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Lee Kuan Yew: The Funniest Asian Man To Ever Have Lived On Planet Earth

Papsmearer

Alfrescian (InfP) - Comp
Generous Asset
http://generationpassport.com/2013/...asian-man-to-ever-have-lived-on-planet-earth/

Some criticize him as being a dictator, who trampled human rights and smashed his competition to get his way. Some people think he is the savior of Singapore and kept Singapore from remaining a third-world city-state riddled with poverty. I think he is the funniest Asian man to ever have lived on planet earth.

Before I went to Asia, I had no idea who Lee Kuan Yew was. I learned of him from another traveler when I was in Yangon, Myanmar.

The Australian in Myanmar said to me, “You know Singapore used to look like Yangon, but Lee Kuan Yew cleaned it up.”

This is interesting. Because both Yangon and Singapore were British colonies until roughly after WWII, when the British fled Asia. Yangon, a beautiful city, is filled with beggars and a very poor population scattered in decaying colonial buildings, while Singapore is one of the wealthiest and modern countries in the world. Why did two similar cities take two such divergent paths in the last 50 years?

The answer is in politics and leadership. One man ruled Singapore for over 30 years and turned it from third-world to first-world. Some criticize him as being a dictator, who trampled human rights and smashed his competition to get his way. Some people think he is the savior of Singapore and kept Singapore from remaining a third-world city-state riddled with poverty. I think he is the funniest Asian man to ever have lived on planet earth.

Lee was the Prime Minister of Singapore, an English Speaking city-state in southeast Asia, for 30 years. I’m not going to bore you with all the facts, that is what Wikipedia is for. Lee was a product of British colonialism and grew up speaking English–he only learned Chinese much later. Lee spent time in England and believed he could build a civilized society in Singapore. To compete with the West, Lee realized that Singapore had to adapt the language of their colonial masters–English. To this day, a little local secret is Singaporeans speak their own home language that is a mix of Chinese, Malay and English–can you imagine what that sounds like? The government pushes heavily to not promote this Singlish language. Left: Lee in black before heading off to be educated by his ancestral conquerors in England

I passed through Singapore briefly in 2011. It was one of the most modern and cleanest city-states I have ever been to. It made Chicago, where I am from, look behind the times. Of course, I’m not a local and I don’t know how things really are in Singapore. I do know that on the entry card I was given has a warning that drug smugglers are put to death in Singapore–that’s right–if you’re a drug dealer and you’re found with a certain amount of drugs, the mandatory sentence is death–I believe by hanging too.

I was a little bit worried someone would sneak drugs or something on me when I was there. If someone had it out for me, “hey let’s sneak drugs on that guy and he is dead!” I also threw away a lot of the counterfeit goods I had bought in Thailand.

Certain things like chewing gum are illegal. There are government workers monitoring crowds to make sure no one throws garbage on the ground, which carries a heavy fine. The colonial method of caning people has also been kept alive here. In the 90’s, some little American brat was keying cars in Singapore and got a legal caning from the authorities. Bill Clinton intervened and tried to stop this and Singapore said “go fly” to him. You know your country has balls, when they say go fly to Bill Clinton, even North Korea let him negotiate hostages out of there.

These hard policies are what cranked Singapore from a poverty swampland to a place where wealthy people have enough faith in to throw away their American citizenship. I’m referring to Eduardo Saverin, the Facebook billionaire, who renounced his U.S. citizenship to be a part of Singapore.

Watch the comic genius doing his stand up routine below…

“I am often accused of interfering in the private lives of citizens. Yes, if I did not, had I not done that, we wouldn’t be here today. And I say without the slightest remorse, that we wouldn’t be here, we would not have made economic progress, if we had not intervene on very personal matters – who your neighbour is, how you live, the noise you make, how you spit, or what language you use. We decide what is right. Never mind what people think.” – Lee Kuan Yew, Straits Times, Apr 20 1987

“One-man-one-vote is a most difficult form of government.. Results can be erratic.” - Lee Kuan Yew, Dec 19 1984

“What are our priorities? First, the welfare, the survival of the people. Then, democratic norms and processes which from time to time we have to suspend.” - Lee Kuan Yew, 1986 National Day Rally

