When my mother-in-law passed me this book (750-pages) 3
weekends ago, I had some doubts if I could finish it. But this book proved to
be a magnet. Anyone interested in South East Asia’s modern history will learn much
from this book.
"This is not a how-to book, whether to build an economy, an army, or a nation. It is an account of the problems my colleagues and I faced, and how we set about solving them."
At 35, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew was prime minister of self-governing
Singapore from 1959. In 1963, Singapore had formed the Malaysian Federation
with Malaya, Sarawak and Sabah.
Mr. Lee never expected to take charge of an independent
Singapore at the age of 42, in 1965. Practically no one thought Singapore could
survive. No natural resources, no jobs, no army/self-defence, the early days
were a mess, with a lot of firefighting.
Those were also the days of Sukarno’s Konfratasi, covert
attacks on Malaysia and Singapore. The British naval base in Singapore was a
deterrent. On 18 November 1967, the British devaluated the pound sterling from
US$2.80 to USD$2.40, and Singapore’s reserve, which were still kept in London
in sterling lost 14.3%. Politics in the UK also meant that forces to the east
of Suez will withdraw by the end of 1971. Singapore would lose about 20% of GDP
and 30,000 jobs with the end of British military spending, and the future would
be uncertain. Mr. Lee tried to prolong the British presence in Singapore. The Vietnam
war was on-going, and the MCP (Malayan Communist Party) was a real threat. Alas,
he was able to negotiate some agreements with Australia, NZ and Malaysia to
form a pact, and by 1968, he took a 3-month sabbatical at Harvard, after running
office for 9 years.
Mr. Lee is staunchly anti-communist, though he worked with
them in the 50s. Forming the Malaysian Federation was to prevent the formation
of a communist regime in the former colonies. His encounter and negotiation with
the Plen could be made into a James Bond movie. He first met the Plen when he
was an assemblymen 1958, where the PAP worked with the MCP. Their final meeting
(in Singapore) was in May 1961. Mr. Lee then gave the Plen a public notice for
him to leave Singapore before Malaysia Day, September 1963. Both would meet at
Diayutai (VIP statehouse), Beijing in August 1995. The Plen wanted to return to
Singapore, but Mr. Lee didn’t agree, until he discloses his accounts with the
ISD by demonstrating that he had cut off his links with the CPM.
The Plen said the Malaysian Special Branch had invited
him to return; why could Mr. Lee not be as generous as the Malaysian government?
Mr. Lee told him the obvious: The CPM could not win over its Malay mass base,
unlike Singapore’s Chinese base. Mr. Lee suggested the Plen to accept the
Malaysian government’s offer. The Plen was not amused.
~~~
Mr. Lee and his team believed in socialism and fair shares
for all, but later learned that personal motivation and rewards are essential
for a productive economy. The Housing and Development Board (HDB) was set up in
1960 to ensure a home-owning society. If every family owned its home, the
country would be more stable.
~~~
Both Choo and I had been educated in English-language
schools. When we met students from China while studying in England, we became
conscious of how deculturalized we were, almost like the Chinese students from
the Caribbean. We were like hundreds of Raffles College graduates, not formally
tutored in their own Asia cultures, but not belonging to British culture
either, lost between two cultures.
Choo and I decided we should not inflict this cultural
handicap on our three children, and sent them to Chinese schools to become part
of this vibrant, vigorous, self-confident community, even if their English
suffered.
~~~
When the PAP government took office in 1959, we set out
to have a clean administration. We were sickened by the greed, corruption and decadence
of many Asian leaders. Fighters for freedom for their oppressed people had
become plunderers of their wealth.
Corruption used to be organized on a large scale in certain
areas. In 1971, the Corrupt Practice Investigation Bureau (CPIB), set up by the
British in 1952 broke up a syndicate of over 250 mobile squad policemen who
received payments ranging from S$5 to S$10 per month from lorry owners, to
prevent harassment.
A precondition for an honest government is that
candidates must not need large sums of money to get elected, or it must trigger
off the cycle of corruption. Having spent a lot to get elected, winners must
recover their costs and also accumulate funds for the next election.
~~~
Mr. Lee was influential in establishing ASEAN (1967), a pact
between Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore. He had
first engaged with Suharto in 1966 when he took power in Indonesia. Suharto had
the capacity to end the Konfrantasi. Suharto was crucial for the success of
ASEAN. He didn’t act like a hegemon. It did not insist its point of view but
look into consideration the of others. This made it possible for the others to
accept Indonesia as the first among equals.
One of the more challenging episodes were the Vietnamese
invasion of Cambodia, aided by the Soviet Union. China, Thailand and Singapore
were on the other side of the fence, trying to pressure Vietnam to stop the aggression.
Fresh from the defeat of US during the Vietnam war, they went into Cambodia to
bring down Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge, which was more than notorious.
~~~
At a conference in Sydney organized by the Australian
Financial Review in April 1994, Gareth Evans, the minister of foreign affairs
invited me to speak candidly about Australia. I took him at his word. Australia,
I said, was “a lucky country with an embarrassment of riches”. Australia had high
consumption, low savings, low competitiveness, high current account deficit and
high debt, with most of its exports in minerals and agricultural products.
