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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - MM: I never appointed my son to be PM !</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right>
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</NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>2:14 am </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 6) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>21451.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD>MM Lee reveals more personal side
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD>He recounts experiences at tea session with students in Moscow </TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- Author --></TD></TR><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Jeremy Au Yong
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MM Lee speaking at the Skolkovo Moscow School of Management yesterday. With him is Mr Ruben Vardanian, president of the school's management committee. -- ST PHOTO: JEREMY AU YONG
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->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 yesterday 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.
He has been a member of the school's international advisory board since 2007. The Skolkovo school is the first dedicated business school in Russia.
But where the issues at Sunday's session centred on Russia and its policies, the dialogue yesterday with a group of students from the same school was focused more on the Minister Mentor himself.
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 yesterday 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.
But MM Lee also stressed that language was only part of the equation. Sincerity mattered as well.
'What you say, you must mean; and what you mean, you must deliver. I always understate what I intend to do and overachieve,' he said.
He also shared some tips on public speaking. He said that he did not like to read from a prepared text and preferred to react to the audience.
When asked what his biggest regret was, MM Lee said he did not like to dwell on those questions.
'That is a parlour game,' he said. 'In my mind, I could have done better. But that was the knowledge I had at that time, and I had to make that decision at that moment given incomplete knowledge. If it is in error, I have to pay for it.
'But I always take decision. Where if it fails, I have got an exit route,' he explained.
MM Lee is winding up his week-long European tour that also included London and Armenia.
He is due to return to Singapore tomorrow.
[email protected]
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</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD>He recounts experiences at tea session with students in Moscow </TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- Author --></TD></TR><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Jeremy Au Yong
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- show image if available --></TD></TR><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
MM Lee speaking at the Skolkovo Moscow School of Management yesterday. With him is Mr Ruben Vardanian, president of the school's management committee. -- ST PHOTO: JEREMY AU YONG
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->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 yesterday 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.
He has been a member of the school's international advisory board since 2007. The Skolkovo school is the first dedicated business school in Russia.
But where the issues at Sunday's session centred on Russia and its policies, the dialogue yesterday with a group of students from the same school was focused more on the Minister Mentor himself.
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 yesterday 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.
But MM Lee also stressed that language was only part of the equation. Sincerity mattered as well.
'What you say, you must mean; and what you mean, you must deliver. I always understate what I intend to do and overachieve,' he said.
He also shared some tips on public speaking. He said that he did not like to read from a prepared text and preferred to react to the audience.
When asked what his biggest regret was, MM Lee said he did not like to dwell on those questions.
'That is a parlour game,' he said. 'In my mind, I could have done better. But that was the knowledge I had at that time, and I had to make that decision at that moment given incomplete knowledge. If it is in error, I have to pay for it.
'But I always take decision. Where if it fails, I have got an exit route,' he explained.
MM Lee is winding up his week-long European tour that also included London and Armenia.
He is due to return to Singapore tomorrow.
[email protected]
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