Lee Kuan Yew

Lee was the junior counsel for the Fajar trial in May 1954 when members of the University Socialist Club were arrested for publishing an article considered seditious in the club's magazine The Fajar. One story is that it was Lee who invited the lead counsel D. N. Pritt to defend the students, although this was denied by Club members. Lee gained a widespread reputation through the victory of the trial, the first sedition trial in Colonial post-war Malaya. The Straits Times on 26 August 1954 proclaimed this a "tremendous victory for freedom of speech". At the same time, Lee was accepted by most Singaporeans as the "hero of high". Furthermore, the co-operation between Lee and the Club members strengthened their relationship which was significant for Lee's future political career and the founding of the PAP.[43][44][45]

Lee Kuan Yew's opportunity to formally enter politics came when members of the Singapore Chinese Middle Schools Union launched anti-colonial, non-violent protests against the enactment of the national service ordinance law on 13 May 1954.[46][47][48] Forty-six[49] to sixty[50] students were arrested after an initial use of violence by members of the police riot squad. The student arrests gave rise to Lee's reputation as a "left-wing lawyer"[51] which provided a path for Lee into Singaporean politics through the Communist Party of Malaya.[52]

Coincidentally, the People's Action Party (PAP) was officially inaugurated on 12 November 1954.[53] Together with a group of fellow English-educated middle-class men whom he described as "beer-swilling bourgeois", Lee formed the socialist PAP in an expedient alliance with the pro-communist trade unionists. This alliance was described by Lee as a marriage of convenience since his English-speaking group needed the Chinese-speaking majority's mass support base.[15] Their common aim was to struggle for self-government and put an end to British colonial rule.

An inaugural conference was held at the Victoria Memorial Hall, attended by over 1,500 supporters and trade unionists. Lee became secretary-general, a post he held until 1992, save for a brief period in 1957.[15]

Lee Kuan Yew won the Tanjong Pagar seat in the 1955 elections. He became the opposition leader against David Saul Marshall's Labour Front-led coalition government. He was also one of PAP's representatives to the two constitutional discussions held in London over the future status of Singapore, the first led by Marshall and the second by Lim Yew Hock, Marshall's hardline successor. It was during this period that Lee had to contend with rivals from both within and outside the PAP.[15]

Lee's position in the PAP was seriously under threat in 1957 when pro-communists took over the leadership posts, following a party conference which the party's left-wing had stacked with fake members.[54] Fortunately for Lee and the party's moderate faction, Lim Yew Hock ordered a mass arrest of the pro-communists and Lee was reinstated as secretary-general. After the communist "scare", Lee subsequently received a new, stronger mandate from his Tanjong Pagar constituents in a by-election in 1957.[55]

In the national elections held on 30 May 1959, the PAP won 43 of the 51 seats in the legislative assembly. Singapore gained self-government with autonomy in all state matters except defence and foreign affairs, and Lee became the first Prime Minister of Singapore on 5 June 1959, taking over from Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock.[56]

In 1961, former PAP minister and Mayor of Singapore after PAP's victory in the 1957 Singapore City Council election, Ong Eng Guan resigned his parliamentary seat of Hong Lim, filing the famous "16 resolutions" in the legislative assembly against the government and challenged the PAP to defeat him there after his sacking from the cabinet. He had been expelled by the party after making open disputes with his Cabinet colleagues, including over the abolition of the City Council when he was the last Mayor. Two other PAP members had followed him to join his faction and resigned from the party but did not resign their seats with Ong. Ong stood as an independent and he won the Hong Lim by-election defeating PAP candidate Jek Yeun Thong, which proved a blow to the PAP for the leaders had campaigned non-stop for Jek but Ong was too popular in the Chinese community and so Jek lost the elections.

Later that year another by-election was held after the death of the incumbent PAP member Baharuddin Mohammed Ariff in the constituency of Anson on 15 July 1961 which saw the political return of former Labour Front chief minister David Marshall, now Workers' Party (WP) leader.

Two days after the Anson result, Lee assumed full responsibility for the two election setbacks and resigned as prime minister to PAP chairman Toh Chin Chye, only for Toh to reject it.

On 21 July 1961, Lee then moved a motion of confidence in his own government five days after the Anson by-election. The motion was agreed to with 27 "Ayes", 8 "Noes" and 16 abstentions. The members who voted "No" included David Marshall and members of the Singapore People's Alliance. 13 allegedly pro-communist PAP members and 3 members of Ong Eng Guan's UPP abstained.

