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Sep 22, 2009
MM Lee gets 'personal'
He recounts experiences at tea session with students in Moscow
By Jeremy Au Yong
On Sunday, MM Lee (left) was at a dialogue with students from the Skolkovo Moscow School of Management as he attended the opening of its new campus. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
MOSCOW - WHILE the dialogue a day earlier had focused on the big picture and global policies, 10 students handpicked to attend a tea session with Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew in Moscow on Monday had very different sort of questions on their minds.
They were more interested in his personal experiences.
And MM Lee obliged, speaking frankly about the challenges he faced in his early years, his regrets in life and his approach to politics.
He also responded to a question on whether he had anything to do with his son, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, becoming prime minister. But he could not resist taking a jab at the student asking it.
MM Lee said: 'That question has been thrown at me a 1,001 times. I did not appoint my son. I appointed somebody else prime minister, who was my successor, and he stayed in the job for 14 years. And he chose my son to be his deputy. I did not arrange that.
'After five years, nobody doubts that he is able to do his job better than anybody else, so the question has stopped being asked.'
On Sunday, MM Lee was at a dialogue with students from the Skolkovo Moscow School of Management as he attended the opening of its new campus. One of the first questions posed was about his secret to motivating people. His answer: Speak their language.
He spoke of his attempt to learn all the major languages in Singapore during the early days of the PAP: 'I learnt to speak the languages of the common man, which was Malay and basic English - not BBC English. In other words, disjointed grammar, Malay sentences with English words.'
It was the same with Chinese. But he told students on Monday that the need to campaign in all three languages during the elections was exhausting, and it took its toll on him.
He recalled an occasion when he did a multilingual broadcast at a radio station. He was so tired at one point that the staff thought he had disappeared from the studio: 'I was missing. They came to look for me. I was lying on the floor to recover my breath. It was really an effort,' he said.
Sep 22, 2009
MM Lee gets 'personal'
He recounts experiences at tea session with students in Moscow
By Jeremy Au Yong
MOSCOW - WHILE the dialogue a day earlier had focused on the big picture and global policies, 10 students handpicked to attend a tea session with Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew in Moscow on Monday had very different sort of questions on their minds.
They were more interested in his personal experiences.
And MM Lee obliged, speaking frankly about the challenges he faced in his early years, his regrets in life and his approach to politics.
He also responded to a question on whether he had anything to do with his son, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, becoming prime minister. But he could not resist taking a jab at the student asking it.
MM Lee said: 'That question has been thrown at me a 1,001 times. I did not appoint my son. I appointed somebody else prime minister, who was my successor, and he stayed in the job for 14 years. And he chose my son to be his deputy. I did not arrange that.
'After five years, nobody doubts that he is able to do his job better than anybody else, so the question has stopped being asked.'
On Sunday, MM Lee was at a dialogue with students from the Skolkovo Moscow School of Management as he attended the opening of its new campus. One of the first questions posed was about his secret to motivating people. His answer: Speak their language.
He spoke of his attempt to learn all the major languages in Singapore during the early days of the PAP: 'I learnt to speak the languages of the common man, which was Malay and basic English - not BBC English. In other words, disjointed grammar, Malay sentences with English words.'
It was the same with Chinese. But he told students on Monday that the need to campaign in all three languages during the elections was exhausting, and it took its toll on him.
He recalled an occasion when he did a multilingual broadcast at a radio station. He was so tired at one point that the staff thought he had disappeared from the studio: 'I was missing. They came to look for me. I was lying on the floor to recover my breath. It was really an effort,' he said.
