Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas

282 Pages·2012·17.79 MB·English

by  Han Fook Kwang

F O R E W O R D
I
n 1997, Lee Kuan Yew: The Man
And His Ideas was published.
It was the first book that
tried to capture the essence of
Singapore’s first prime minister and
the ideas that shaped modern Singapore.
The authors – Han Fook Kwang,
Warren Fernandez and Sumiko Tan – surveyed
more than 2,000 speeches Lee made over
almost a half century of his political life, beginning with his first
political speech while a student in Britain in 1950. They then
identified those which had made a difference to Singapore.
Forty-six speeches were eventually selected.
Lee also gave the authors a series of interviews – 13 in all
over about 30 hours, from August 1994 through to February
1995. In them, he elaborated on how he came round to his
key ideas and whether experience later led him to modify them
or strengthened his beliefs even more. These interviews were
woven into the 11 chapters.
The best-selling 455-page book was published by Times
Editions, part of the Times Publishing Group, and The Straits
Times Press, part of Singapore Press Holdings. Times Editions
is now part of Marshall Cavendish, which belongs to Fraser and
Neave, Limited (“F&N”).
This e-book is published jointly by The Straits Times and
Times Publishing Ltd as a public service to commemorate the
life and work of Lee. It is free for download.
It draws from the original book’s contents and adds interactive
elements and some new content.
It features an edited version of the original Introduction and
reproduces three chapters, as well as 24 speeches and excerpts
from the interviews which give a flavour of Lee’s life, work and
vision. This includes his views on leadership, democracy, the nature
of societies, the role of the media as well as his thoughts on his
family and friendships. Some of the speeches were made in the
years after The Man And His Ideas was published.
We have added audio clips from the 1994/1995 interviews held
at Lee’s Istana office. We have included more photographs of Lee
taken for the book on Jan 17, 1995, when he autographed the
books for sale for charity on Sept 16, 1997, and when the book
was launched on Oct 10, 1997.
Lee died at the age of 91 on March 23, 2015, Singapore’s
Jubilee year of independence.
More than anyone else, Lee Kuan Yew made Singapore what it is
today. For those interested in how his ideas transformed Singapore,
this e-book should be a useful starting point.
Warren Fernandez/Sumiko Tan
March 2015

C O N T E N T S
F O R E W O R D
H O W T O U S E T H I S E - B O O K
I N T R O D U C T I O N
I D I D M Y B E S T

I T B E G A N W H E N M Y W O R L D
C O L L A P S E D
C U L T U R E , T H E X - F A C T O R
S P E E C H E S A N D I N T E R V I E W S
C R E D I T S
I N T R O D U C T I O N
W
hen Lee Kuan Yew wanted Singapore to become a garden city,
to soften the harshness of life in one of the world’s most densely
populated countries, he did not write a memorandum to the
environment minister or to the head of the agency responsible for
parks and trees. He did not form a committee nor seek outside
help to hire the best landscapists money could buy. For one thing,
in the 1960s, when he was thinking of these matters, money was
in short supply. In fact, having been unceremoniously booted out
of Malaysia, the country’s economic survival was hanging in the
balance.
For another, there was no
environment minister to speak
of then, so low down in the list
of priorities were these matters.
When jobs had to be created and
communists fought in the streets,
only the birds were interested in
flowers and trees.
But Lee was interested. And he
became personally involved in the
project of transforming Singapore
from just concrete and steel to
Singapore, Garden City: On June 16, 1963, Mr Lee
concrete, steel, trees, shrubs,
launched the first tree-planting campaign by planting
a mempat tree (above) at what was then Farrer Circus. flowers and parks. He would
He started an annual Tree Planting Day in 1971 and has
become personally knowledgeable
planted a tree in Tanjong Pagar every year since. He
marked 50 years of the greening of Singapore by planting
a rain tree at Holland Village Park on June 16, 2013. He
attended his last tree-planting ceremony on Nov 2, 2014.
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