INTEGRITY, HONOUR

'That integrity and the sense of honour and anti-corruption has remained a characteristic of the PAP till today...

The way we get things done - you may not like it but you cannot say we are doing this to get rich. In many other countries, people ask: Why is he doing this? To get money. And that ruins it all.'

WE HAD NEXT TO NOTHING

'Many countries had achieved Merdeka or whatever. It turned out to be an orgy of looting. So we were quite turned off. We were young, of course. This will ruin us. We've got nothing here: no oil, gas, plantations or timber. All we've got are roads, airport, wharf and infrastructure.

We've got to make it work.

Had we inherited a huge oil country, like Angola or Nigeria, we might have gone the other way. But there was no such temptation when we came in. There was $15 million in the kitty. That was what we had in the reserve. Enough for one week's imports.'

IT'S PEOPLE THAT MATTER

'Can this system last? I'm not sure. I've done my job. I've passed it on to the next generation. Goh Chok Tong has passed it to the next generation... If you have a competent team on board, honest and dedicated, it will last. If you have bums, then even with the best of institutions, it will fail. People decide. Not institutions. Institutions help.'