Repression. An almost prophetic description..

• dolphin_century

  4 May 06, 17:42

  Found this:
  
  "Repression, Sir is a habit that grows. I am told it is like making love-it is always easier the second time! The first time there may be pangs of conscience, a sense of guilt. But once embarked on this course with constant repetition you get more and more brazen in the attack. All you have to do is to dissolve organizations and societies and banish and detain the key political workers in these societies. Then miraculously everything is tranquil on the surface. Then an intimidated press and the government-controlled radio together can regularly sing your praises, and slowly and steadily the people are made to forget the evil things that have already been done, or if these things are referred to again they're conveniently distorted and distorted with impunity, because there will be no opposition to contradict."
  
  - Lee Kuan Yew as an opposition PAP member speaking to David Marshall, Singapore Legislative Assembly, Debates, 4 October, 1956
  
  http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lee_Kuan_Yew
  
  Dunno if the quote is real. But it makes sense.
• lftwgr

  4 May 06, 17:56

  Wow for a moment there, I couldn't recognize the man. Didn't figure him as an idealist, and he was certainly one from his quotes from the 50s.
  
  And all this while I thought he from the Kissinger school of thought on real politik.
• lftwgr

  4 May 06, 17:57

  "If I have to shoot 200,000 students to save China from another 100 years of disorder, so be it." - Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew evoking the ghost of Deng Xiaoping whilst endorsing the Tiananmen Square massacre, Straits Times, Aug 17, 2004

  I don't remember reading this, but it sounds, urm, interesting.
  
  Contrast that with this:
  
  

  "If it is not totalitarian to arrest a man and detain him, when you cannot charge him with any offence against any written law - if that is not what we have always cried out against in Fascist states - then what is it?Â… If we are to survive as a free democracy, then we must be prepared, in principle, to concede to our enemies - even those who do not subscribe to our views - as much constitutional rights as you concede yourself." - Opposition leader Lee Kuan Yew, Legislative Assembly Debates, Sept 21, 1955

  I miss the old LKY...
• NuLife

  4 May 06, 18:22

  Originally posted by lftwgr:
  

  Honestly, LKY is Truly a Great man.
  His ideals were right at the right time. Bo bian also last time.
  
  The only thing I am worried is that it is now 2006. Not 1950s, or 1960s.
  
  Repression can only make Singapore worse.
  Look at China. Just need to open up a little, the economy boom.
  And even Taiwan.
  
  That I believe is what we are made of too.
  We as human, have these blood in us.
  All we need is less repression and we will previal and thrive even better.
  
  And I dun understand why PAP use those antics in GE.
  It will only make them lose more votes.
  
• robertteh

  4 May 06, 21:42

  As the old saying goes, we must change with the time.
  
  The missing part of memoir says: "When I was once a young man, like that JG, I really hated Repression as it meant: silencing of the unions and oppositions and that was wholly bad and evil.
  
  Well time has changed and like I always said, we ought to change with the time.
  
  We must think out of the box. No body should feel repressed if control is good for the country. It may be necessary to repress - the first time would be full of pangs but then after a while it would be easier to get used to and then with a little practice, repression would be no more repression as no one would ever know it and there would be no one to feel it. Now how is that for "Law and Order of society"
  
  Singaporeans must change over time like I always say. Don't tell me the oxford."
• quotes

  5 May 06, 00:57

  Wow, seems like history is repeating itself, did he fall into his own accusations 50 years ago?
• LazerLordz

  5 May 06, 01:04

  If only LKY still had it within him to reclaim his youthful idealism and be able to see what it really means in today's context..
  
  It's sad to see a statesman like this.. but that's life..