Is Lee Kuan Yew a great first-world leader ?
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Many people have hailed Lee Kuan Yew as a great first-world leader.
How true is this compliment? Can we compare his greatness to leaders like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Churchill, Deng Xiao Peng.
Apparently he has succeeded in the initial years in creating basic infrastructure, education and political stability as a base.
Apart from the initial success what else has he achieved ? Has he succeeded in transforming the economy to a resilient economy which can sustain the ups and downs in various other economies?
Is the present economic performance due to general world recovery and property play or IR. If he is a great leader then he must have solved certain problems faced by the people. Has he done so?
Has he succeeded in winning over the people and motivated them to take an active part in nation building to bring the economy to the first world or has he used only his political power over his opponents or critics to get what he wanted for himself or his party?
The above-stated are pertinent questions to be asked and answered if we want to arrive at a logical and objective conclusion.
Now let us start answering some of these questions. Are the people under his leadership over the past 40 years enjoying higher wages and higher standards of living or are they suffering from lower or dropping wages and prospect of losing their basic rights and jobs to foreigners. Are the people enjoying good government and happy.
It appears that from his own admission his starting point has been people are prone to riots, rebellions and needed to be controlled and the media has to come under rigid government control in order to avoid media getting into mischiefs.
It appeared that his solution is to clamp down on dissent by using the power afforded by democracy as machinery to get his way to survive politically and override on people's wishes and needs and to serve his and his own party interests.
He was highly motivated to bring about development at any costs to the people. So he ruled with great determination using all the scholars and elites as his instrument to maintain political control and to stay in power.
To him in order to succeed he has to avoid welfarism so he made all departments to be self-sufficient and resorted to taxing and recouping all costs and profiteering to create surpluses which he regarded as his own success.
The common men are not part of his solution. He would charge the highest fees called affordable fees from housing to transportation to utility and medical care to avoid spending on taxes so taxes get accumulated as surpluses for the state.
Despite making all the sacrifices over the years in paying the highest direct and indirect taxes to support the government which is enjoying all the power and highest rewards at the expense of the people, the wishes and aspirations of the people are often overruled or ignored.
MM Lee has not been able therefore to motivate the people with such a governing philosophy treating people as targets to suppress or tax so many citizens have voted with their feet and migrated to other less stressful countries.
Yet Lee continues to claim success of his brand of leadership which looks rather fragile which lead finally to his having to resort to hypocrisy and justifications to sing his own songs of success.
There is no sign of arrival of a value-adding technology-driven economy talked about for years precisely because of lack of talents, motivation or creativity due to wrong individualistic and egoistic anti-people and anti-teamwork system of governing.
He was able to get his way all because as a trained lawyer he was able play with legalistic wrangling of laws to stay in power but people essentially are suffering due to lack of motivation to participate in greater entrepreneurship or value venture to maximise their potential.
For one who claimed to be successful to use power to get what he wants we do not know whether he can be really be judged to be that successful or great. -
Yes...He...Is...A...Great....first...world...leader *looks around for ISD before posting*
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Don't know about the leader part...
...but he's just a great economist & businessman that's all... -
I would say he's a better sociologist than economist.Originally posted by HyperFocal:Don't know about the leader part...
...but he's just a great economist & businessman that's all... -
without him, sg would be still a communist country leh
who knows i may even be a terrorist now
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think the key here is tense. He WAS a great first-world leader
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Was Singapore ever a communist country?Originally posted by gigabyte14:without him, sg would be still a communist country leh
who knows i may even be a terrorist now -
singapore=LKY
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False premise.
Singapore is never considered first-world country officially. Always classified as newly-developed economy.
Since the premise is false,
therefore LKY cannot be a great leader. -
Lee Kuan Yew is a great man. I am not disputing that.
However one can draw similarities between him and Tun Perak.
We all know what happened in the end. History does repeat itself. -
what constitutes a good leader?
the ability to lead per se, or having the interests of his followers at heart? -
Because it was ironically some of his policies that have hindered our transformation into a proper developed nation.Originally posted by Ponders:False premise.
