Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas

by Han Fook Kwang

  We are gentle people who believe very firmly in ideas.

  Six days after Singapore’s separation from Malaysia, on August 14, 1965, Lee spoke to four foreign correspondents on the events leading to the split and whether there were any other options available. He also revealed that he had in fact offered to resign as prime minister after the racial riots in 1964, if doing so would help mend the rift.

  Prime Minister, what if you had been arrested?

  QUESTION: Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Tunku Abdul Rahman has said that you were pleased and wanted to get out of the federation. And yet in your last Monday’s press conference you broke down. Where, would you say, the truth lies?

  LEE: Did the Tunku say I was pleased?

  QUESTION: He said this yesterday …

  LEE: Where?

  QUESTION: He said you wanted to get out and that you are pleased to get out …

  LEE: No, no, no. I haven’t seen it in the press …

  QUESTION: He said this at a press conference yesterday in Kuala Lumpur.

  LEE: Well, I am sorry to hear that because I do not want to believe that the Tunku would utter something which is not the truth …

  QUESTION: His actual words were …

  LEE: He knows my positions; and he knew how close it came to a real collision … because my colleagues were not prepared to give way. You know, half my Cabinet were born and bred in Malaya. Their families are there. You mean to tell me you can abandon them like that? And they are abandoned now. They are foreigners now. My colleagues fought with me against the communists. What for? To bring Singapore into Malaya in order to lift up Malaya: bring fresh air, social development, economic development.

  I am not saying it is all purely personal, that it is just because they have got their families there. But they were born, bred, rooted there. They just happened to have come down to Singapore, which was the biggest city in Southeast Asia. And they made a living here and they finally became ministers here. You think you can face your Cabinet colleagues … Let me put it in another way: supposing Mr Menzies were presented with an ultimatum by the American President that either Victoria gets out or the ANZUS Pact is not valid. You think Mr Menzies will be pleased and happy? It is easier for me. My family is here; born here, bred here. But half of my Cabinet have been born, bred there; their families are still there. How do they face their families? And they signed, you know. And I would not have signed unless they all signed. I am not the Tunku, I am not a prince. I cannot just sign on behalf of the government. The whole Cabinet had to sign it, and they signed with the utmost reluctance. And for them, when they look back at that moment, it will be a moment of anguish. It is going back on everything we fought for and believed in. And I do not care what anybody else says.

  It is easier for me. My family is here; born here, bred here. But half of my Cabinet have been born, bred there; their families are still there.

  QUESTION: Mr Lee, were there any reasonable alternatives that the other members of your Cabinet put forward at the time that looked as if they had a chance, other than complete secession?

  LEE: I met the Tunku on Saturday the 7th at half past 12. I remember it distinctly. The appointment was supposed to be at 12 o’clock. I arrived. I waited for him for half an hour. Some of his ministers were there. We talked little nothings. He came and we went to a separate room. I said, “Tunku, is there no other way? Why not loosen it into a confederation? Give me common market. We will run all our activities ourselves. We will go slow in the rest of Malaysia. Give me common market; give me the right to take initiative in security matters so that the communalists cannot start riots in Singapore, and we carry on in Malaysia slowly: take it in 20, 30 years.”

  And he said, “No.” I said, “My colleagues will not believe this.” I said, “Will you see my colleagues … Dr Toh?” Dr Toh was born and bred in Taiping; his family is there. Every year, he does a biannual pilgrimage. You know, Chinese families have reunions: Chinese New Year and some other moon festival. Dr Toh is not going to say “Yes”.

  For two million people moving forward faster and quicker, we abandoned eight million; abandoned them and left them in a slow and sluggish situation. And the Tunku did not want to see Dr Toh. But he wrote Dr Toh that letter and Dr Toh did not reply. … One whole night we sat down and argued. It is all over. Never mind about that. We will talk about that later on. It is part of the history now of Southeast Asia …

  We are not afraid of that. Let us say that they take over the government and rule by edict. Right? Some of my colleagues will be away. We will have a government-in-exile. We were prepared for that.

  QUESTION: There seems to be some contradiction here though, Sir. And is it a fact, for instance, that Dato Jaafar Albar wanted to suspend the constitution and rule by edict and possibly to jail you; and in fact that the alternative that was suggested was either that you resign from here or separation?

  LEE: Well, those who are unkind, those who do not like us will say that my colleagues and I were afraid for our personal safety and freedom and therefore we signed. But amongst my colleagues are quite a number who have been to British jails. Mr Jek, for instance, Mr Devan Nair. I do not think they were afraid of going to jail. But we sat down and calculated that if the Tunku really could not keep his ultras down … Going to jail means I become a martyr. I must come out. Mr Wilson, who is a personal friend, cannot see me languishing in jail forever. I do not think Mr Menzies, even though his political orientation is different from mine, but he is a human being … He knew that we were fighting for something which was valuable for Australia … He cannot see me languishing in jail. In one or two years, I would have come out.

