The MIW's had been spreading bad vibes for a very long time...
He was referring to his mentor LKY?
Others on LEE KUAN YEW
“Lee is like a banana –yellow of skin, white underneath.”
-Zhou Enlai, Premier of the People’s Republic of China, at the Bandung Conference (1955)
“More like a Hitler or Mussolini but with less polish and skill.”
- Socialist Front on Lee Kuan Yew, Malay Mail, March 28, 1964
“A chameleon, a remarkable creature which can adjust its colour to its surroundings.”
- Tan Siew Sin, Malaysian Chinese Association, in Malay Mail, March 29, 1964
“Lee Kuan Yew’s political power has always been built over the dead bodies of his friends and allies.”
– Malaysian Chinese Association, circa 1964
“Harry, you’re the best bloody Englishman east of Suez.”
- George Brown, Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom (1966-68)
“Kuan Yew, I can never trust you as a politician.”
- Tunku Abdul Rahman, Prime Minister of Malaysia, in 1975
“The fact that a leader of Lee’s breadth of vision was not able to act on a broader stage represents an incalculable loss to the world.”
-Richard Nixon, President of the United States
“Who is this ridiculous man who wastes my time? Running Singapore is like running Marseilles. I am running a whole country!”
-Francois Mitterrand, President of France
“[Lee] is bloody-minded and ruthless with his adversaries. He stomps them into the ground.”
- Dennis Bloodworth, journalist, 1989
“A little Emperor … of a tiny Middle Kingdom.”
“All those who met the great man from the little country were lectured on how Malaysia should be run.”
“Singapore is a tiny country. Don’t talk big.”
- Mahathir Mohamed, Prime Minister of Malaysia
“Why is he still so afraid? I honestly think that through the years he has accumulated enough skeletons in his closet that he knows that when he is gone, his son and the generations after him will have a price to pay. If we had parliamentary debates where the opposition could pry and ask questions, I think he is actually afraid of something like that.”
“Mr Lee Kuan Yew kept on repeating how he built up this country and how much he has stored in the reserves. That is the tragedy of the man. For all his intelligence, he does not possess the wisdom of life. …
Mr Lee Kuan Yew fights all his demons within himself to try to shore up his reputation. In the process, however, he destroys the very legacy that he so desperately desires to establish.”
- Chee Soon Juan, Secretary-General of the Singapore Democratic Party
Sources:
No Man is an Island, James Minchin
Martyn See on the Singapore Rebel blog
Lee Kuan Yew on Wikiquote
With this in context, lets take a look at some of the things Lee Kuan Yew has said about some people whom he dislikes or has – evidently – utter contempt for.
It is a lesson in meanness.
Lee Kuan Yew has :
- Called the late Mr JB Jeyaretnam a “mangy dog”.
- Called former president Devan Nair an “alcoholic”
- Called James Gomez a “liar and a cheat”
- Called Chee Soon Juan a “psychopath”
- Called Chee Soon Juan a “dud”
- Called Tang Liang Hong a “anti-Christian Chinese chauvinist”
- Called former solicitor-general Francis Seow a “womaniser”
- Called Singaporeans “dogs” – “We had to train adult dogs who even today deliberately urinate in the lifts.”
- Called Singaporeans “daft”
- Compared Singaporeans to animals – “the spurs are not stuck on your hinds. They are part of the herd”
- Called Singaporeans “ignorant”
- Vowed that he will “make him [JB Jeyaretnam] crawl on his bended knees, and beg for mercy.”
- Called Low Thia Khiang “dishonest”
- Called Sylvia Lim “dishonest”
- Said this of author Catherine Lim: “If you think you can hurt me more than I can hurt you, try.”
- Displayed gangster like behaviour towards JB Jeyaretnam: “Everybody knows that in my bag I have a hatchet, and a very sharp one. You take me on, I take my hatchet, we meet in the cul-de-sac.”
- Called Australia “the white trash of Asia”
- He locked up Said Zahari for 22 years.
- He locked up Lim Hock Siew for 16 years.
- He locked up Vincent Cheng for 3 years.
- He locked up Teo Soh Lung for 2 years.
- He locked up Chia Thye Poh for 32 years, totally incapacitated him.
You get the idea.
Of course, citing all these quotes and behaviour of Lee Kuan Yew does not mean what is being done to Tin Pei Ling is justified. And I am not justifying the attacks on the poor girl.
I am, however, trying to offer a reason why those who are attacking her, are doing so.
In the past, when Lee Kuan Yew said and did all these things, Singaporeans had to just swallow it – especially when the mainstream media, a complicit tool in the merciless demolition of those Lee Kuan Yew hated, was in his full control.
But the Internet age is quite different now. And Lee Kuan Yew has no way of reining it in as he did with the newspapers when he first came to power. In fact, if I recall, Lee Kuan Yew once said he does not really understand the Internet either.
His destruction of his opponents was utter, complete and total. No mercy was shown. It was like a bulldozer running over toufu.
His opponents never had a chance.
Yet, he could have been magnanimous. He could have shown mercy. He could have been more transparent in his dealings. He could have been fairer. He could have stayed his hand.
In short, he could have set a more humane tone for society.
But he did not.
