I am sure most of you have heard of the story about the blind men and the elephant. One blind man grabbed the tail of the elephant and declared that the elephant was a snake. The other grabbed the elephant by its leg and declared the elephant was a tree.
This fable makes the point that people are unable to see the big picture. Over the past few days, people wrote nice things about Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) on the internet. There are also people who wrote nasty things about him.
The usual good things said was that he brought us from the 3rd world to the 1st. He created a harmonious multi racial society. He created a meritocratic society. Etc.
The bad things people wrote about him were that he has high handed, undemocratic, interned people without trial, muzzled the press, sued opposition members, elitist etc.
All of the above is true. His critics are like the blind men in the elephant fable. What they failed to realize is that without doing the nasty things, we could not have achieved all the good things. LKY had a vision. He wanted to transform Singapore from a 3rd world country into a 1st world country.
He also wanted a multi-racial society where all races are treated the same. Those who did not share his vision were “steamrolled” by the juggernaut of a man with internment without trial or lawsuits and restricted from expressing their views in the press.
Had he not done so, his vision, which nearly everybody praised, could not have been achieved. Judging from the long queues of people going to pay their last respects to LKY, I would say that nearly everybody loved the results he has achieved for us.
Let me elaborate with a few examples on how he achieved success with methods that earned him criticism.
To get Singapore to the first world, we had to work very hard. There was no short cut. That is why meritocracy was promoted. Meritocracy means that the reward goes to those who work hard and have abilities. Not to those with connections or of a certain race. It also means that reward does not go to those who do not work hard or are incapable.
This leads to inequality of rewards. Some will grow rich while others remained poor. The Socialists and Communists had a different vision. They wanted or claimed to want equality of wealth for everybody. LKY started out as a Socialist. But he eventually realized, long before the rest of the world, that Socialism does not work. Giving people equal rewards despite of their effort put in results in poverty.
Mao Tse Tung (Mao Zedong) found that out the hard way. He put everybody into communal farms where the rice or wheat grown would be shared equally by everybody regardless of how hard each farmer worked. The result was starvation and tens of millions died. If I work 10 hours a day and get the same amount of rice as someone who works 2 hours a day, why would I bother to work hard?
LKY’s first clash was with the Communists who were inspired by Mao and Marx. They were thugs who organized violent strikes and protests. They sought power using violence instead of through the election process. LKY interned them without trial those that his Special Branch believed were communists.
They were nasty people who would have turned Singapore into another N. Korea if they had won. Tens of thousands would have died. These were interned and given three choices:
1) Confess and promise to stop their communist activities. Those who did that were set free. Some of them ended wealthy businessmen, a far cry from the Communist ideal of equal distribution of wealth. So after they failed at Communism, they succeeded in capitalism! What an irony.
2) Migrate to a country that was willing to accept them. Some of them went to China, the country that inspired their Communist activities. I recall reading an article of an ex-internee that LKY met in China. She had climbed high in the Communist Party hierarchy after migrating there. After China took the capitalist road under Deng Xiaoping, all senior party officials were told to learn from Singapore. Another irony.
There were some who went to the United Kingdom. This is yet another irony because in the centuries of British colonialism, the British would send their black sheep to the colonies. After independence, Singapore sent its red sheep to the UK.
3) Remain in jail.
Another group of people that clashed with LKY in the early days was the Chinese nationalists or Chinese chauvinist as what LKY called them. These loved the Chinese language and culture and wanted Singapore to be a Chinese country. Why not? After all, the Chinese were and still are the majority group.
The natural thing would be to make Chinese the main language. But LKY had a different vision - that Singapore would be a multi-cultural country. So English and not Chinese would be the working language. Using English would have the great advantage of facilitating knowledge transfer and attracting western investments.
But, more importantly, it also meant that all races would be on an equal footing. It is easier to turn everyone into Singaporeans if we use a neutral language. If Chinese were the national language, then Singapore will become a Chinese country. The Malays and Indians would not feel that this is their country too. At the same time, they would be disadvantaged in the competition for jobs. This would cause discontent and racial friction.
