An unprecedented leadership

Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew:

by Rosanne Koelmeyer Anderson in Singapore

Three decades was about all it took the living legend, statesman, founder leader, nation builder and architect of Singapore to lead the island state from a third world nation of British dependency to what it is today, an economic miracle; transforming the lives of Singaporeans. Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew's unprecedented visionary leadership is best described in Minister Mentor's book 'From Third World to First.'

A rare encounter, a dialogue session with eighty four year old geriatric MM, yet sturdy and robust spoke of 'The recipe to a long and successful life-personal and policy perceptives.' It was indeed very interesting to note what MM, the living legend had to say.

A name globally acclaimed for upliftment of a nation in its true sense, MM has left an indelible mark in global history as a true statesman whose mission is not yet complete as it seems.

"I worry about being more creative. Today's Singapore did not come about naturally. There was a group of educated people who thought that they had to do everything to make it a better society in the most adverse times. If we didn't do it we would have been making mosquito coils and selling bed sheets.

I am living long and successfully as my days are high in stimuli and I am fully connected with the world. The biggest punishment a man can receive is total isolation in a dungeon, black and complete withdrawal of all stimuli; that's real torture.

So, when I read that people believe, Singaporeans say 'Oh 62 I'm retiring, I say to them 'You really want to die quickly? If you want to see sunrise tomorrow or sunset you must have a reason, you must have a stimuli to keep going', he quipped at the first Silver Industry Conference in Singapore.

"I would have shrunk away if I had retired. Retirement means death". At a time when extending the retirement age is being debated, MM thinks that those who expect to retire at 62 for a life of enjoyment are making the biggest mistake of their lives.

'If you want to see the sunrise tomorrow or sunset you must have a reason, you must have a stimuli to keep going. I do believe we should have a retirement age. It is very difficult to switch from what is a world practice which we adopted; the British left us at 55, we pushed it up to 60 and then 62. I think a man should go on working or a woman should go on working for as long as we can, but changing the nature or the intensity of the work as he ages'.

With wit and humour MM went on to relating a number of family stories and how at each turning point of his life it made him make choices to stay alive. At thirty we was inclined to drinking and smoking and a big belly, a beer belly he quipped keeping the audience spellbound.

So he played golf but the belly stayed. 'There was only one way it could go down: consume less and burn more.' He would puff ten cigarettes on stage before each campaign speech; watching people and sensing the mood.

'Three speeches a night, plenty of cigarettes, a lot of beer after that and the voice was gone.' In 1957 he finally quit smoking soon after her lost his voice and could not thank the voters when he won a City Council election that year, MM spoke unreservedly.

In the 1970's just when his daughter was about to graduate as a doctor, she found him breathing heavily on the Istana lawn and he told her 'I feel an effort to breathe in more oxygen.' She said, 'Don't play golf, run.' MM was not one bit keen on running but loved golf. So, in between golf shots he started walking faster and later he ran.

After a few years he told himself golf takes so long. The running takes fifteen minutes. Let's cut down the golf and let's run. At another time his doctor gave him a medical encyclopedia and he zoomed in on the ageing section to learn more.

'As you acquire more knowledge you then craft a programme for yourself to maximize what you have.' In MM's case he says 'I have lived a very active life, connected with the world and all that matters is that whatever is accumulated he interprets he has for Singapore including his ideas about ageing vitally.

'In our system I saw what was going wrong and learnt from others and what is more important is that you don't do the same things. You got to be practical. Pensions are going to lead to serious problems in America for instance.

We have introduced a 'Pay now and enjoy later. We decide otherwise when you get married the state gives you a land or even flats which is a huge asset. Now there are 5 roomed flat at 500,000 rupees.

We are preventing the problem of transgeneration. 'Peter Peterson always praises us for this and he has predicted that America is heading for a major financial crisis. 'If you increase taxes they leave for open spaces and the economy collapses.

So, the minimum taxes and maximum self sufficiency. In this mobile world needs courage. The best thing we can do is to serve people enriching their lives, live by serving them in some way as medical tourists or whatever. We cannot thrive, we are connected to Britian, America, New Zealand', he went on to say.

'Our students are brilliant and are being harvested in top colleagues in the USA and so on and this is a big problem. We are losing them. The Australians are targeting us; two years at Polytechnique and you could stay on.

Brains are not confined to any particular race but there is no difference between us functioning human beings but a vast difference between what that human being has chosen to perform. We have to maximize potential.'

'Having started off with concentrating on Science and Technology, the field of medicine etc we have now spread it out to sports, schools, music, arts to name a few and we are going to have diverse talent blossoming,' MM added. In IT its hands on and for the next 10-15 years with the best extension of what we have done we should be at the level of Italy and Austria.

I got a feedback once that we have passed that. I'm not talking of the economic status but the level of civilization. Within the next 10 years we will move in to the cultural generations. And for this we can't have people sleeping under the bridges, in parks and so on' MM went on to say.

'We have a big problem in Asia. We didn't start family planning but we have to educate them now,' Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew firmly addressed.

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