Lee's view was that the PAP members who did not vote for his motion would be expelled for breaking ranks and pulling support away to Communist opponents and he did so, sacking the 13 abstainers and reducing his assembly majority to 1. Together with six prominent left-leaning leaders from trade unions, the breakaway members established a new party, the Barisan Sosialis. 35 of 51 branches of the PAP and 19 of 23 branch secretaries defected to Barisan.

Independence of Singapore from Britain through a merger with the Federation of Malaya had been the PAP's platform since its founding in 1954. The merger was supported both by the non-communists and the communists in the PAP. So when the PAP won a strong mandate in the 1959 General Election, it pursued merger vigorously.

After Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman proposed the formation of a federation which would include Malaya, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak in 1961, Lee began to campaign for a merger to end British colonial rule. The communists made a startling about-turn and were determined to derail merger, even though they had all along insisted that Malaya and Singapore were one entity. Chin Peng, leader of the Malayan Communist Party made it clear that it wished to sabotage merger or delay its implementation at that stage.

Lee explained in a series of radio broadcasts in 1961 that the communists and Barisan Sosialis opposed merger because they wanted to establish control over Singapore so they could subsequently subvert and take over Malaya. The radio talks won over public opinion in favour of merger on the terms proposed by Lee's government. Lee would use the results of a referendum held on 1 September 1962, in which 70% of the votes were cast in support of his merger proposal, to demonstrate that the people supported his plan; most of the other votes were blank, as Lee had not allowed a "No" option.[57]

By 1962, it was clear that the Malayan government considered the arrests of Singapore's left-wing groups, which they perceived as communist breeding grounds, as one of the two pre-conditions for the creation of Malaysia.[58] The debates over the specifics of the arrests resulted in a power struggle in 1961 between the British, Singapore and Malayan leaders. In February 1962, the Malayans insisted on the apprehension of opposition leaders in Singapore and warned that they would pull out from the Internal Security Council if their requests were ignored.[59] Observing that the Malayans were pushing for an arrest programme, Lee Kuan Yew jumped onto the bandwagon in March 1962.[58] The arrests were scheduled for 16 December 1962 at 0200 hours but shortly before the scheduled date Lee Kuan Yew expanded the list of arrestees to include Malayan parliamentarians Lim Kean Siew and Ahmad Boestaman because they were opposed to merger.[58] Lee also wanted the Malayan government to assume joint responsibility for the arrests and even composed a draft public statement for them to present in the federal parliament.[60] Malayan Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman rejected Lee's demands on the grounds that insufficient evidence existed to justify the arrest of the Malayan parliamentarians.[60] In January 1963, the Tunku was alarmed when Lee Kuan Yew continued to expand the arrest list to include "some members of Marshall's and Ong's parties" despite "protestations of Singapore Special Branch."[60] Nevertheless, on 18 January 1963, the Malayan government agreed on the specifics of the arrests "except for two matters... the UPP members and the proposal that Lim be offered by Lee the opportunity to leave Singapore after the arrest."[60]

However, Tunku warned Geofroy Tory, the British High Commissioner in Kuala Lumpur on 30 January 1963, that 'if this operation failed, merger with Singapore was off'.[61] Tory, in turn warned everyone else, particularly his British colleagues and especially British Commissioner to Singapore Lord Selkirk, to put their reservations aside as 'this was positively the last time'.[61] All parties finally agreed to proceed, and 2 February 1963 was selected for the commencement of Operation Coldstore. 113 were detained including Lim Chin Siong and 23 others from Barisan Sosialis.

On 16 September 1963, Singapore became part of the new Federation of Malaysia. The Barisan Sosialis was the People's Action Party's strongest contenders in politics. However, Operation Coldstore had substantially weakened the Barisan as most of its key personnel had been detained. According to Matthew Jones, "the Barisan never recovered from the combined effects of the outcome of the referendum result and the 'Cold Store' detentions.”[58] Jones also highlights that numerous Barisan leaders and members were bogged down with lawsuits and its followers were "demoralised".[58] In the 1963 election held on 21 September 5 days after the merger, Lee's PAP defeated Barisan Sosialis in a landslide victory.

However, the Singapore's union with Malaysia was short-lived. The Malaysian central government, ruled by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), became worried by the inclusion of Singapore's Chinese majority and the political challenge of the PAP in Malaysia. UMNO's coalition partner, the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA) feared that the PAP would replace them, and opposed the PAP, seeing it as a radical socialist movement. The MCA urged the UMNO to prevent the PAP from becoming too influential. Also, the failure of a common market to be set up between the Federation and Singapore, and the heavy tax burden placed on Singapore by the federal government put strain on the relations between Singapore and the Federation.