Whether Australia’s destiny is tied to Asia’s suddenly
came to the fore with the East Timor Crisis on 27 January 1999. 80% of East
Timor’s population voted for independence, and having lost, pro-integration
militias systematically devastated the country and uprooted the population.
After tremendous international pressure for a week, President Habibie finally
invited international peacekeepers to restore order. The multinational force to
East Timor (InterFET) departed their base in Darwin. Singapore and a host of
countries sent personnels like doctors and observers, contributing to a
multiracial group. It will be detrimental if it was a ‘white’ against ‘brown’
kind of confrontation.
~~~
For me, the main action and blockbusters of this book is
towards the last third, where Mr. Lee talks about regional and international
events and relationships. Major events such as the collapse of Soviet Union,
reopening of China, returning of Hong Kong, Margaret Thatcher’s UK, etc. were
captivating.
Towards the end of the 70’s, Singapore was an important ally
of the US, yet sharing a cordial relationship with China. It was the height of
the cold war, and Singapore, or more specifically Mr. Lee became an important
stopover for every US President when they come to this region.
Mr. Lee tried had to attract investment from Japan, who by
the 70’s was already an industrialized country. The cruelty during WW2 did not deter
Mr. Lee from learning from the Japanese. After painstaking discussions shipyard
was jointly built in Jurong.
Because of their cultural values, they will be among the
survivors after any catastrophe. From time to time, they are hit by the
unpredictable forces of nature – earthquakes, typhoons and tsunamis. The behaviour
after Kobe (earthquake) in 1995 was exemplary and impressive. Riots and looting
followed in Los Angeles in 1992 after a less devastating earthquake.
~~~
Mr. Lee reserved his highest praise for Deng Xiaoping, who visited Singapore in 1978, at
the age of 74. Banished during the cultural revolution just a few years ago, he
took leadership after the death of Mao Zedong. He is credited for reopening up
China, and Singapore was his reference. The rest was history. I think the
leaders of Singapore (of the 70’s) should be proud of themselves, being a
futuristic and modern country at the time. Deng had dreams and actions to fulfil,
before joining Karl Marx, and he was determined.
He was the most impressive leader I had met. He was a
five-footer, but a giant among men. At 74, when he was faced with an unpleasant
truth, he was prepared to change his mind.
Mr. Lee knew Singapore’s position, probably applies to all ethnic
Chinese in the region. Communism was still a threat, with China providing some
support.
It will be better for the ethnic Chinese in Asean if
China does not underline their kinship and call upon their ethnic empathy. The
suspicion of the indigenous peoples will always be there, whether or not China
emphasises these blood ties. But if China appeals to these blood ties so
blatantly, it must increase their suspicions. China must stop radio broadcasts
from south China by the Malayan and Indonesian Communist Parties.
After 2 years, radio broadcast on communist propaganda from south
China stopped.
At the end of January 1979, Deng visited America and restored
diplomatic relations with President Carter without the United States abandoning
Taiwan. He was making sure the US would not align itself with the Soviet Union
when China attacked Vietnam to force a retreat from Cambodia. The Vietnamese
knew China would attack if they went beyond Cambodia on to Thailand.
~~~
Mr. Lee was mindful of succession planning. He saw first-hand
how leaders such as Suharto over-stayed and met a not very glorious ending. It
was critical to pass the baton to younger leaders. He stayed on in Parliament
as a mentor.
Getting together a team to succeed my colleagues and me
was almost as difficult as getting Singapore off the ground after independence.
~~~
As a boy of six, I rode in a bullock-cart of wooden
wheels bound in a metal strip, without springs or shock absorbers, enjoying a hilariously
bumpy ride on a dirt track to my grandfather’s rubber estate. Fifty years
later, in 1977, I flew in a supersonic Concorde from London to New York in
three hours.
I had to sing four national anthems: Britain’s God Save
the Queen, Japan’s Kimigayo, Malaysia’s NegaraKu, and Singapaore’s Majulah
Singapura; such was the political upheaval s of the last 60 years.
Would my colleagues and I have embarked on our journey
had we known the hazards and perils we would face when we formed the PAP in
November 1954? Had we known how complex and difficult were the problems lay
ahead, we would never have gone into politics with the high spirits, enthusiasm
and idealism of the 1950s.
I did not know when I started my political life in the
1950s that we would be on the side of the winners of the Cold War and that
Singapore would enjoy economic and social progress that flowed from stability, enterprise
and links with the West. The most difficult years were from independence in
1965 to British withdrawal in 1971. Only when the British forces had left and
we did not suffer severe unemployment did I feel we were less vulnerable.
~~~
It was a pleasure reading this book.
In many ways, I learned to appreciate how ASEAN operates as a block. We are a diverse group of countries, afraid of the major powers that came - Europeans, Japanese, Americans... But some how, the past few decades has seen this region prosper and enjoy peace. ASEAN has become a region of interest in the world, where global trade, technology advancement will pass through. It is definitely exciting and promising times ahead.
A lot has to do with the contribution of Mr. Lee, and the leaders of the region, especially post-Sukarno Indonesia. We argue with each other, but when facing a threat like Soviet Union, China or the US, we are united as a block. We will find our own way out.
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