  QUESTION: This was the alternative then that as given …

  LEE: No … We are not afraid of that. Let us say that they take over the government and rule by edict. Right? Some of my colleagues will be away. We will have a government-in-exile. We were prepared for that … Prince Sihanouk is a very personal friend of mine and Phnom Penh is very close to Malaysia. I would be in jail because I cannot run away. But quite a number of my colleagues who have got international contacts could run a much more effective campaign than the Indonesians and the communists ever can. But I tell you what deterred us: that in a moment of anger, race conflict takes place in Singapore. The Malays here are in a minority. The Chinese thinking that well, if this is it, to hell with constitutionalism, they will beat up some completely innocent people who have nothing to do with this … Troops come down; Malay troops come down, shoot the Chinese. Do you think it stays just in Singapore or do you think it spreads throughout Malaysia?

  If I believed that we could go to jail … then demonstrations, mass rallies, resolutions, international telegrams, Socialist International, British Labour Party, Australian Labour Party, New Zealand Party: resolutions passed all over the place; and we come out and find Malaysia is still one whole … Then we would have come out to a Malaysia which was in one piece. You have got to calculate … I may be wrong. It may be that Singapore consists of docile people who could be cowed and brutalised into submission. But I don’t think they could have … My estimation was that they would really give vent to their feelings. And if this spreads across the Causeway … The Tunku will have had it, too; because in that situation, the gentle, the charming, the soft-spoken leader has no place. And I want the Tunku to be there because I happen to believe – not because I like him – but I happen to believe that there is a little bit more chance of holding the multiracial situation together with him in charge.

  QUESTION: Mr Prime Minister, we’ve dealt with the problem of separation and what would happen if you went to jail. But what about the situation if you personally were to resign? Do you think that would have helped the attitude between Singapore and Malaya? Do you think it would have made it any better? Kept the federation together?

  LEE: After the riots last year they said that if I resigned there would be better cooperation. I told my colleagues if there’s going to be cooperation in Singapore and Malaysia
will prosper, let’s do it that way. I was even prepared to serve under Dr Toh. And my colleagues, they’ve all got little computers and they do a bit of calculation. They don’t play the thing by ear – take a stick or drop sand and read the palm. If I resign, whoever takes my place, whether it is Dr Toh or Dr Goh, will have to prove that he’s not a stooge-man. And to do that he’ll have to take a very firm line. In fact, much firmer, much harder – not just an apparently firm line – but concessions and a real hard line. And they decided it could not work.

  QUESTION: And did you agree with this?

  LEE: I think that’s right. You see, Singapore knows all of us. We’ve been looking after Singapore now for nearly seven years. They know us as a very closely-knit group. They also know the individual idiosyncrasies or differences of style between the ministers. I do not think Singapore would believe that I resigned because I wanted to go back to the law and make money.

  I do not think Singapore would believe that I resigned because I wanted to go back to the law and make money.

  QUESTION: Then it was suggested, Sir, that you do resign, and you rejected this?

  LEE: No, no. I didn’t reject this. I was prepared to resign. But my colleagues could not accept it because they would be in a worse position. Mr Tan Siew Sin [Malaysian Finance Minister] openly said in Parliament that there can be no cooperation with Singapore as long as I am the prime minister of Singapore. Now this was said openly in Parliament. Do you think if I resigned, Singapore would believe that there would be cooperation, or that the former central government which has had its way and now has got its way [in this separation] – that they would keep quiet in the situation?

  QUESTION: About the future of Singapore, Sir, as long as Confrontation continues, Singapore’s economy suffers. If Confrontation does continue, how do you feel Singapore’s economy can be assured?

  LEE: Singapore has a very resilient, enterprising and resourceful lot of people. Everybody thought – and perhaps the Indonesians might have thought – that if they cut off their trade, chaps will be out in the streets hungry, and riot, and so on. But it never happened because they’ve got a great deal of grit and the will to survive and to work hard. We’ll carry on. We’ll survive.

  QUESTION: What do you think the chances are now, Sir, for the common market idea between Singapore and Malaysia?

  LEE: Well, you know what the Agreement says. Annex “J”, which were the provisions for a common market, has been cancelled … It was at Mr Tan Siew Sin’s personal insistence that that clause be inserted in the Agreement. But the Tunku agreed to a clause that there will be either a joint council or committee for economic cooperation. I’ve told the Tunku that without economic cooperation, there will be growing troubles in Singapore … boys and girls passing out from schools, more than there are jobs for them. And the situation would be a bit less stable, a bit more volatile, and the bases will be that much more rickety. The whole thing is interwoven. I was glad that the Tunku assured me that he understood very clearly that there was a clear nexus between defence and security, and commerce or trade and industry. But we’ll have to go slow. There must be a thaw first, because over the last one and a half years so many things have happened: attitudes have sort of hardened. We just want to take it easy for a while, and common sense, logic, the relentlessness of economics, must prevail.

  It is the accepted wisdom now that Singapore’s expulsion from Malaysia was the single most important factor in making Singaporeans want to put in the extra effort to succeed as an independent country. No one was more determined to lead them and prove the critics wrong than Lee Kuan Yew himself. Below are extracts of a fighting speech he made at the Sree Narayana Mission in Sembawang on September 12, 1965, just over a month into independence, to rally the people for the task ahead.

