Forum: Lee Kuan Yew’s values continue to thrive

It has been 10 years since founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew left us. Each one of us carries different memories of him. I remember my first encounter with the person I learnt to fear, respect and love.

The thought of meeting Mr Lee for the first time frightened me. When he questioned me in the cold Istana Cabinet office, my hair stood on end.

He was a big man with sharp piercing eyes and a booming voice. The other interviewers flanking him were all quiet, and there was absolute silence between his questions and my answers. It was not an interview; it was an interrogation. I left the meeting feeling intimidated and shaken.

After that indelible experience in 1991, I managed to work closely with him on the political ground in Tanjong Pagar for 25 years. During that time – with my hair prematurely greying in my 40s – I learnt many aspects of the man we loved, feared and respected all in the same breath.

He was a devoted politician and a charming and warm person. He did not reveal the softer side of himself often. The little gestures people did not see were what humanised him, and he cared for people in ways they did not know.

For example, when he visited a resident’s HDB flat, he asked for permission to see the inside of the family’s refrigerator. The food in the fridge told him how they lived. He did not totally trust the reports we gave him.

He also told me to raise to him personally any cases in my Meet-the-People’s Sessions that I felt needed special attention.

Mr Lee transformed Singapore. Many wondered if the miracle would last.

Ten years have passed since Mr Lee left us. Ten years is a short time in the history of nations but it is a good time to take stock of his legacy.

Few Western thinkers thought Singapore would do well after Mr Lee’s death. Mr Samuel Huntington wrote in his 1996 book The Clash Of Civilisations And The Remaking Of World Order that the honesty and efficiency that Mr Lee brought to Singapore were “likely to follow him to his grave”.

Mr Huntington could not be more wrong. The values of honesty and efficiency, together with competency and incorruptibility, which Mr Lee brought to Singapore, have not only survived but also remained strong.

Mr Lee did not just bring those values to Singapore – he laid them deep into the foundations so that future leaders could build on them. And they did.

While we remember Mr Lee and his achievements, we must not live in the past. Mr Lee warned Singaporeans not to hark back to the past or we would miss the signals that beckon us to the future.

The guiding signposts for our success are those values Mr Lee laid out. How long those values can endure will depend on the men and women who succeed him. We can revisit the Clash of Civilisations 10 years later.

Koo Tsai Kee