“Asian Review 018” ― Singapore part4
Lee Kuan Yew’s 50-year instruction and the “Merlion”
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles is said to be the “Father of Singapore Construction”. If so, it is without a doubt that “Father of Singapore Establishment” is Mr. Lee Kwang Yu.
What kind of image do you have of Singapore?
A clean city without a single garbage on the street, a beautiful southern country with abundant green, a rational and consistent urban management by the national government as a whole, or a “financial center in Asia” where people, goods and money are gathered based on a stable economy • • • It is not an exaggeration to say that all of these were made by Lee Kuan Yew.
Now in ASEAN countries including India and China, Singapore is showing its presence as an advanced country in Asia similar to Japan. However, Lee Kuan Yew’s speech when Singapore became independent as if it was being “separated” from Malaysia in 1965, still remains in the memory of the people as a famous story and has been passed down to posterity. At this time, Lee felt sorrowful about the future of his homeland who was put in “a state without resources, water and food”, and Lee was said to have been in the depths of despair.
However, this leader who was the fourth generation of “Hakka Chinese” was a great man. Using that adversity as a springboard, he thought about how this small country could survive, and he made it into reality. He studied law at the University of Cambridge in the UK and graduated first in his class. He thought of important strategies such as:
1) to make the city attractive and beautiful, to increase visitors by tourists and MICE;
2) to establish a mechanism that allows excellent politicians and bureaucrats to be appointed, to raise educational standards, and to make English the official language;
3) to attract companies by setting low corporate tax rates and the ease of establishing a company and so on.
Lee seems to have claimed that “One-party dictatorship is more efficient and more suitable for East Asian society than the Western-style democracy”. As East Asian society was family oriented, educational-oriented and collectivistic, we call it “Asian values”, but this way of thinking once created controversy. This was because of the Hakka blood in Lee Kuan Yew, which some people imaged the Chinese supremacy.
The lack of tourism resources was also a big issue. Singapore Tourism Bureau had been straggled to create destinations for tourists, and finally realized the dream by creating the “Merlion statue” in 1964. These stories are introduced in books and blogs online, so I would pass to explain in detail, and would like to continue exploring how Singapore developed to reach its present position.