Singapore is never considered first-world country officially. Always classified as newly-developed economy.
Since the premise is false,
therefore LKY cannot be a great leader. -
You probably meant he was great for using ISD to get to his political goal. Was Chia Thye Poh ever proven by evidence to be subversive, disposed to be violent or a communist?Originally posted by Demonight:Yes...He...Is...A...Great....first...world...leader *looks around for ISD before posting* -
A leader leads his people to serve their welfare and wellbeing. He is supposed to lead them so as to produce the greatest benefit of the greatest number which LKY has paid lip service to on quite a few occasions but he lacks the courage now probably to mutter this definition too loudly for fear of being faulted on this score.Originally posted by HyperFocal:Don't know about the leader part...
...but he's just a great economist & businessman that's all... -
A great sociologist who believed that graduate mothers will produce more intelligent children !!!Originally posted by LazerLordz:I would say he's a better sociologist than economist. -
Singapore could not have fallen to the communists because many so-called communists were not communists and the marxist conspirators were not communists either. Even some of his own colleagues he suspected to be communists were not proven to be communists and some were wrongly suspected to be communists without being given a chance to clear their names. ISD so far still have not been able to disclose evidence to support LKY's suspicion that Chia Thye Poh was indeed a hardcore communist or a violent person deserved to be detained for life.Originally posted by gigabyte14:without him, sg would be still a communist country leh
who knows i may even be a terrorist now
Because Chia did not want to confess the charge being a principled man of integrity he was detained ad infinitum. -
The premise was false so conclusion equally false.Originally posted by Ponders:False premise.
Singapore is never considered first-world country officially. Always classified as newly-developed economy.
Since the premise is false,
therefore LKY cannot be a great leader. -
Er what were some similarities?Originally posted by fymk:Lee Kuan Yew is a great man. I am not disputing that.
However one can draw similarities between him and Tun Perak.
We all know what happened in the end. History does repeat itself. -
I respect Lee Kuan Yew.
Just too much for me to explain. Im proud of S'pore.. -
Leading for the benefits of the followers was probably long forgotten because of repeated harping on the need for leaders to make "pragmatic" or unpopular decisions allowing government to claim many decisions which were fundamentally anti-progress and anti-productive and wrong to look like necessary evil.Originally posted by dxdx:what constitutes a good leader?
the ability to lead per se, or having the interests of his followers at heart?
The system of over-taxing and over-charging the people were all claimed to be necessary evil to avoid welfarism but if we look closely the government has not subsidized anything at all from housing to utility or transportation.
So assumptions could be dangerous but sadly citizens have allowed the leaders to get away from the onus of proving their assumptions before any unpopular move.
Even the latest deferment of retirement CPF drawdown was made on fundamentally unproven assumption like citizens are mostly living past 85 which is not the case at all. -
Let us respect him for the right reason not by washing of brain cells.Originally posted by TekkenDR_admin@c0.jp:I respect Lee Kuan Yew.
Just too much for me to explain. Im proud of S'pore.. -
No... A great leader of a country would not have homeless citizens sleeping in the streets and most of the citizen struggling to upkeep the ever rising living standards...
Take for example, people in our neighhood countries... they do not have to face such stressful upkeep of house, vehicles... even their tax and food are cheaper...
liquor taxed at 2 times its value... Cig taxed at 5 times its value... that is call blood sucker!
Every single cent a company earns had to be taxed 7% (Goods and service tax)
Every single income earner had to be taxed. (income tax)
Every vehicle owner had to be taxed. (Road tax and COE)
Every single household that owns a TV had to be taxed...
Felt like a giant leech sticking to us... -
Robertteh:.
”---Can we compare his greatness to leaders like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Churchill, Deng Xiao Peng.---”
Yes, without any doubt we can hail Lee Kuan Yew among the great first-world leaders when compared to the abovementioned leaders.
However, when compared to King Asoka, Matama Gandhi and Nelson Mendala he is far from being a great first-world leader. -
of course, if not world leaders wont be wasting their time listening to him.
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