Died on March 23, 2015 at the age of 91, Lee Kuan Yew was anything but a Western Democrat, a term he opposed to Asian consensus democracy. The founding father of Singapore had imposed on his fellow citizens the choice of discipline before freedom, the right to bread before the right to vote.
Singaporeans could choose their grain at noon, but not their shop stewards. The triptych of this legendary leader whose diatribes have often moved London is made of discipline, authority and merit. Singapore became a thriving military barracks whose supermarkets were run by the Asian and world jet set. The opposition was not his cup of tea and he did not clutter formulas to impose his training, the People’s Action Party, in the hearts of each of its citizens.
Obsessed with the efficiency and real improvement of business law and the city, impervious to corruption, the architect of the miracle of Singapore was not obsessed by the rankings that make you a good or bad student. Moreover, the filing cabinets did not honor him until late. It was only in 2004 that the World Bank dedicated Singapore as the best country for business, a position it will occupy for nine consecutive years. This means that Lee Kwan Yew ‘s stubbornness in following his voice and wary of ready – made formulas paid off.
The small pebble of 700 km2 saw its per capita income rise from $ 460 to $ 56,000 between 1959 and the end of 2014. Singapore is the eighth largest economy in the world. By playing with its strategic location at the crossroads of shipping routes from China to Malaysia, the former derelict trading post has become one of the hubs of global shipping, petroleum processing and shipping. finance.
Under the magisterium of this bogeyman, the territory of 700 km2, without water, without agriculture and without natural resources, became one of the four Asian tigers that lit up the literature of the development economy of a new chapter. Prime Minister at the age of 35 when Singapore gained Commonwealth autonomy, Lee Kwan Yew worked to reach out to neighbors by helping to create the Free Trade Area between the nations of the world. Southeast Asia (ASEAN) in 1968 and AFTA (Asean Free Trade Area) in 1992.
The law graduate in Cambridge has managed his country well, renewing an average growth of 9% per year between 1960 and 1984. He is not known to bank accounts abroad, houses or palaces in the US and in France. Clearly, his software has allowed him to achieve the superhuman feat of not being corrupted by absolute power. The tiger Lee Kuan Yew gave up his position in 1990 becoming ispo facto the PCA of the multinational Singapore advising his successor Goh Chok Tong who will govern until 2004.
The paternalism of the regime is real music is the son of the father founder, Lee Hsien Loong, who runs the country since 2004. Lee Kuan Yew died among his family, assisted by one of the most successful health systems in the world while other leaders of our country continue to tear their teeth in Geneva. The 5 million of his fellow citizens who have honored him know that they have become richer than the British. Before leaving, the old sage had time to tell them: “we must break with the past”. Like who would say, development precedes democracy …
