History will come to regard the many wrongful things that the Old Man had done to individual persons to outweigh all the good that he had done. An unjust or wrongful thing done to an individual is a lot more painful and affect the individual person more deeply than good things done but spread over the entire population. There is definitely room for a little sacrifice of the populace to relieve a little suffering or bring back human dignity to some deprived individuals.
The irony is that the egoistic old man saved sinkapore from communism only to see it being swallowed by PRC eventually. The old man had his fun, letting the state served him. Now, that he is ready to go, he has decided to 'sell' sinkapore to the commies.