong, who had given his sons an English education.
Lee and his wife Kwa Geok Choo were married on September 30, 1950.
Several members of Lee's family hold prominent positions in Singaporean society, and his sons and daughter hold high government and government-linked posts.
His elder son Lee Hsien Loong, a former Brigadier-General, has been the Prime Minister, since 2004, and Finance Minister of Singapore. He is also the Vice-Chairman of the Government of Singapore Investment Company (GIC) (Lee himself is the Chairman). Lee's younger son, Lee Hsien Yang, also a former Brigadier-General, is the President and Chief Executive Officer of SingTel, (a post which he will give up soon) a pan-Asian telecommunications giant and Singapore's largest company by market capitalisation (listed on the Singapore Exchange, SGX). Temasek Holdings in turn is run by Executive Director and CEO Ho Ching, the wife of Lee's elder son, the Prime Minister. Lee's daughter, Lee Wei Ling, runs the National Neuroscience Institute, and remains unmarried. Lee's wife Kwa Geok Choo used to be a partner of the prominent legal firm Lee &
Early life
Lee was educated at Telok Kurau Primary School, Raffles Institution, and Raffles College.
Early political career – 1951 to 1959
Pre People's Action Party
Lee’s first experience with politics in Singapore was his role as election agent for his boss John Laycock under the banner of the pro-British Progressive Party in the 1951 legislative council elections. However, Lee eventually realised the party’s future looked bleak as it was unlikely to have mass support, especially from the Chinese-speaking working class masses. His big break came when he was engaged as a legal advisor to the trade and Students' unions which provided Lee with the link to the Chinese-speaking, working class world (Later on in his career, his party the PAP would use these historical links to unions as a negotiating tool in industrial disputes).
Formation of the People's Action Party
On November 21, 1954, Lee, together with a group of fellow English-educated middle-class men whom he himself described as “beer-swilling bourgeois” formed the socialist People's Action Party (PAP) in an expedient alliance with the pro-communist trade unionists. This alliance was described by Lee as a marriage of convenience, since the English-educated group needed the pro-communists’ mass support base while the communists needed a non-communist party leadership as a smoke screen because the Malayan Communist Party is illegal. Lee became secretary-general, a post he held until 1992, save for a brief period in 1957.
In Opposition
Lee contested and comprehensively won the Tanjong Pagar seat in the 1955 elections. Fortunately for Lee and the party's moderate faction, Lim Yew Hock ordered a mass arrest of the pro-communists and Lee was reinstated as secretary-general. After the communist 'scare', Lee subsequently sought and received a fresh and stronger mandate from his Tanjong Pagar constituents in a by-election in 1957. The communist threat within the party was temporarily removed as Lee prepared for the next elections.
Prime Minister, pre-independence – 1959 to 1965
Self-government administration – 1959 to 1963
In the national elections held on June 1, 1959, the PAP won forty-three of the fifty-one seats in the legislative assembly. Singapore gained self-government with autonomy in all state matters except in defence and foreign affairs, and Lee became the first prime minister of the state of Singapore on June 3, 1959, taking over from Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock. Before he took office, Lee demanded and secured the release of Lim Chin Siong and Devan Nair who were arrested earlier by Lim Yew Hock's government.
Lee faced many problems after gaining self-rule for Singapore from the British, including education, housing, and unemployment. In response to the housing problem, Lee established the Housing and Development Board (HDB), an agency which began a massive public housing construction programme to relieve the housing shortage.
Merger with Malaysia, then separation – 1963 to 1965
After Malayan Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman proposed the formation of a federation which would include Malaya, Singapore, Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei in 1961, Lee began to campaign for a merger with Malaysia to end British colonial rule.
On September 16, 1963, Singapore became part of the Federation of Malaysia. Lee openly opposed the bumiputra policy and used the Malaysian Solidarity Convention's famous cry of "Malaysian Malaysia!", a nation serving the Malaysian nationality, as opposed to the Malay race. More riots broke out in September 1964, as the rioters looted cars and shops, forcing both Tunku Abdul Rahman and Lee Kuan Yew to make public appearances in order to soothe the situation.
Unable to resolve the crisis, the Malaysian Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, decided to expel Singapore from Malaysia, choosing to "sever all ties with a State Government that showed no measure of loyalty to its Central Government". Lee Kuan Yew signed a separation agreement on August 7, 1965, which discussed Singapore's post-separation relations with Malaysia in order to continue co-operation in areas such as trade and mutual defence.
The failure of the merger was a heavy blow to Lee, who believed that it was crucial for Singapore’s survival. In a televised press conference, he broke down emotionally as he announced the separation to the people (this particular conference is used as evidence by supporters of Lee that he had not intentionally instigated the breakup of Malaysia):
"For me, it is a moment of anguish. Now, I, Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore, do hereby proclaim and declare on behalf on the people and the Government of Singapore that as from today, the ninth day of August in the year one thousand nine hundred and sixty-five, Singapore shall be forever a sovereign democratic and independent nation, founded upon the principles of liberty and justice and ever seeking the welfare and happiness of the people in a most and just equal society."