In the 1964 Malaysian general election, PAP contested 11 federal and 15 state seats, which were mostly urban constituencies with a large ethnic Chinese population and traditional MCA turfs. However, the PAP won only one parliamentary seat by Devan Nair in Bungsar, Selangor. UMNO saw this as spite, and felt threatened by the fact that the PAP had even contested any seats at all, and was alarmed by the seat the PAP managed to win.

The 1964 race riots in Singapore followed, such as that on 21 July 1964 near Kallang Gasworks in which 23 people were killed and hundreds injured as Chinese and Malays attacked each other. It is still disputed how the riots started, and theories include a bottle being thrown into a Muslim rally by a Chinese, while others have argued that it was started by a Malay. More riots broke out in September 1964, as rioters looted cars and shops, forcing both Tunku Abdul Rahman and Lee to make public appearances to calm the situation.

In May 1965, PAP formed the Malaysian Solidarity Convention with 4 other Malaysian political parties championing the concept of a "Malaysian Malaysia" opposing Article 153 of the Constitution of Malaysia. This article specifically provides special quotas for the Malay and other indigenous peoples of Malaysia in admission to the public service, awarding of public scholarships, admission to public education institutions and the awarding of trade licences.

Some politicians in the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) thought Malaysian Malaysia threatened the Malays' special position in Malaysia. They considered Lee to be a dangerous and seditious trouble-maker. UMNO supreme council member and future prime minister of Malaysia, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad called the PAP “pro-Chinese, communist-oriented and positively anti-Malay”.[62] The more moderate Tunku was perturbed by the campaign. He thought it would lead to trouble, as he believed that the Malays were not ready to compete without their special privileges.

Also in May 1965, Lee addressed the Malaysian Parliament and laid out his case against communal politics. He caused a sensation addressing them in Bahasa Malaysia. Former Minister for Social Affairs Othman Wok recounted years later:

“I noticed that while he was speaking, the Alliance leaders sitting in front of us, they sank lower and lower because they were embarrassed this man (Lee) could speak Malay better than them.[63]”

Former Cabinet colleague, the late Lim Kim San, noted:

“That was the turning point. They perceived [Lee] as a dangerous man who could one day be the Prime Minister of Malaya. This was the speech that changed history.[64]”

Unable to resolve the crisis, Tunku Abdul Rahman decided that Singapore had to be expelled from Malaysia, choosing to "sever all ties with a State Government that showed no measure of loyalty to its Central Government". Lee refused and tried to work out a compromise, but without success. He was later convinced by Goh Keng Swee that the secession was inevitable.[65] The negotiations of post-separation relations were held in utmost secrecy, to prevent any premature move by extreme elements of UMNO to instigate the arrest of Lee's government and imposing of direct rule over Singapore. Lee and his cabinet signed a separation agreement on 7 August 1965, which discussed Singapore's post-separation relations with Malaysia in order to continue co-operation in areas such as trade and mutual defence.

On 9 August 1965, at 10am, the Malaysian Parliament convened and passed unanimously by a vote of 126–0, the Constitution of Malaysia (Singapore Amendment) Bill 1965 to allow Singapore to separate from the Malaysian federation.[66]

The failure of the merger was a blow to Lee, who believed that it was crucial for Singapore's survival. In a televised press conference that day, he fought back tears[67] and briefly stopped to regain his composure as he formally announced the separation and the full independence of Singapore to an anxious population:

Every time we look back on this moment when we signed this agreement which severed Singapore from Malaysia, it will be a moment of anguish. For me it is a moment of anguish because all my life. ... You see, the whole of my adult life [...] I have believed in Malaysian merger and the unity of these two territories. You know, it's a people connected by geography, economics, and ties of kinship.[68]

Singapore's lack of natural resources, a water supply that was derived primarily from Malaysia and a very limited defensive capability were the major challenges which Lee and the nascent Singaporean government faced.[69]

