http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-16/lee-kuan-yew-hospitalized-after-stroke-like-event.html
[h=1]Lee Kuan Yew Hospitalized After Stroke-Like Event[/h]
<CITE class=byline>By Linus Chua - Feb 16, 2013 9:12 PM GMT+0800 </CITE>
Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister, was hospitalized yesterday after suffering from a condition linked to a prolonged irregular heartbeat.
Lee, 89, was sent to the Singapore General Hospital after the suspected transient ischemic attack, a condition with stroke-like symptoms that clear within a day, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office.
“He has recovered but will remain warded for a few days for the doctors to adjust his medications and for observation,” according to the statement.
Under Lee’s 31 years as the country’s first elected prime minister, Singapore was transformed from a colonial backwater into Southeast Asia’s only advanced economy. He stepped down in 1990, handing power to
Goh Chok Tong. Lee’s older son,
Lee Hsien Loong, took over from Goh as the city’s third premier in 2004.
The elder Lee stayed on in the cabinet under Goh and his son, and resigned in May 2011 after his ruling party won the general election with the smallest margin of popular vote since independence in 1965.
When Lee was 86, he was diagnosed with sensory peripheral neuropathy which impaired feeling in his legs, his daughter Lee Wei Ling, a senior consultant at the
National Neuroscience Institute in Singapore, wrote in a column in the Sunday Times in November 2011. He also had a heart pacemaker implanted in 2008 after suffering from an irregular heartbeat.
The island republic is the only country in Asia with triple-A ratings from Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings.
Thousands of Singaporeans demonstrated today against a government plan to increase the island’s population through immigration, saying the policy will erode the national identity and threaten their livelihoods.
Protesters gathered at Speakers’ Corner at Hong Lim Park at the edge of the city’s financial district on a rainy afternoon, many dressed in black and carrying signs opposing the plan. Lawmakers from Prime Minister Lee’s ruling party last week endorsed a white paper that outlined proposals including allowing more foreigners through 2030 to boost the workforce.
To contact the reporter on this story: Linus Chua in Singapore at
[email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lars Klemming at
[email protected]
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