… and hoping that our younger Singaporeans might somehow gain a sense of the sheer immensity of his contribution.
by Dinesh Senan: For The Straits Times, Special Supplement for LKY’s 90th Birthday: 23 September 2013
A heartfelt thank you letter, as his 90th birthday draws close, is well due to our Founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
This letter is not about deifying the man, nor suggesting that one needs to agree with everything he has said and done.
It is a pause for reflection on his sheer dedicated effort over the arc of his entire adult lifespan, and his phenomenal vision, and on his accomplishments for the betterment of our country and of our people. And this note is meant to be a chance to simply show him our appreciation.
I am sure that the number of older Singaporeans who are aware of how profound an impact Mr Lee has had on their own lives is large, and that many will join in the spirit of this note to him. But more importantly, I pray that the younger Singaporeans amongst us might strive to gain at least a vicarious sense of just how great and improbable a contribution this man has made … in his head was a very, very grand idea, of entrepreneurship par excellence, and at the national level …
I do predict that history will carefully assess and consequently enlarge even further the full impact of his overall, weighty legacy, both at home, and upon the world at large, in the decades to follow.
But right now, it is simply about recognizing, with gratitude, his unstinting tenacity and life-long commitment to strongly leading and transforming what was not so long ago a very troubled colony, (flummoxed by communist insurgencies, triads and gangsterism, illiteracy, racial riots, low education levels, a near-absent industrial base, inadequate public housing, rampant unemployment and poverty), into the vibrant nation-state of today. A nation whose presence, participation and influence on the global stage today is out of all proportion to our tiny base.
And in saying thank you, it is perhaps timely to briefly to contemplate LKY the Man and some of his core attributes.
LKY The Man: Authentic, Pragmatic Visionary
Authenticity
Perhaps underlying and powering all of his accomplishments has been the tremendous force of his own Authenticity. This is a rare condition where one displays a strict ‘inner alignment’ or congruence of inner feelings, thoughts, words and deeds. Consistently, and regardless of who the audience might include. This means that what he feels, and thinks, he says and he does. Period. This attribute requires more than a modicum of self-confidence and courage, and it captures his commanding nature as a man. One may not always agree with such persons, but they agree with themselves, and they are quite impossible to ignore.
The attributes of such rare authenticity include bluntness of expression, and provocativeness without too much concern for political correctness. As Lincoln has said, “Towering genius disdains a beaten path.” LKY has never needed to be popular, never refrained from charting bold new courses, nor from speaking his mind, including lashing out at others whose opinions he did not agree with, as well as bearing down with his intolerance of any perceived standard of human performance lesser than excellence, or smacking of mere mediocrity. Nor has he tolerated the inability of our people to work together for the common goal of building this country, even if it has occasionally meant redefining common, hallowed notions of democracy, preferring instead what he calls ‘guided democracy’ to strongly and impatiently suppress resistance, and push forth initiatives that he knew would be right for the nation, even before the rest of us might have been fully ready to agree with him. And by and large, his firmness has yielded growth for Singapore.
This attribute of consistent authenticity leads inevitably also to the corollary attribute of Influence.
Consider the following grand statements by other world leaders:
“I have had the privilege of meeting many world leaders over the past half
century; none, however, has taught me more than Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s
first premier and its guiding spirit ever since.”
– Henry A Kissinger
“In my long life in public service, I have encountered many bright, able people.
None is more impressive than Lee Kuan Yew.”
– George H. W. Bush
“In office, I read and analysed every speech of Lee’s. He had a way of penetrating the fog of propaganda and expressing with unique clarity the issues of our times and the way to tackle them. He was never wrong.” Margaret Thatcher
“Lee is ‘our senior who has our respect’ … ‘To this day, you are still working tirelessly to advance our bilateral relationship, and you have my full admiration’.” – Xi Jinping
This is global influence of the most extraordinary kind. You cannot buy the ability to influence. LKY has earned it, through his lifetime of consistent inner alignment, and in the process, has certainly helped raise the image of Singapore, and thereby of us Singaporeans, in the world’s esteem today. We have him, in no small measure, to thank for this.
His influence at home was also a highly critical factor in enabling him to build and lead a powerful team in Cabinet, who together with him have shaped modern Singapore.
A Pragmatic Visionary
“I’m an idealist, but without illusions.” – J F Kennedy
It is far more probable than not, that we shouldn’t be anywhere near as developed a nation as we are today. And it is especially difficult, I know, for the younger ones amongst us to really get this, their having grown up in the midst of a bustling, modern metropolis.
The odds, back in the early 60s, were heavily against us succeeding at all, let alone at this pace … and to a huge extent, it was LKY’s audacious vision for us, (“Starship Singapore: Going boldly where no fishing colony has ever been before …”), and more than an ounce of willful determination that proactively put us on this unusual pathway to rapid development and progress.
Eschewing the wisdom of conventional development economics, he chose a bolder vision for us: to leap-frog our way into export oriented activity, (drawing in hard currency for our nascent economy), rather than first going through the traditional pathway of import substitution, (stemming the outflows of hard currency). His formula: believing that sheer hard work would enable us to succeed, if we pragmatically focused on building the supporting infrastructure to accommodate the best companies of the world, and if we focused on educating our workforce to provide the requisite high caliber support services for such businesses. And what then followed was an LKY-led ‘sales and marketing’ effort, including waylaying Global CEO’s of MNCs flying thru neighbouring airports, to come ‘visit’ Singapore for a few hours, where they were often personally met by LKY and his fellow Cabinet Ministers, who ‘sold’ those CEO’s the vision of the Singapore that was to come, where world-class Regional Head Offices of leading businesses would soon be thriving. Of course, what he was ‘selling’ hadn’t actually been built yet, but they bought into his vision and sheer determination. And the result was confoundingly incredible: within a few short years, we had an inflow of thousands of MNCs setting up their Regional HQs here, and the rest, they say, is history. And it needn’t have happened that way at all. But for his passion.
Whilst grandiose dreaming is easy … any fool can do that … LKY was at the same time, brutally pragmatic in setting our goals. His classic view has always been that Singapore has to take the world as it is, because “we are too small to change it”. His Cabinet was also consistently pragmatic when it came to matters of international trade, staying deliberately ‘neutral and non-aligned’ during the Cold War, doing hearty business with both sides of the divide. Our guiding mantra was that ‘we would trade with the devil to survive’.
LKY: The Leader by Example … and the Lessons Taught
Above all, he has been a teacher, who rolled up his sleeves, took the mantle of leadership of, and accountability to, the people, and then taught several pivotal lessons, for us and our future generations to contemplate, by direct example.
In closing this note, I would most like to say thank you to Mr Lee for teaching us, by his life’s example, these lessons:
- That tough times demand tough-minded leadership;
- That we should always dare to dream, but with our feet planted firmly on the ground, recognizing too that no one can stop us but ourselves, from choosing to step up to bat in the bigger boys’ league, if we wish to;
- That we should always be willing to work hard, to pay the price for our success, and that no one owes us a living; and
- That choosing excellence in all we do, is the only default-setting standard worth dedicating our lives to.
And most of all, I wish to thank you for leaving me, and my children, a Singapore we are all so very proud to be a part of in this world.
The Pragmatic Idealist 