The vulnerability of Singapore was deeply felt, with threats from multiple sources including the communists and Indonesia with its confrontational stance. Adding to this vulnerability was the impending withdrawal of British forces from East of Suez. As Singapore gained admission to the United Nations, Lee quickly sought international recognition of Singapore's independence. He appointed Goh Keng Swee as Minister for the Interior and Defence to build up the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and requested help from other countries, particularly Israel and Taiwan, for advice, training and facilities.[74] In 1967, Lee introduced conscription whereby all able-bodied male Singaporean citizens age 18 and above are required to serve National Service (NS) either in the Singapore Armed Forces, Singapore Police Force or the Singapore Civil Defence Force. By 1971, Singapore had 17 national service battalions (16,000 men) with 14 battalions (11,000 men) in the reserves.[75] In 1975, Lee managed to convince then-Premier Chiang Ching-kuo of Taiwan (ROC) to permit Singaporean troops to train in Taiwan, under the codename "Exercise Starlight".[76]

In 1971, to replace the withdrawing British forces from the East of Suez, Singapore signed the Five Power Defence Arrangements with the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia where all countries were to consult each other "immediately" in the event or threat of an armed attack on any of the five countries for the purpose of deciding what measures should be taken jointly or separately in response.

One of Lee's most urgent tasks upon Singapore's independence was to address high unemployment. Tourism helped but did not completely resolve the unemployment problem. Together with his economic aide, Economic Development Board chairman Hon Sui Sen, and in consultation with Dutch economist Albert Winsemius, Lee set up factories and initially focused on the manufacturing industry. Before the British completely withdrew from Singapore in 1971, Lee also persuaded the British not to destroy their dock and had the British naval dockyard later converted for civilian use.

After years of trial and error, Lee and his cabinet decided the best way to boost Singapore's economy was to attract foreign investments from multinational corporations (MNCs). By establishing First World infrastructure and standards in Singapore, the new nation could woo American, Japanese and European entrepreneurs and professionals to set up base there. By the 1970s, the arrival of MNCs like Texas Instruments, Hewlett-Packard and General Electric laid the foundations, turning Singapore into a major electronics exporter the following decade.[77] Workers were frequently retrained to familiarise themselves with the work systems and cultures of foreign MNCs. The government also started several new industries, such as steel mills under 'National Iron and Steel Mills', service industries like Neptune Orient Lines, and the Singapore Airlines.[78]

Lee and his cabinet also worked to establish Singapore as an international financial centre. Foreign bankers were assured of the reliability of Singapore's social conditions, with top-class infrastructure and skilled professionals, and investors were made to understand that the Singapore government would pursue sound macroeconomic policies, with budget surpluses, leading to a stable valued Singapore dollar.[79]

Throughout the tenure of his office, Lee always placed great importance on developing the economy, and his attention to detail on this aspect went even to the extent of connecting it with other facets of Singapore, including the country's extensive and meticulous tending of its international image of being a "Garden City",[80] something that has been sustained to this day.

Singapore had problems with political corruption. Lee introduced legislation giving the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) greater power to conduct arrests, search, call up witnesses, and investigate bank accounts and income-tax returns of suspected persons and their families.[81] Lee believed that ministers should be well paid in order to maintain a clean and honest government. On 21 November 1986, Lee received a complaint of corruption against then Minister for National Development Teh Cheang Wan.[82] Lee was against corruption and he authorised the CPIB to carry out investigations on Teh but Teh committed suicide before any charges could be pressed against him.[83] In 1994, he proposed to link the salaries of ministers, judges, and top civil servants to the salaries of top professionals in the private sector, arguing that this would help recruit and retain talent to serve in the public sector.[84]

In the late 1960s, fearing that Singapore's growing population might overburden the developing economy, Lee started a "Stop at Two" family planning campaign. Couples were urged to undergo sterilisation after their second child. Third or fourth children were given lower priorities in education and such families received fewer economic rebates.[84]

In 1983, Lee sparked the "Great Marriage Debate" when he encouraged Singapore men to choose highly educated women as wives.[85] He was concerned that a large number of graduate women were unmarried.[86] Some sections of the population, including graduate women, were upset by his views.[86] Nevertheless, a match-making agency, the Social Development Unit (SDU),[87] was set up to promote socialising among men and women graduates.[84] In the Graduate Mothers Scheme, Lee also introduced incentives such as tax rebates, schooling, and housing priorities for graduate mothers who had three or four children, in a reversal of the over-successful "Stop at Two" family planning campaign in the 1960s and 1970s.

Some sections of the population, including graduate women, were upset by the views of Lee, who had questioned that perhaps the campaign for women's rights had been too successful:

Equal employment opportunities, yes, but we shouldn't get our women into jobs where they cannot, at the same time, be mothers...our most valuable asset is in the ability of our people, yet we are frittering away this asset through the unintended consequences of changes in our education policy and equal career opportunities for women. This has affected their traditional role ... as mothers, the creators and protectors of the next generation.

