… in eradicating corruption. It is said that his brother, a police officer, was corrupt and forced him to resign. During his rule, Singapore created a Housing Board which developed huge colonies of flats built for the poorer and middle classes. It was ensured that the colonies were multi-racial in composition. These colonies are enviable models for third world and developing countries. The Singapore Port and Harbour are equally enviable models for even the most developed countries, with its highly advanced computerisation, containerisation and unbelievably rapid turnround of ships. All this could not have been accomplished without Lee Kuan Yew’s autocratic style of functioning, which included a pliable judiciary and a virtual one-party rule. For cosmetic purposes, a couple of anaemic opposition parties were tolerated. However, no one was fooled about the absolute supremacy of the ruling party, the People’s Action Party or PAP. In Singapore, free lunches at government expense were anathema. You worked, you earned and you contributed for healthcare, pensions and housing. Some Chinese joked, provided Big Brother was out of earshot and they were not telephoning, that PAP stood for pay and pay and pay and minuscule size of the island Republic was undoubtedly a pass away peacefully! The great help to the PM in establishing an iron grip on his people. With all his genius and sternness, Lee Kuan Yew could not have estabilished his type of rule over even the city of Calcutta or Delhi, in India, due to the enormity of the population, the size and the problems of governance. But this observation does not take away an iota of credit or praise for what Lee Kuan Yew has achieved in Singapore and done for its people. Gradually, the PM did also relax his iron grip, however, imperceptible this was. This is illustrated in another joke that was being quietly told in private. A visiting British Foreign Secretary expressed pleasant surprise to see Lee Kuan Yew’s name plate bearing the old British titles “CMG, KCMG, GCMG.” The PM explained, “English titles, like hell. When 1 assumed power I ordered the people to ‘Call Me God’. After a decade of strict rule, I could afford to be polite and said, ‘Kindly Call Me God’.” He was then asked what GCMG stood for. He smiled and said, “Now that Singapore has stabilised, God Calls Me God”. Lee Kuan Yew had made Goh Chok Tong, a Deputy Prime Minister along with his son Brigadier Lee Hsien Loong. Singaporeans talked about the father’s plans to make his son the Prime Minister in due course. The Brigadier was considered intelligent, arrogant and hot headed. He is rumoured to have manhandled Dhanapalan at a Cabinet meeting, shortly after which incident, Dhanapalan resigned from the Government. I, however, doubt the bit about manhandling - tongue lashing may be.
Many years later, Lee Kuan Yew probably seeing the turmoil around him in Indonesia and other neighbouring countries, decided that the pace of liberalisation should be speeded up in stages. So he promoted Goh as the Prime Minister and himself side-stepped as a senior Minister in the Government, monitoring performance and giving advice when things were not going right. Goh and his new style of government, liberalised Singapore to some extent and relaxed on witch-hunting political opponents. Lee Hsien Loong is now (2007) the Prime Minister.
Lee Kuan Yew, after having built up Singapore as a very prosperous nation, treated other third world countries outside ASEAN including India, with much condescension. He would meet the representatives of such countries only at his formal national day reception, once a year. In contrast, the envoys of countries like the USA and UK could get his audience for the asking. Singaporean Indians also used to complain that Lee Kuan Yew and the Chinese were generally anti-Indian. I tried to explain to such people that the Chinese who constituted 75 per cent of the population, would naturally occupy the No. 1 position in the country. The Indian community was about 8 per cent of the Singapore population. Yet in the legal and medical profession and in the Cabinet they had over 20 per cent representation. In the circumstances the Singapore Government could not be said to be discriminating against Indians. But the Indians were not willing to accept the logic of the situation, since they lived with memories of the earlier days when they had over 40 per cent representation in various fields and Devan Nair was the President of Singapore.
Devan Nair had been cut to size by being shifted to the figurehead post of the President by Lee Kuan Yew, as he felt that Nair was getting uncomfortably strong with the Trade Unions, which were the original pillars of the ruling party, the PAP. Sometime later, Nair committed some indiscretion on a state visit to one of the Sultans in Malaysia. This time, Lee Kuan Yew, had his medical records publicised show to show that Devan Nair was alcoholic and hounded him out of office. I met Devan Nair in retirement. He struck me as intelligent and said that he had no more political ambitions and was engaged in writing his memoirs. Lee Kuan Yew had also adopted an attitude of letting bygones be bygones. Unfortunately, sometime later, speaking at a University function, Nair let go a broadside against the PM. This time the vendetta against him was furious and Devan Nair had to leave Singapore for good, ending the career of one who had been a comrade-in-arms of Lee Kuan Yew during the struggle for Independence.