Without LKY's knuckleduster politics in the early 60s, law and order and stability would not have been achieved and the industrialisation phase would never have come to pass.
LKY had the mongrel in him that no other politician in his team had. The rest were technocrats not leaders. His foes were formidable. The rest of the founding members would never had defeated the BS without his leadership.
Singapore without LKY would have been like Apple computer without Steve J. Wozniak was the brains but it was Jobs that started the revolution.
First, Singapore was already the most prosperous place in Southeast Asia in the late 50s and early 60s. Nothing at all to do with LKY. Everything to do with the island’s strategic location at the tip of the Malay peninsula, the British Empire and its rule of law. Even rich Asiatics preferred to live under British rule of law than the chaotic state of affairs in China.
Please watch this video to see how prosperous we already were in 1957.
[video=youtube;nw7toyYrqjs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw7toyYrqjs&list=PL294EC768067FAE30[/video]
Second, while the British granted independence to Singapore in 1963 and we were kicked out of the Federation in 1965, British bases and military forces remained on the Little Red Dot until the early 1970s. In other words, LKY did not have his own knuckle duster. The Sinkie armed forces were not yet formed. Even the Malayan regiments that refused to leave after we were kicked out of the Federation were no big deal. The British military forces still on the island can neutralise them if the British Prime Minister just gave the word. The knuckle duster in those times was not LKY or his cronies. It was the British military forces that were still on the island in large numbers with superior equipment and organisation.
Third, the Communist Insurgency had effectively been defeated by the time Singapore was granted formal independence. Otherwise, the British would not have done it. The Cold War was still being fought and if there was the slightest possibility that we will turn Communist after being set free, the British wouldn’t do it. This also explains the continued presence of British forces on the island despite Singapore being “independent”. They wanted insurance. De facto independence only arrived in the early 70s, when the British military forces were finally withdrawn and we had something of our own that could be called an army.
Fourth, a BS government in 60s will have to live with the presence of significant British forces on the island. They will be mad to try any Pol Pot style revolution when by that time, the CPM forces in mainland Malaya had already retreated to the jungles on the border with Thailand, not to mention that they will also need water from the Tunku just as the PAP did.