Singapore at the time of its birth had experienced racial riots between Malays and Chinese. Any more riots would have discourage foreign investment as well as raised the risk that Malaysia might have an excuse to invade Singapore at a time when our armed forces were weak.
But the Chinese educated at that time were very unhappy that LKY decided to promote English and hence downgrade the importance of Chinese. This is understandable. It meant their jobs and career prospects were threatened. Besides this, they loved their language, Chinese schools and universities. All these eventually had to close. They knew that and made a spirited defence of the Chinese language and culture.
They were in the way of LKY’s vision of creating a harmonious multi-racial society. Making Singapore a Chinese country, which was the popular thing to do, would not create a harmonious multi-racial country. So LKY steamrolled over them in his usual way.
One of the casualties was press freedom. Chinese newspapers were forced not to criticize his language policy. The curbs on the press was one side of the coin. On the other was a harmonious multi-racial society. Both came together. Defusing ethnic tensions also encouraged international companies to invest and create jobs.
Before you condemn him for curbing press freedom, let me tell you the story of Yugoslavia. When it was ruled by a dictator, Josip Broz Tito, all the different ethnic groups lived in peace. Stirring up racial animosity would get you sent to prison. Then Tito died. When democracy came and the people had greater freedom of speech, the country fell into civil war.
Thousands died and today, Yugoslavia is no more. How come? That’s because politicians posed as champions of their ethnic group against the others whom they portrayed as belligerent. Stirring up racial animosities got them votes and power instead of jail terms. That was how Slobodan Milosovich gained power in Serbia. But it caused a civil war because other ethnic groups’ leaders did the same.
In summary, LKY had a vision and he succeeded in achieving it. His vision of a prosperous First World economy with a harmonious multi-racial society Is widely praised. But it was achieved by “steamrolling” over those who did not agree with it or wanted to do things that in his judgement would endanger achieving his vision.
In the end, his judgement proved correct. For me, it is the result that counts. We would not be where we are today had he acted differently.
http://therealsingapore.com/content...nt-lee-kuan-yews-critics-dont-get-big-picture
This fable makes the point that people are unable to see the big picture. Over the past few days, people wrote nice things about Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) on the internet. There are also people who wrote nasty things about him.
The usual good things said was that he brought us from the 3rd world to the 1st. He created a harmonious multi racial society. He created a meritocratic society. Etc.
The bad things people wrote about him were that he has high handed, undemocratic, interned people without trial, muzzled the press, sued opposition members, elitist etc.
All of the above is true. His critics are like the blind men in the elephant fable. What they failed to realize is that without doing the nasty things, we could not have achieved all the good things. LKY had a vision. He wanted to transform Singapore from a 3rd world country into a 1st world country.
He also wanted a multi-racial society where all races are treated the same. Those who did not share his vision were “steamrolled” by the juggernaut of a man with internment without trial or lawsuits and restricted from expressing their views in the press.
Had he not done so, his vision, which nearly everybody praised, could not have been achieved. Judging from the long queues of people going to pay their last respects to LKY, I would say that nearly everybody loved the results he has achieved for us.
Let me elaborate with a few examples on how he achieved success with methods that earned him criticism.
To get Singapore to the first world, we had to work very hard. There was no short cut. That is why meritocracy was promoted. Meritocracy means that the reward goes to those who work hard and have abilities. Not to those with connections or of a certain race. It also means that reward does not go to those who do not work hard or are incapable.
This leads to inequality of rewards. Some will grow rich while others remained poor. The Socialists and Communists had a different vision. They wanted or claimed to want equality of wealth for everybody. LKY started out as a Socialist. But he eventually realized, long before the rest of the world, that Socialism does not work. Giving people equal rewards despite of their effort put in results in poverty.
Mao Tse Tung (Mao Zedong) found that out the hard way. He put everybody into communal farms where the rice or wheat grown would be shared equally by everybody regardless of how hard each farmer worked. The result was starvation and tens of millions died. If I work 10 hours a day and get the same amount of rice as someone who works 2 hours a day, why would I bother to work hard?