On that day, August 9, 1965, the Malaysian Parliament passed the required resolution that would sever Singapore's ties to Malaysia as a state, and thus the Republic of Singapore was created. Singapore's lack of natural resources, a water supply that was beholden primarily to Malaysia and a very limited defensive capability were the major challenges that Lee and the Singaporean Government faced.
Prime Minister, post-independence – 1965 to 1990
In his biography, Lee Kuan Yew stated that he did not sleep well, and fell sick days after Singapore's independence. As the British prime-minister at the time, Harold Wilson expressed concern upon learning of Lee's condition from the British High Commissioner, John Robb. In response to their concern, Lee replied:
"Do not worry about Singapore.
Lee began to seek international recognition of the Singapore's independence. Lee made his first official visit to Indonesia in 25 May 1973, just a few years after the Konfrontasi under Sukarno's regime.
As Singapore has never had a dominant culture to which immigrants could assimilate, nor a common language, together with efforts from the government and ruling party, Lee tried to create a common Singaporean identity in the 1970s and 1980s.
Lee and his government stressed the importance of maintaining religious tolerance and racial harmony, and they were ready to use the law to counter any threat that might incite ethnic and religious violence.
Decisions and policies
Lee had three main concerns – national security, the economy, and social issues – during his post-independence administration.
National security
The vulnerability of Singapore was deeply felt with threats from multiple sources including the communists, Indonesia (with its Confrontation stance), and UMNO extremists who wanted to force Singapore back into Malaysia. As Singapore gained admission to the United Nations, Lee quickly sought international recognition of Singapore's independence.
With the British announcement of having the intentions to pull out or cut down the troops from Singapore and Malaysia, in 1967, he and Goh introduced National Service, a conscription program that developed a large reserve force that can be mobilized in a short notice.
Later, Singapore was able to establish strong military relations with other nations of ASEAN, the Five-Powers Defence Agreement (FPDA) and other noncommunist states. With advice from Dr Albert Winsemius, Lee set Singapore on the path of industrialization.
In formulating economic policies, Lee was primarily assisted by his ablest ministers, especially Goh Keng Swee and Hon Sui Sen. They managed to reduce the unemployment rate from 14 percent in 1965 to 4.5 percent in 1973.
Designating official languages
Lee designated English as the language of the workplace and the common language among the different races, while recognising Malay, Chinese, and Tamil as the other three official languages.
Lee discouraged the usage of non-Mandarin Chinese dialects (such as Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese) by promoting Mandarin as the 'Mother Tongue' of ethnic Chinese, in view of having a common language of communication within the Chinese community. In response, Lee had Nanyang University absorbed by the English-language University of Singapore;
Government policies
Like many Asian countries, Singapore was not immune to the disease of corruption. Lee was well aware how corruption had led to the downfall of the Nationalist Chinese government in mainland China. Lee introduced legislation that gave the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) greater power to conduct arrests, search, call up witnesses, and investigate bank accounts and income tax returns of suspected persons and their family.
Lee believed that ministers should be well paid in order to maintain a clean and honest government.
In the late 1960s, fearing that Singapore's growing population might overburden the developing economy, Lee started a vigorous 'Stop-at-Two' family planning campaign.
In 1983, Lee sparked the 'Great Marriage Debate' when he encouraged Singapore men to choose women with high education as wives. Lee also introduced incentives, such as tax rebates, schooling, and housing priorities for graduate mothers who had three or four children (These were only open to families where ALL children were born after the campaign was started), in a reversal of the over-successful 'Stop-at-Two' family planning campaign in the 1960s and 1970s. By the late-1990s, birth rates had become so low that Lee's successor Goh Chok Tong extended these incentives to all married women, and gave even more incentives, such as the 'baby bonus' scheme.
Relations with Malaysia
Mahathir bin Mohamad
Lee looked forward to improving relationships with Mahathir bin Mohamad upon the latter's promotion to Deputy Prime Minister. Knowing that Mahathir was in line to become the next Prime Minister of Malaysia, Lee invited Mahathir (through then-President of Singapore Devan Nair) to visit Singapore in 1978. Mahathir told Lee to cut off links with the Chinese leaders of the Democratic Action Party;
In December 1981, Mahathir changed the time zone of the Malay Peninsula in order to create just one time zone for Malaysia, and Lee followed suit for economic and social reasons.
In January 1984, Mahathir imposed a RM100 levy on all goods vehicles leaving Malaysia and Singapore.
