Monday, March 30, 2015

A look at Lee Kuan Yew and the 'malaria-infested backwater' myth...

Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew was laid to rest today amid pomp and an almost unprecedented outpouring of grief in the city-state he helped turn into an economic powerhouse.

About 10 percent of the population have filtered through Parliament House where he's been laying in state for the past four days - many waiting for 5 hours and more - and attendees at his funeral today included Henry Kissinger and Bill Clinton, as well as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

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But Singapore's financial success has also been overstated, at least in the sense that its relatively-privileged position at the time of full independence in 1965 has often been either ignored - or completely misstated. .

Take Reuters' obituary on Mr. Lee, which said that he had overseen "the island's transformation from a malaria-infested backwater." No, he didn't. Not to take anything away from Lee and Singapore's accomplishments, but there's been a lot of mythmaking around Singapore's success. The iron-fisted, development above-all-else else approach that Lee crafted helped guide Singapore to the heights. But it was already a good way up the hill when he started, as Cornell's Tom Pepinsky pointed out last week (the graphs in that post are worth the click.)

At independence, Singapore was already a middle income country, thanks to its thriving port, legacy of transparent and predictable law under the British, and position on the Straits of Malacca, surrounded by commodity producing giants like Malaysia and Indonesia and manufacturing giants like Japan, South Korea, and not too long after, China. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. The curse of Lee Kuan Yew...
  2. The darker side of Lee Kuan Yew...
  3. As Lee era ends, Singapore braces for change as young worry about...
  4. Amnesty International gives Singapore a low grade...
  5. Singapore: Blogger’s conviction violates free speech...
  6. Like Hong Kong, Singapore needs democracy...
  7. Singapore film ban creates free speech issue...

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