“We have to lock up people, without trial, whether they are communists, whether they are language chauvinists, whether they are religious extremists. If you don’t do that, the country would be in ruins.”- Lee Kuan Yew, 1986

“I started off believing all men were equal. I now know that’s the most unlikely thing ever to have been, because millions of years have passed over evolution, people have scattered across the face of this earth, been isolated from each other, developed independently, had different intermixtures between races, peoples, climates, soils… I didn’t start off with that knowledge. But by observation, reading, watching, arguing, asking, that is the conclusion I’ve come to.”- Lee Kuan Yew, The Man & His Ideas, 1997

“If I have to shoot 200,000 students to save China from another 100 years of disorder, so be it.” – Lee Kuan Yew evoking the ghost of Deng Xiaoping whilst endorsing the Tiananmen Square massacre, Straits Times, Aug 17, 2004

“If you don’t include your women graduates in your breeding pool and leave them on the shelf, you would end up a more stupid society…So what happens? There will be less bright people to support dumb people in the next generation. That’s a problem.” -Lee Kuan Yew in 1983 National Day Rally

“China can draw on a talent pool of 1.3 billion people, but the United States can draw on a talent pool of 7 billion and recombine them in a diverse culture that enhances creativity in a way that ethnic Han nationalism cannot.” - Lee Kuan Yew

“If I tell Singaporeans – we are all equal regardless of race, language, religion, culture. Then they will say, ”Look, I’m doing poorly. You are responsible.” But I can show that from British times, certain groups have always done poorly, in mathematics and in science. But I’m not God, I can’t change you. But I can encourage you, give you extra help to make you do, say maybe, 20% better.” - Lee Kuan Yew, Success Stories, 2002

“The human being is an unequal creature. That is a fact. And we start off with the proposition. All the great religions, all the great movements, all the great political ideology, say let us make the human being as equal as possible. In fact, he is not equal, never will be.” – Lee Kuan Yew, from a speech during the 1960s, Success Stories

“We must encourage those who earn less than $200 per month and cannot afford to nurture and educate many children never to have more than two… We will regret the time lost if we do not now take the first tentative steps towards correcting a trend which can leave our society with a large number of the physically, intellectually and culturally anaemic.” – Lee Kuan Yew, 1967

Lee is a social Darwinist, a philosophy taught to him by his colonial masters–the English. Now Singapore is doing well economically and England and the West are not. This is the student becoming the leader. Lee has created a society that competes with, and does certain things better than, the West. Is he a tyrant or a hero? Go to Singapore and see for yourself.

*I was so delirious from months of travels, I didn’t take enough pictures at certain times. Singapore was one of those times I didn’t get enough, if any, pictures. For more Lee quotes go to http://leewatch.info/quotes/
 

mojito

Alfrescian
Loyal
What is so funny about it, eh? Ang Moh speaks the truth - Singapore would devolve into a shithole without Lee Kuan Yew. Just look at what happened over the last 10 years!
 

tonychat

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
You believe this shit what LKY says..

Economic progress of sinkieland is not by him, it is by a Dutch economist who is hired by the govt then to teach them how to progress.

and this motherfucker LKY divert all the credits to himself..

To think what is right for individuals is called total control on people so he remain in power for as long as he wants..

so what he think is right and what other people think is not right? so he jailed them and sue them ?? What a fucked up human being. We do not need such a shit to be a leader.
 

tanwahtiu

Alfrescian
Loyal
Fucking jiu hu kia farting again. Fucking Malaysian Chinese kia huan nah and become Malay lapdogs to the MLay.

Burma shitheads wear sarongs and gong kia type like your ex-PM m&d Mathat-air old fart.

Singapore was 70% Chinese and many are Hokkien 爱拼才能赢 type. Taiwan are successful they are hokkien people.

Mai sian and suan SIngaporean, go fuckback to Johor and fuck by huan nah kia


You believe this shit what LKY says..

Economic progress of sinkieland is not by him, it is by a Dutch economist who is hired by the govt then to teach them how to progress.

and this motherfucker LKY divert all the credits to himself..

