Moving a country from a mosquito-swamped settlement, no natural resource and riddled with pockets of political riots, to one of the world’s most revered financial hubs, and a sky-scrapper view to behold is no small feat. But that is what Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding prime minister, set out to do when he assumed office is in 1959. Today, many around the world gather, not to mourn the demise of man after 91 years, but to celebrate the life of one of the world’s few political legend.
Kuan Yew died earlier today, which is in the early hours of Monday in Singapore (given the time difference), after been hospitalized with pneumonia since February 5.
During his time as prime minister, he took on the daunting role of moulding a society that was heading towards a catastrophe after the ugly and hopeless split from Malaysia into an economic force, one that will go on to rival, if not out-muscle the likes of the UK and others in Europe. “I was trying to create, in a third-world situation, a first-world oasis,” Lee told CNN in 2008. Though he has been criticised severally for his efforts in managing the freedom of the media during his time at the helm.
However, since his eldest son, Lee Hsien Loong, assumed office after his voluntary step down in 1990, the press has become more liberal, and so has the country’s economy, more robust. Despite having a population of just over 5 million people, housed in high-rise apartment buildings spread across only 7000km of land, and no natural resource still, it boasts a GDP base worth more than $450 billion, and a per capita head of $78,000. This exceeds the $53,000 the United States of America, the world’s biggest economy, can currently boast of.
In Africa, many leaders usually thread the path of preaching the gospel of excuses, laying emphasis of the deep-rootedness of existing cultures that numb efforts at reshaping their societies for the better, but Kuan Yew sought the path of solutions. While he insisted a while ago when speaking to CNN that he lacked any concrete vision for transformation, Kuan “concentrated on attracting investment and creating jobs; first finding a successful niche in electronics manufacturing by touting Singapore as an alternative to Hong Kong, which he said was in turmoil due to the Cultural Revolution in China,” an analysis by CNN revealed.
