Singapore’s Lee: the only true tiger in the region
By Richard Halloran
Thursday, Jan 07, 2010, Page 8
The next Lunar New Year will be the Year of the Tiger, a time in which natural leaders with vigor, courage and imagination will supposedly do great things.
Unhappily, not many tigers will be roaming the capitals of the US and Asia as the year begins, at least not with the stature and statesmanship of the leaders who, after World War II, had a sense of mission and strategic vision that went beyond everyday politics.
An exception — Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀), founder of Singapore and prime minister from 1959 to 1990, an organizer of the founding of ASEAN, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and now minister mentor of his country.
Lee, who is 86, once said Singaporeans needed “to find a niche for ourselves, little corners where in spite of our small size we can perform a role that will be useful to the world. To do that, you will need people at the top, decision-makers who have got foresight, good minds, who are open to ideas, who can seize opportunities.”
Not that Lee’s rule has been without controversy.
His critics, at home and abroad, have pointed to his authoritarian ways, accused him of nepotism in having members of his family appointed to powerful positions and lamented his repression of the opposition and the press.
Even so, when Lee was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger said: “He has become a seminal figure for all of us. I’ve not learned as much from anybody as I have from Mr Lee Kuan Yew. He made himself an indispensable friend of the United States, not primarily by the power he represented, but by the quality of his thinking.”
US President Barack Obama is finishing his first year in office without having proven, despite his Nobel Peace Prize, that he belongs in the same class as former US presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower, often considered by historians to have been among the top 10 US presidents.
In China, President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) is seen as a competent technocrat, but a lackluster bureaucrat, not in the same league as brutal but charismatic Mao Zedong (毛澤東) and the brilliant statesman Zhou Enlai (周恩來). Russian President Dimitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin do not measure up to Mikhail Gorbachev, who ended the tyranny of the Soviet Union, closed out the Cold War and won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, an economist, is given credit for lifting his country out of the economic doldrums, but few would elevate him to the level of former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru or Indira Gandhi, who led India onto the world stage after independence in 1947.
Among US allies, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is floundering, which has led to speculation that he is on his way out, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has been distracted by financial investigations, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo sits atop a corrupt, nearly failed state and Thailand’s turmoil has left it nearly paralyzed.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has enjoyed approval ratings between 60 percent and 70 percent for two years, but has not risen to the level of Sir Robert Menzies, who put Australia back on its feet in the 16 years he served as prime minister until 1966. Elsewhere, the legacies of Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, Mahathir Mohamad in Malaysia and Sukarno and Suharto in Indonesia, who were authoritarian but fervent nationalists, have not been replicated, although Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has gotten good marks for fostering democracy and economic progress.
Other than the formidable minister mentor Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, Asia-Pacific capitals today sit atop a bleak landscape bereft of tigers.
Richard Halloran is a writer based in Hawaii.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2010/01/07/2003462839
LKY did not win Nobel Peace Prize in 1994
Lee was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in 1994.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ig_Nobel_Prize_winners
Psychology - Presented to Lee Kuan Yew, former Prime Minister of Singapore, for his thirty-year study of the effects of punishing three million citizens of Singapore whenever they spat, chewed gum, or fed pigeons.
what kind of award is this?
By Richard Halloran
Thursday, Jan 07, 2010, Page 8
The next Lunar New Year will be the Year of the Tiger, a time in which natural leaders with vigor, courage and imagination will supposedly do great things.
Unhappily, not many tigers will be roaming the capitals of the US and Asia as the year begins, at least not with the stature and statesmanship of the leaders who, after World War II, had a sense of mission and strategic vision that went beyond everyday politics.
An exception — Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀), founder of Singapore and prime minister from 1959 to 1990, an organizer of the founding of ASEAN, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and now minister mentor of his country.
Lee, who is 86, once said Singaporeans needed “to find a niche for ourselves, little corners where in spite of our small size we can perform a role that will be useful to the world. To do that, you will need people at the top, decision-makers who have got foresight, good minds, who are open to ideas, who can seize opportunities.”
Not that Lee’s rule has been without controversy.
His critics, at home and abroad, have pointed to his authoritarian ways, accused him of nepotism in having members of his family appointed to powerful positions and lamented his repression of the opposition and the press.
Even so, when Lee was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger said: “He has become a seminal figure for all of us. I’ve not learned as much from anybody as I have from Mr Lee Kuan Yew. He made himself an indispensable friend of the United States, not primarily by the power he represented, but by the quality of his thinking.”
US President Barack Obama is finishing his first year in office without having proven, despite his Nobel Peace Prize, that he belongs in the same class as former US presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower, often considered by historians to have been among the top 10 US presidents.
In China, President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) is seen as a competent technocrat, but a lackluster bureaucrat, not in the same league as brutal but charismatic Mao Zedong (毛澤東) and the brilliant statesman Zhou Enlai (周恩來). Russian President Dimitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin do not measure up to Mikhail Gorbachev, who ended the tyranny of the Soviet Union, closed out the Cold War and won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, an economist, is given credit for lifting his country out of the economic doldrums, but few would elevate him to the level of former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru or Indira Gandhi, who led India onto the world stage after independence in 1947.
Among US allies, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is floundering, which has led to speculation that he is on his way out, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has been distracted by financial investigations, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo sits atop a corrupt, nearly failed state and Thailand’s turmoil has left it nearly paralyzed.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has enjoyed approval ratings between 60 percent and 70 percent for two years, but has not risen to the level of Sir Robert Menzies, who put Australia back on its feet in the 16 years he served as prime minister until 1966. Elsewhere, the legacies of Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, Mahathir Mohamad in Malaysia and Sukarno and Suharto in Indonesia, who were authoritarian but fervent nationalists, have not been replicated, although Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has gotten good marks for fostering democracy and economic progress.
Other than the formidable minister mentor Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, Asia-Pacific capitals today sit atop a bleak landscape bereft of tigers.
Richard Halloran is a writer based in Hawaii.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2010/01/07/2003462839
LKY did not win Nobel Peace Prize in 1994
Lee was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in 1994.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ig_Nobel_Prize_winners
Psychology - Presented to Lee Kuan Yew, former Prime Minister of Singapore, for his thirty-year study of the effects of punishing three million citizens of Singapore whenever they spat, chewed gum, or fed pigeons.
what kind of award is this?