To think what is right for individuals is called total control on people so he remain in power for as long as he wants..

so what he think is right and what other people think is not right? so he jailed them and sue them ?? What a fucked up human being. We do not need such a shit to be a leader.
 

tonychat

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
Fucking jiu hu kia farting again. Fucking Malaysian Chinese kia huan nah and become Malay lapdogs to the MLay.

Burma shitheads wear sarongs and gong kia type like your ex-PM m&d Mathat-air old fart.

Singapore was 70% Chinese and many are Hokkien 爱拼才能赢 type. Taiwan are successful they are hokkien people.

Mai sian and suan SIngaporean, go fuckback to Johor and fuck by huan nah kia

Oh i am a true blue unsinkified singaporean..

How is your PAP master? did you lick their balls today?
 

bigboss

Alfrescian
Loyal
This is interesting. Because both Yangon and Singapore were British colonies until roughly after WWII, when the British fled Asia. Yangon, a beautiful city, is filled with beggars and a very poor population scattered in decaying colonial buildings, while Singapore is one of the wealthiest and modern countries in the world. Why did two similar cities take two such divergent paths in the last 50 years?

After WW2 ended, sinkie land and Burma came under different system of governance. Sinkieland became an independent nation and LKY with the help of his colleagues built it up whereas Burma came under military dictatorial regime and the country stagnated, no progress, no development.

These ang mohs do not know their history and like to talk rubbish. Given the richness of Burma with its huge natural resources and a capable Government, it might even have surpassed sinkie land. The Burmese destroyed their own country then but now, the papees are destroying sinkie land.
 

zhihau

Super Moderator
SuperMod
Asset
Tell us how much wealth did the Lee Familee plunded frm Sinkiepoor the last 50yrs!

Damn that abolishment of estate duties before the gecko shriveled up, watch out for the re-enactment of the estate duties after LKY kicked the bucket!
 

Leongsam

High Order Twit / Low SES subject
Admin
Asset
Economic progress of sinkieland is not by him, it is by a Dutch economist who is hired by the govt then to teach them how to progress.

That dutch economist almost destroyed the country with his dumb high wage policy. If LHL had not saved the day, Singapore would have reverted to being a fishing village.
 

Papsmearer

Alfrescian (InfP) - Comp
Generous Asset
Like Goh Keng Swee has no credit in SG economic planning like that.

what credit should Robert get? What does he know about economics? He graduated from LSE with an Econs degree than did what with it? He did not work as an economist with the SIngapore govt, nor with the UN, nor for any big MNC or financial services company. All his economics knowledge is theory. He was working for the Department of Social Welfare in SIngapore before he left for his studies. Imagine, an organization tasked with porviding welfare to the people. That department would not exist today under the PAP's you-don't-work, you don't eat policy. Because PAP economics say there is no place to be a welfare state. AFter he came back from the LSE, he became its director. When he joined the PAP and after they won power and broke away from MAlaya, they had to ask the UN to send an economist to guide them. If Robert was so good, why ask the UN for an economist? If Robert was so good that as a brand new econs grad, he managed to formulate all the economic policies that guided singapore's success, he should be awarded the Nobel Prize for economics.

The only credit that Harry, Robert, and all these other first generation PAP assholes should get is that they recognized the fact they know nuts about the subject of economics, and stayed out of Winsemius' way and obediently implemented what he wanted. Make no mistake about, the singapore economy was planned by Winsemius including the entrepot free trade zone idea, as well as industrial parks like Jurong, and tax incentives.
 

Papsmearer

Alfrescian (InfP) - Comp
Generous Asset
You believe this shit what LKY says..

Economic progress of sinkieland is not by him, it is by a Dutch economist who is hired by the govt then to teach them how to progress.

and this motherfucker LKY divert all the credits to himself..

To think what is right for individuals is called total control on people so he remain in power for as long as he wants..

so what he think is right and what other people think is not right? so he jailed them and sue them ?? What a fucked up human being. We do not need such a shit to be a leader.