LKY’s first clash was with the Communists who were inspired by Mao and Marx. They were thugs who organized violent strikes and protests. They sought power using violence instead of through the election process. LKY interned them without trial those that his Special Branch believed were communists.
They were nasty people who would have turned Singapore into another N. Korea if they had won. Tens of thousands would have died. These were interned and given three choices:
1) Confess and promise to stop their communist activities. Those who did that were set free. Some of them ended wealthy businessmen, a far cry from the Communist ideal of equal distribution of wealth. So after they failed at Communism, they succeeded in capitalism! What an irony.
2) Migrate to a country that was willing to accept them. Some of them went to China, the country that inspired their Communist activities. I recall reading an article of an ex-internee that LKY met in China. She had climbed high in the Communist Party hierarchy after migrating there. After China took the capitalist road under Deng Xiaoping, all senior party officials were told to learn from Singapore. Another irony.
There were some who went to the United Kingdom. This is yet another irony because in the centuries of British colonialism, the British would send their black sheep to the colonies. After independence, Singapore sent its red sheep to the UK.
3) Remain in jail.
Another group of people that clashed with LKY in the early days was the Chinese nationalists or Chinese chauvinist as what LKY called them. These loved the Chinese language and culture and wanted Singapore to be a Chinese country. Why not? After all, the Chinese were and still are the majority group.
The natural thing would be to make Chinese the main language. But LKY had a different vision - that Singapore would be a multi-cultural country. So English and not Chinese would be the working language. Using English would have the great advantage of facilitating knowledge transfer and attracting western investments.
But, more importantly, it also meant that all races would be on an equal footing. It is easier to turn everyone into Singaporeans if we use a neutral language. If Chinese were the national language, then Singapore will become a Chinese country. The Malays and Indians would not feel that this is their country too. At the same time, they would be disadvantaged in the competition for jobs. This would cause discontent and racial friction.
Singapore at the time of its birth had experienced racial riots between Malays and Chinese. Any more riots would have discourage foreign investment as well as raised the risk that Malaysia might have an excuse to invade Singapore at a time when our armed forces were weak.
But the Chinese educated at that time were very unhappy that LKY decided to promote English and hence downgrade the importance of Chinese. This is understandable. It meant their jobs and career prospects were threatened. Besides this, they loved their language, Chinese schools and universities. All these eventually had to close. They knew that and made a spirited defence of the Chinese language and culture.
They were in the way of LKY’s vision of creating a harmonious multi-racial society. Making Singapore a Chinese country, which was the popular thing to do, would not create a harmonious multi-racial country. So LKY steamrolled over them in his usual way.
One of the casualties was press freedom. Chinese newspapers were forced not to criticize his language policy. The curbs on the press was one side of the coin. On the other was a harmonious multi-racial society. Both came together. Defusing ethnic tensions also encouraged international companies to invest and create jobs.
Before you condemn him for curbing press freedom, let me tell you the story of Yugoslavia. When it was ruled by a dictator, Josip Broz Tito, all the different ethnic groups lived in peace. Stirring up racial animosity would get you sent to prison. Then Tito died. When democracy came and the people had greater freedom of speech, the country fell into civil war.
Thousands died and today, Yugoslavia is no more. How come? That’s because politicians posed as champions of their ethnic group against the others whom they portrayed as belligerent. Stirring up racial animosities got them votes and power instead of jail terms. That was how Slobodan Milosovich gained power in Serbia. But it caused a civil war because other ethnic groups’ leaders did the same.
In summary, LKY had a vision and he succeeded in achieving it. His vision of a prosperous First World economy with a harmonious multi-racial society Is widely praised. But it was achieved by “steamrolling” over those who did not agree with it or wanted to do things that in his judgement would endanger achieving his vision.
In the end, his judgement proved correct. For me, it is the result that counts. We would not be where we are today had he acted differently.
http://therealsingapore.com/content...nt-lee-kuan-yews-critics-dont-get-big-picture
