Lee Kuan Yew, who dominated Singapore politics for more than half a century and transformed the former British outpost into a global trade and finance powerhouse, setting a template for emerging markets around the world, died Monday. He was 91 years old.
Mr. Lee’s core principles—including a focus on clean and efficient government, business-friendly economic policies, and social order—helped attract massive investment and many of the world’s biggest companies to Singapore after he became prime minister in 1959, catapulting living standards to First World status from Third World levels in hardly more than a generation.
Leaders of other countries rushed to copy his model, with some success, though they often fell short because they didn’t rein in corruption or were governing states too big to manage as easily.
Along the way, Singapore, now one of the world’s richest nations, drew criticism from rights groups that said it attained its developed-world living standards without adopting full Western-style democracy or some of the freedoms taken for granted in Western societies.
Although Singapore held regular free elections under Mr. Lee, laws proscribing public gatherings and limiting other civil liberties hampered the development of a powerful opposition. Western media called Singapore a “nanny state” and lampooned its attempts to create an orderly society through rules, incentives and ad campaigns, including a famous ban on the sale of chewing gum that was relaxed slightly in 2004.
“Lee Kuan Yew’s tremendous role in Singapore’s economic development is beyond doubt, but it also came at a significant cost for human rights,” said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch. “Today’s restricted freedom of expression, self-censorship and stunted multiparty democracy is also a part of his legacy that Singapore now needs to overcome.”
Mr. Lee argued that Western-style democracy just wasn’t suitable for all nations, and that young countries needed stability and economic development before they could afford the luxuries of democracy and personal liberty in a Western mold.
Writer T.J.S. George, in a biography of Mr. Lee, saw it another way: For Mr. Lee, he wrote, “means never mattered so long as the ends he desired were reached. He ran Singapore like a tightly managed private corporation, paying what he considered good dividends to the shareholders.”
“He fought for our independence, built a nation where there was none, and made us proud to be Singaporeans,” his son and current leader, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said in a nationally televised speech Monday. “Singapore was his abiding passion. He gave of himself in full measure to Singapore.”
President Barack Obama, in a statement from the White House, said he was saddened to learn of the elder Mr. Lee’s death, calling the late leader a visionary and “a true giant of history who will be remembered for generations to come as the father of modern Singapore and as one the great strategists of Asian affairs.”
When Mr. Lee assumed power, Singapore was saddled with huge income disparities and a fragile economy as an entrepôt, or trading post. By the mid-1960s, its neighbors, including Malaysia and Indonesia, were turning hostile.
Mr. Lee sought to assert Singapore’s relevance by becoming globally important in certain sectors, with state investments in strategic industries such as ports, shipping, construction and airlines, though he pressured local companies to become efficient enough to compete with their global peers. Many, such as Singapore Airlines and Singapore Telecommunications, became highly profitable.
As other Asian economies in the 1960s and 1970s were plagued by social and political upheaval, Mr. Lee’s comparatively stable government was able to establish industrial zones, training colleges for workers, first-class infrastructure and business tax breaks, notably for electronics companies, powering the city-state’s growth as an export hub.
Hundreds of Western companies set up regional headquarters there, with Hewlett-Packard Co. and General Electric Co. among the early investors. Gross domestic product per capita, which stood at $512 in 1965, grew to more than $56,000 in recent years—similar to levels in the U.S. and surpassing those of Japan and Germany.
The government transferred some of the wealth to Singaporeans in the form of subsidized housing and other benefits. Rather than give money directly to the poor and unemployed, Mr. Lee supplied affordable state-built apartments that he encouraged citizens to buy. Today, 90% of Singaporean resident households own their homes, one of the highest rates in the world.
Lee Kuan Yew, the statesman who transformed Singapore from a small port city into a wealthy global hub, has died at the age of 91.
Mr. Lee, who led Singapore for 31 years as its founding prime minister, “passed away peacefully at the Singapore General Hospital today at 3:18 a.m.,” the government said. He had been under intensive care for pneumonia since early February.
Singapore declared seven days of national mourning starting Monday, and will hold a state funeral for Mr. Lee on March 29.
He was widely respected as the architect of Singapore’s prosperity.
But he was criticised for his iron grip on power. Under him freedom of speech was tightly restricted and political opponents were targeted by the courts.
A state funeral will be held on 29 March, after a week of mourning.
In a televised address, his son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong paid tribute to him.
“He fought for our independence, built a nation where there was none, and made us proud to be Singaporeans. We won’t see another man like him.”
Mr Lee oversaw Singapore’s independence from Britain and separation from Malaysia. His death was announced early on Monday. He had been in hospital for several weeks with pneumonia and was on life support.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was “deeply saddened” by Mr Lee’s death. US President Barack Obama described him as a “giant of history”. The Chinese foreign ministry called him “a uniquely influential statesman in Asia”.
‘Incalculable contributions’
A charismatic figure, Mr Lee co-founded the People’s Action Party (PAP), which has governed Singapore since 1959, and was its first prime minister.
The Cambridge-educated lawyer led Singapore through merger with, and then separation from, Malaysia.
Speaking after the split in 1965, he pledged to build a meritocratic, multi-racial nation. But tiny Singapore – with no natural resources – needed a new economic model.
“We knew that if we were just like our neighbours, we would die,” Mr Lee told the New York Times in 2007.
“We had to produce something which is different and better than what they have.”
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As the long wait for the inevitable continued, the floral tributes piled up right outside the city-state’s main hospital, often laid by tearful, older Singaporeans who truly see this sharp-tongued, tough-minded man as a father figure.
And while there were many affectionate comments from well-wishers, there was still some fear of this extraordinary leader, who has dominated Singapore for the whole of its independent existence, and once threatened to rise from the grave if he saw things happening that he did not like.
For all of its impressive successes, this is still a country with Lee Kuan Yew’s imprint visible everywhere. He was unapologetic about the repressive measures he used to impose order, and unapologetic about believing his prescriptions alone were the right ones. No-one is quite sure what direction Singapore will now take without him.
Obituary: Lee Kuan Yew
WSJ/BBC