Actually, the Dutch ecnomist was never even paid by the singapore govt. He was loaned to singapore by the UN, and was paid by them. Winsemius was a genius as far as I can see. The great fake economic genius Robert Goh Keng Swee was smart enough to go to Con You and admit that he know shit about econs and only got econs degree from LSE with no experience. That is why they had to borrow Winsemius. There was an article written on Winsemius' death which indicated that he came back to singapore twice a year to monitor the economic progress. They book a nice hotel for him, and each department showed their progress reports to him, and he planned for the next fiscal year with them. Even after he retired he never took money from them, and still came back to singapore. After it was obvious that singapore was an economic success thanks to his policies, he never demanded multimillion dollars salaries, and never demanded to be given honours and what not. In fact, he was very low key and as far as I know, never even gave an interview. Compare and contrast the bunch of PAP shits now.
 

frenchbriefs

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
yes money is so funny in the rich man's world.

i guess thats why LKY is so funny.

[video=youtube;ETxmCCsMoD0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETxmCCsMoD0[/video]
 

Papsmearer

Alfrescian (InfP) - Comp
Generous Asset
You believe this shit what LKY says..

Economic progress of sinkieland is not by him, it is by a Dutch economist who is hired by the govt then to teach them how to progress.

and this motherfucker LKY divert all the credits to himself..

To think what is right for individuals is called total control on people so he remain in power for as long as he wants..

so what he think is right and what other people think is not right? so he jailed them and sue them ?? What a fucked up human being. We do not need such a shit to be a leader.

Con you praising someone other than himself? Notice how Robert was already graduated with a degree in econs from LSE, but Old fart still requested Winsemius to help. Means Keng Swee is a big wayang fraud as econs chief

Last Wednesday, Singapore's former economic adviser, Dr Albert Winsemius, died of pneumonia in The Hague. He was 86, and his funeral took place yesterday.

On Sunday, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew penned a tribute to the Dutch economist, which is reproduced below.

"DR ALBERT Winsemius led a UN Survey Mission to Singapore in 1960 and at our invitation continued as our economic adviser for nearly 25 years until 1984.

When Winsemius presented his report to me in 1961, he laid two pre-conditions for Singapore's success: first, to eliminate the communists who made any economic progress impossible; second, not to remove the statue of Stamford Raffles.

To tell me in 1961 that I should eliminate the communists when the Communist United Front was at the height of its powers and pulverising the PAP government day after day flabbergasted me. I gave a mirthless laugh. He knew only too well how tough the communist unions were.

To keep Raffles' statue was easy. My colleagues and I had no desire to rewrite the past and perpetuate ourselves by renaming streets or buildings after ourselves or putting our faces on postage stamps or currency notes.

Winsemius said we would need large-scale technical, managerial, entrepreneurial and marketing know-how from America and Europe. Investors wanted to see what the new socialist government in Singapore was going to do to the statue of Raffles. Letting it remain would be a symbol of public acceptance of the legacy of the British and could have a positive effect.

I had not looked at it that way but I was quite happy to leave this monument because he was the founder of modern Singapore.

The Singapore economy was in very poor shape after separation in August 1965. So we asked Winsemius to return and advise us on our economic strategy.

He arrived in mid-September and submitted his memorandum to me on Oct 2 in which he painted a grim but not hopeless picture. His recommendations were to restart barter trade with Indonesia and get a common market with Malaysia.

The first we did but the common market was not a starter.

Winsemius continued to visit Singapore twice a year, each time for about three weeks. In between, he would get regular reports from the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Trade and Industry to keep him updated with recent developments. We also sent him copies of The Straits Times by air mail so that when he came he was well informed.

He would spend the first week in discussions with our officials, and the next with executives of MNCs and some Singapore companies.

The top executives soon got to know his valuable role and spoke freely to him of their problems: over-regulation by the Government, the rising Singapore dollar, and so on. He would meet NTUC leaders.

He had a pragmatic, hands-on approach. He would submit his report and recommendations to me and the Minister of Finance.

I would have a working lunch with him alone, and as I was allergic to tobacco smoke, he desisted. It must have been trying for him, a chain smoker.