  On our own – but we will succeed

  We will set the example. This country belongs to all of us. We made this country from nothing, from mud-flats. It is man, human skills, human effort which made this possible. You came, you worked – for yourselves, yes. But in the process, your forefathers and my forefathers who came here: we built this civilisation.

  It is one of the few cities in Asia where you can get anything you want. You pick up the telephone: it works; and it not only works internally. You can pick up the telephone and speak to Delhi, London, Tokyo, Canberra – anywhere you want. Do you think you can do that just by shouting slogans? You can get any kind of cuisine you want, any meal. European food? You can get the best in any of the hotels in town. Chinese food? What kind do you like? There is Cantonese, Hokkien and Teochew. Indian food? There are South Indian, North Indian: anything you like. Malay food? You like Sumatran food, nasi padang? Where else in the world can you get this?

  And I say, we will progress. I was sad not because Singapore was going to suffer: no. I was sad because by this separation, we could not help millions, several millions of our own people, our own countrymen – in Malaya, in Sabah and Sarawak – to progress with us. That was why I was sad. We could not help them any more. They have now got to help themselves. They have got to throw up their own leaders and they have got to take a stand. We cannot interfere.

  I was sad because by this separation, we could not help millions, several millions of our own people, our own countrymen – in Malaya, in Sabah and Sarawak – to progress with us.

  Here in Singapore, in ten years, Geylang Serai will be another and better Queenstown [Singapore’s first modern high-rise housing estate] – all the shacks will be demolished. I say that for Singapore because I do not think Singapore is boasting when it says it can do it. It will do it. But do you think in ten years the kampongs in Malaya will have Queenstowns? I do not think so. If you want that, then you must have the thrust, the ideas, the dynamism, the push, the tolerance of each other. That is why I was sad for them who are our people. Not just Chinese and Chinese, Indians and Indians. There are many Malays here.

  Over 100 years ago, this was a mud-flat, swamp. Today, this is a modern city. Ten years from now, this will be a metropolis. Never fear!

  Half of our police force comes from Malaya. Their families are left behind there. They will be quartered; they will live in modern civilised conditions. Their families will come down here and they will want to stay with them, and we will have to say “No” because there is a limit to what we can absorb. We have only got 224 square miles. It is a cruel thing to do this, but it has to be done. Some people wanted it this way. We could have helped them emerge, but it was not to be.

  But I say to you: here we make the model multiracial society. This is not a country that belongs to any single community: it belongs to all of us. You helped build it; your fathers, your grandfathers helped build this. There was no naval base here, and it is not the British who built it. It was your labour, your father’s labour which built that. My great grandfather came here and built. Yes, he came here looking for his fortune, but he stayed – my grandfather was born here.

  Over 100 years ago, this was a mud-flat, swamp. Today, this is a modern city. Ten years from now, this will be a metropolis. Never fear!

  Some people think that just because we are a small place, they can put the screws on us. It is not so easy. We are a small place in size and geography. But in the quality of the men, the administration, the organisation, the mettle in a people, the fibre … therefore, don’t try. That is why we got booted out. If they could have just squeezed us like an orange and squeezed the juice out, I think the juice would have been squeezed out of us, and all the goodness would have been sucked away. But it was a bit harder, wasn’t it? It was more like the durian. You try and squeeze it, your hand gets hurt. And so they say, “Right, throw out the durian.” But inside the durian is a very useful ingredient, high protein … And we will progress.

  Forty per cent – more than 40 per cent – of the purchasing power of the whole of Malaysia is in Singapore. We may be 20 per cent of the population of Malaysia, but purchasing power, the capacity to buy goods like microphones, clocks,
drinks, fans, lights, television, transistors: the money is here because here they work. And if people do not want that 40 per cent – 44 per cent market – well, that is their business. We want to open the market with them, but if they do not want it we will make our own soap … We are buying soap from Petaling Jaya: Lux. You know, it is always advertised on TV: Lever Brothers. It is no harm. We buy the soap; it is good for them; it is good for us. We can make motorcars together for the whole of Malaysia. And never forget, if it came to the point then Lever Brothers may have to set up a soap factory here, because after all, nearly half the sales are in Singapore.

  You ask The Straits Times: what percentage of their newspaper is sold in Singapore? True, we are only two million. But we have the highest literacy rate in the whole of Asia. Nearly half The Straits Times, if not more, is sold here. Here, everybody buys a copy. There, maybe one kampong buys one copy and everybody looks at it! It is true. We are talking now in terms of hard cash; the hard facts of life. And if people want to be hard to us, then we have got to survive. And we can keep this market to ourselves. But this is all shortsighted. Let us throw our eyes over the horizon into the future. What does Dr Ismail say: this will come back again. But under very different circumstances and different conditions.

  You know and I know that anybody who says, “Go back to Malaysia on the same circumstances” will be called a lunatic, isn’t it? We were patient; we were tolerant. We put up with it hoping that they would see the light. But we had to be firm. We could not give in. So as a result we are out.