Seeing Lee Kuan Yew as a man, not a politician

This is how one young Singaporean remembers Lee Kuan Yew.

Olivia Ng| April 06, 06:17 PM

“Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life”

Imagine working in one job your entire life. Many people would consider ‘taking a break’ or retiring from the industry after 10 years or so. This man had so much drive in what he was doing that he was involved in about 50 years of the Singapore political scene. Now if you enjoy your current career path, how far ahead do you think you’ll stick to it? To find something that you can see yourself doing for the next 50 years, regardless of how hard it will get- that is the kind of passion I’d like to discover for myself.

“I'm very determined. If I decide what something is worth doing, then I'll put my heart and soul to it. The whole ground can be against me, but if I know it is right, I'll do it. That's the business of a leader. (Lee Kuan Yew, "The Man and His Ideas," 1998)”

 

Haters gonna hate

Mr Lee sure didn’t let haters bring him down. And we all know you can’t have friends without making a few enemies. Mr Lee had so much confidence in his goals that he did not dwell in the opinions of others, especially those that doubted him. He was able to stand in front of a nation and say “as long as I am in charge, nobody is going to knock it down”. Some of us don’t even dare raise our hand in class to ask a question in fear of looking stupid.

“You call me a dictator. You are entitled to call me whatever you like, but that doesn't make me one... do I need to be a dictator when I can win, hands down? (Quoted in an interview with the New York Times at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, 1999)”

 

A loving father

Through the eyes of the public it would be quite hard to tell what kind of man Mr Lee really is. I only took real interest in MM Lee’s deteriorating health when I saw the PM Lee’s uploads of his childhood pictures with his parents. His difficulty holding his emotions while giving his speech plucked on my heartstrings. It made me see that someone was losing their father, their pillar of strength and perhaps the man that would read his children bedtime stories. Family was important to Mr Lee, something that people forget in the midst of their success.

 

A visionary

Steve Jobs created Apple, Walt Disney created Disney, Lee Kuan Yew created Cosmopolitan Singapore. These men saw something in the world that others could and did not. They made their fair share of mistakes to build the empires they have left behind, and certainly they doubted themselves from time to time. After the iPod came out many people said, “I could have invented that”. Fact is- they didn’t think of it first. Mr Lee was able to think beyond the limitations of his surroundings and beyond the mindset of his time. Perhaps, it was the Western influence that encouraged him to reimagine the possibilities of future Singapore. Instead of living his life with all these ideas in his head (imagine him at the kopitiam rambling about his ideas to other uncles over coffee), he got up and did something about it. We’re just glad he did.

singapore-before-after

 

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