He was very good at figures, and had a knack for getting to grips with the basic issues, ignoring the mass of details. Most of all, he was wise and canny. I learnt much about Western business and businessmen from him.

He gave me practical lessons on how European and American companies operated which showed me that Singapore could plug into the global economic system of trade and investments by using their desire for profits. I set out to create the conditions that would enable us to do this and we succeeded.

He liked Singaporeans. He had advised the Portuguese and the Greeks and he had worked in Germany and Switzerland. But he once told me that he always felt that they were different people even though the Netherlands had been one of the German countries until 1648.

He never had that feeling with people in Singapore. He could not explain why he felt a great affinity with Hon (Sui Sen) and me and could only conclude that there was a 'congruence of the Calvinistic and Confucian philosophy of life'.

It was Singapore's good fortune that he took a deep and personal interest in Singapore's development. Singapore, and I personally, are indebted to him for the time, energy and devotion he gave to Singapore."
 

Papsmearer

Alfrescian (InfP) - Comp
Generous Asset
You believe this shit what LKY says..

Economic progress of sinkieland is not by him, it is by a Dutch economist who is hired by the govt then to teach them how to progress.

and this motherfucker LKY divert all the credits to himself..

To think what is right for individuals is called total control on people so he remain in power for as long as he wants..

so what he think is right and what other people think is not right? so he jailed them and sue them ?? What a fucked up human being. We do not need such a shit to be a leader.

http://sebastiaanjansen.wordpress.c...rt-winsemius-singapores-true-founding-father/

Dr. Albert Winsemius, Singapore’s true founding father?

Posted on August 19, 2013 by sebastiaanjansen


Dr. Albert Winsemius, a leading Dutch economist, was once called the ‘founding father’ of Singapore by Kees Tamboer in the leading Dutch newspaper ‘Het Parool’ (Tamboer). I personally feel this may be a bit of an overstatement considering Lee Kuan Yew’s essential role in the development of Singapore throughout the second half of the 20th century, but it is indeed correct that Dr. Albert Winsemius played a major role in at least the economic development of Singapore. I have researched Dr. Winsemius thoroughly in my Internal Assessment for the IB History course, but below you will find a more comprehensible, structured piece of research assessing the significance of Dr. Winsemius in Singapore’s economic development.

I would like to start by looking at the beginnings of Dr. Winsemius’ influence in Singapore’s economic development. Dr. Winsemius came to Singapore in 1960 as part of United Nations Development Programme to Singapore (Lee 66). He advised the Singaporean government on a possible economic roadplan to lead Singapore into the future. Dr. Winsemius’ first advise to Lee Kuan Yew was fairly simple; eliminate the communists and leave the statue of Sir Stamford Raffles (the founder of Singapore who landed here in 1819). Lee followed Winsemius’ advise, albeit with a few bumps along the way, as getting rid of the communists was fairly challenging and it was not until a few years later that the role of the communists had diminished.

After Singapore’s independence Dr. Winsemius made a five-point plan for Singapore’s development (Tamboer):
◾1: Manufacturing of low value-industries.
◾2: The Housing programme (HDB) and attracting foreign companies (Esso, Shell).
◾3: Upscaling of manufacturing.
◾4: Turn Singapore into an International Financial Centre.
◾5: Develop Singapore as an international traffic and transport center.

The question of course is whether the Singapore government actually followed his advise, and thus whether Dr. Winsemius was actually a significant contributor to Singapore’s success. Indeed evidence does point to this conclusion. As we know now the HDB-program is is highly successful in Singapore, providing relatively affordable housing in land-scarce Singapore for Singaporeans. Over 80% of Singapore’s citizens live in these HDB flats. Also the second part of the second step; attracting foreign companies, seemed to have been highly successful. Nowadays, Shell is one of the largest foreign investors in Singapore, employing over 2,600 people.

Part of Dr. Winsemius’ plan was to form Singapore into an International Financial Centre. His reasoning behind this plan was that Singapore was located perfectly in a time zone approximately between San Francisco and Frankfurt, and that by turning Singapore into a financial center for banking, it would create a “24-hour round-the-world service in money and banking” (Lee 89). In 1980, Singapore was the 6th largest financial center, compared to rank 11 in 1970 (Choi, Rim, Park, Tschoegl). I have yet to find evidence that indicates that anyone else came up with the idea of Singapore becoming a centre of finance, and am therefore willing to conclude it was indeed Dr. Winsemius who pushed for this concept.