In June 1988, Lee and Mahathir reached a major agreement in Kuala Lumpur to build the Linggui dam on the Johor River. Lee approached Mahathir in 1989, when he intended to move the railway customs from Tanjong Pagar in Southern Singapore to Woodlands at the end of the Causeway, in part because of an increasing number of cases of drug smuggling into Singapore. The Points of Agreement (POA) was signed on 27 November 1990, a day before Lee stepped down as Prime Minister.
Senior Minister – 1990 to 2004
After leading the PAP in seven victorious elections, Lee stepped down on 28 November 1990, handing over the prime minister position to Goh Chok Tong. By stepping down when he was still mentally alert and in good health, Lee set himself apart from other strong contemporary Asian leaders such as Mao Zedong, Suharto, Ferdinand Marcos, and Ne Win, who had stayed in power for too long and left their countries in disarray.
As Goh Chok Tong became the head of government, Lee remained in the cabinet with a non-executive position of Senior Minister and played a role he described as advisory. In public, Lee would refer to Goh as "my Prime Minister", in deference to Goh's authority.
Lee subsequently stepped down as the Secretary-General of the PAP and was succeeded by Goh Chok Tong in November 1992.
Lee refrained from official dealings with all ASEAN governments, including Malaysia, so as not to cross lines with his successor, Goh Chok Tong.
Minister Mentor – 2004 to present
On 12 August 2004 Goh Chok Tong stepped down in favour of Lee's eldest son, Lee Hsien Loong. Goh became the Senior Minister and Lee Kuan Yew assumed a new cabinet position of Minister Mentor.
Regarding gambling laws, Lee stated that he was "emotionally and intellectually" against gambling.
Recently, Lee has expressed his concern about the declining proficiency of Mandarin among younger Singaporeans.
In June 2005, Lee published a book, Keeping My Mandarin Alive, documenting his decades of effort to master Mandarin — a language which he said he had to re-learn due to disuse:
"...because I don't use it so much, therefore it gets disused and there's language loss.
In an interview with CCTV on June 12, 2005, Lee stressed the need to have a continuous renewal of talent in the country's leadership, saying:
"In a different world we need to find a niche for ourselves, little corners where in spite of our small size we can perform a role which will be useful to the world.
Singapore General Elections 2006
Lee's Tanjong Pagar GRC was not contested by opposition parties. Lee branded Gomez a liar and challenged Gomez to sue for libel to clear his name.
Values and beliefs
Lee was one of the leading advocates of Asian values , though his interpretation of Asian values is open to debate. Using his support of Asian values, Confucian, and to a lesser extent, Buddhist virtues were widely promoted by Lee in the 1980s.
Legacy and memoirs
Legacy
During the three decades in which Lee was in office, Singapore grew from being a developing country to one of the most developed nations in the world, despite its small population, limited land space and lack of natural resources. Lee has often stated that Singapore's only natural resources are its people and their strong work ethic.
Controversies
On the other hand, some Singaporeans and foreigners have criticized Lee as elitist and even an autocrat, and that the economic prosperity under Lee was achieved at the expense of much political and social freedom. Adamant that the ends justify the means, Lee often prescribed repressive measures to safeguard national security and interests.
Lee has been criticized for implementing some harsh measures to suppress political opposition and freedom of speech, such as outlawing public demonstrations without an explicit police permit, the restriction of the press freedom, and the use of defamation lawsuits to bankrupt political opponents, such as Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, Tang Liang Hong and Chee Soon Juan. On this issue, Devan Nair, the third president of Singapore and who was living in exile in Canada, remarked in a 1999 interview with the Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail that Lee's technique of suing his opponents into bankruptcy or oblivion was an abrogation of political rights. In response to these remarks, Lee sued Devan Nair in a Canadian court but the lawsuit was dropped after Nair's sons reported his deteriorating debilitating mental illness.
On one occasion, after a court ruling in favour of Lee was overturned by the Privy Council, the government abolished the right of appeal to the Council. Throughout Lee's premiership from 1959 to 1990, the Internal Security Act was invoked several times to arrest and detain a number of people without trial, often for alleged involvement in "pro-Communist" or "Marxist" activities. In order to give full authority to the judges in their judicial decisions, Lee abolished the jury system in the courts.
Memoirs
Lee Kuan Yew has written a two-volume set of memoirs: The Singapore Story (ISBN 0-13-020803-5), which covers his view of Singapore's history until its separation from Malaysia in 1965, and From Third World to First: The Singapore Story (ISBN 0-06-019776-4), which gives his account of Singapore's subsequent transformation into a prosperous first-world nation. Lee also received other decorations which include the highest honour of Honorary Fellowship of the Edinburgh Royal College of Medicine (1988), and Man for Peace (1990) In 2002, Lee Kuan Yew was formally admitted to the Fellowship of Imperial College London in recognition of his promotion of international trade and industry, and development of science and engineering study initiatives with the UK. A Study of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew.
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