New book on Lee Kuan Yew’s policies and principles launched in Singapore

SINGAPORE - During an official visit to Australia in 1988 to mark its bicentenary, then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew wondered aloud if Singapore would exist in 100 years’ time.

“In a hundred years from now... I’m not sure that this man-made artifice called Singapore will still be there,” he said in an off-the-cuff speech in Sydney.

This question of whether the city-state would still be around in a century is the basis of a new book launched on Sept 30 that highlights Mr Lee’s key policies in areas such as diplomacy, housing, education and defence.

Titled Will Singapore Still Exist In 100 Years?, the book is based on a Chinese version published in 2023 to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of Singapore’s first prime minister. It outlines 15 fundamental principles that the Government has been committed to since the country’s founding, such as strong defence, clean governance and tripartism.

Speaking at the book’s launch, Education Minister Desmond Lee said Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s sobering question was his way of reminding Singaporeans that the country’s survival is never guaranteed, and that each generation must take responsibility for safeguarding it.

That being so, the book shows that the founding principles that Mr Lee stood for – like racial harmony, anti-corruption and meritocracy – have stood the test of time, even as Singaporeans must always remember the city-state’s vulnerabilities and constantly renew the systems they have inherited.

“Indeed, that is why we’re conducting fundamental reviews today to help us address the new challenges that we are facing – whether it’s the changing international and geopolitical order; rapid advancements in technology, such as artificial intelligence, that can hold tremendous potential and yet have the potential to disrupt; the impact of climate change; and an ageing population and falling birth rates,” said Mr Desmond Lee.

“These are challenges we have to grapple with and difficult issues we need to address, but with those key principles, evergreen principles, guiding our way, I think Singapore will be in a good position.”

At the book launch at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, businessman Oei Hong Leong donated 4,000 copies of the book to the Ministry of Education.

Mr Oei and the Oei Hong Leong Foundation initiated and sponsored the book, which was translated and updated by The Straits Times’ senior correspondent Chin Soo Fang. The 2023 Chinese version of the book was edited by former PAP MP Seng Han Thong and put together by a group of senior reporters from SPH Media’s Chinese Media Group.

Mr Desmond Lee said the books will help students in Singapore engage with Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s ideas and reflect on their role as future stewards and custodians of the country.

Also present at the launch was retired deputy prime minister Heng Swee Keat, who was principal private secretary to Mr Lee Kuan Yew between 1997 and 2000, when Mr Lee was senior minister.

Speaking to ST, Ms Chin said some policies, information and statistics needed to be updated from the Chinese version, given how Singapore keeps evolving.

She added that the book had to reflect the changing geopolitical landscape in the past two years, but noted that Mr Lee’s key principles like meritocracy and multiculturalism remain Singapore’s guiding principles today.

At the conclusion of his 1988 trip to Australia, Mr Lee answered his own question by saying that Singaporeans could secure the Republic’s long-term future by holding on to two basic values.

The first is to always put the interests of society above those of the individual, while the second is to preserve the Asian tradition of having the family serve as the basic unit and an integral part of society. “If we don’t change in these two basic aspects, all other things can be fitted into place,” he told reporters then.

The book can be purchased at Maha Yu Yi, Popular Bookstore, Grassroots Book Room, Union Book, Kinokuniya and The Zall Bookstore, and can be ordered online from

https://www.a-smart.sg/LKY-booksales