Lastly, point five of Dr. Winsemius’ plan was to turn Singapore into a traffic and transport centre. Again, it seems very clear that this advise has been carefully followed by the Singaporean government and that this was a major contributor to the success story of Singapore. Singapore Changi airport opened in 1981. Not much later (in 1988) it won the title world’s best airport (“Major Milestones.”). Changi is still seen as a major gateway to Southeast Asia, and Singapore’s popularity as a stopover has increased steadily over the years. In fact, Singapore is now the 4th most popular city for overnight visitors (Bender), which I believe is strongly related to Singapore being a popular stopover for tourists travelling onward to other parts of Asia. Tourism accounts for 6% of the GDP this year (Fensom), so it is a relatively significant contributor to the economic prosperity of Singapore.

Yet we have to be careful not to give Dr. Winsemius too much credit. Indeed, he made an economic plan for Singapore that was followed closely by the Singapore government, but Singapore would not have been so successful were it not for its ultra-safe environment and political stability, especially compared to other Southeast Asian countries. Lee Kuan Yew can be credited with enforcing strict rules in Singapore to maintain law and order. According to Michael D. Barr (one of the most respected historians when it comes to Lee Kuan Yew) stated that Lee Kuan Yew strongly believed in Asian values (community over self). His beliefs were that economic prosperity should be regarded higher than freedom of speech or democracy. This belief led to his policy of cracking down hard on crime, but also minimizing power of opposition parties to ensure a stable government that could plan ahead for long periods of time withlut the threat of being removed after elections. This in turn led to more stability in the country and this was in sharp contrast with other countries in the region, making Singapore an attractive place for companies to settle, and thus contributing to economic growth (Barr 2).

Furthermore, Lee Kuan Yew strongly advocated retaining English as the first language of Singapore (Lee 181). I strongly believe that another reason why many companies settled in Singapore was because, just like in Hong Kong, language was not an issue which made doing business much easier. Laws were all written in English, as was the language that people spoke on the street. For expats this made the transition much easier, and Singapore became an attractive place to settle expats and their families.

All in all, Dr. Winsemius has played a very significant role in the economic development of Singapore. Many of his plans were implemented and contributed significantly to the economic growth of Singapore. However, we must recognize that it is not solely economic policies that lead to economic success. In Singapore’s case, the management of society also contributed to Singapore developing into one of the four Asian Tigers, and this can largely be credited to Lee Kuan Yew.



Works Cited

Barr, Michael D. Lee Kuan Yew The Beliefs behind the Man. 2nd. ed. Kuala Lumpur: New Asian Library, 2012. Print.

Bender, Andrew. “Bangkok Tops The World’s 10 Most Visited Cities.” Forbes. 06 Jul 2013: Web. 19 Aug. 2013.

Choi, Sang Rim, Daekeun Park, and Adrian Tschoegl, eds. “Banks and the World’s Major Banking Centers, 2000.” Wharton Knowledge. The Wharton Financial Institutions Center, n.d. Web. 17 Mar 2013. <http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/papers/1141.pdf&gt;.

Fensom, Anthony. “Singapore’s GDP Surprise.” Diplomat. 16 Jul 2013: Web. 19 Aug. 2013.

Lee, Kuan Yew. From Third World to First The Singapore Story: 1965-2000. 1st ed. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2000. Print.

Tamboer, Kees. “Albert Winsemius, ‘founding father’ of Singapore.” IIAS Newsletter. 9. (1996): Web. 27 Feb. 2013. <http://www.iias.nl/iiasn/iiasn9/soueasia/winsemiu.html&gt;.

“Major Milestones.” Changi Airport Group. Changi Airport Group, 25 Sept 2012. Web. 19 Aug 2013. <http://www.changiairportgroup.com/cag/html/media-centre/major_milestones.html&gt;.
 
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