— Lee Kuan Yew, "Talent for the future", 14 August 1983[88]

The uproar over the proposal led to a swing of 12.9 percent against the PAP government in the 1984 general election. In 1985, especially controversial portions of the policy that gave education and housing priorities to educated women were eventually abandoned or modified.[89][84]

By the late 1990s, the birth rate had fallen so low that Lee's successor Goh Chok Tong extended these incentives to all married women, and gave even more incentives, such as the "baby bonus" scheme.[84]

One of Lee's abiding beliefs was in the efficacy of corporal punishment in the form of caning.[90] In his autobiography The Singapore Story, Lee described his time at Raffles Institution in the 1930s, mentioning that he was caned there for chronic lateness by the then headmaster, D. W. McLeod. He wrote: "I bent over a chair and was given three of the best with my trousers on. I did not think he lightened his strokes. I have never understood why Western educationists are so much against corporal punishment. It did my fellow students and me no harm".[91]

Lee's government inherited judicial corporal punishment from British rule, but greatly expanded its scope. Under the British, it had been used as a penalty for offences involving personal violence, amounting to a handful of caning sentences per year. The PAP government under Lee extended its use to an ever-expanding range of crimes.[92] By 1993, it was mandatory for 42 offences and optional for a further 42.[93] Those routinely ordered by the courts to be caned now include drug addicts and illegal immigrants. From 602 canings in 1987, the figure rose to 3,244 in 1993[94] and to 6,404 in 2007.[95]

In 1994, judicial caning was intensely publicised in the rest of the world when an American teenager, Michael P. Fay, was caned under the vandalism legislation.[90]

School corporal punishment (for male students only) was likewise inherited from the British, and this is in widespread use to discipline disobedient schoolboys, still under legislation from 1957.[96] Lee also introduced caning in the Singapore Armed Forces, and Singapore is one of the few countries in the world where corporal punishment is an official penalty in military discipline.[97]

Singapore has traditionally relied on water from Malaysia. However, this reliance has made Singapore subject to the possibility of price increases and allowed Malaysian officials to use the water reliance as political leverage by threatening to cut off supply. To reduce this problem, Lee decided to experiment with water recycling in 1974.[98] However, the water treatment plant was closed in 1975 due to cost and reliability issues. In 1998, the Public Utilities Board (PUB) and the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) initiated the Singapore Water Reclamation Study (NEWater Study). The aim was to determine if NEWater was a viable source of raw water for Singapore's needs. In 2001, PUB initiated efforts to increase water supplies for non-potable use. Using NEWater for these would help reduce the demand for the reservoirs for potable water.

The Singapore International Water Week was started in 2008; it focused on sustainable water solutions for cities. The Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize was introduced in recognition given to outstanding contributions towards solving the global water crisis. The prize has become an international award given out to individuals and groups worldwide.

Lee looked forward to improving relationships with Mahathir Mohamad upon the latter's promotion to Deputy Prime Minister. Knowing that Mahathir was in line to become the next Prime Minister of Malaysia, Lee invited Mahathir (through Singapore President Devan Nair) to visit Singapore in 1978. The first and subsequent visits improved both personal and diplomatic relationships between them. Then UMNO's Secretary-General Mahathir asked Lee to cut off all links with Democratic Action Party; in exchange, Mahathir undertook not to interfere in the affairs of Malay Singaporeans.

In June 1988, Lee and Mahathir reached an agreement in Kuala Lumpur to build the Linggui dam on the Johor River.[99] Lee said he had made more progress solving bilateral issues with Dr Mahathir from 1981 to 1990 than in the previous 12 years with the latter’s two predecessors, Tun Abdul Razak and Tun Hussein Onn.[100]Mahathir ordered the lifting of the ban on the export of construction materials to Singapore in 1981, agreed to sort out Malaysia’s claim to Pedra Branca island and affirmed it would honour the 1962 Water Agreement.[101]

One day before Lee left office in November 1990, Malaysia and Singapore signed the Malaysia–Singapore Points of Agreement of 1990. Malayan Railways (KTM) would vacate the Tanjong Pagar railway station and move to Bukit Timah while all KTM's land between Bukit Timah and Tanjong Pagar would revert to Singapore. Railway land at Tanjong Pagar would be handed over to a private limited company for joint development of which its equity would be split 60% to Malaysia and 40% to Singapore. However, Prime Minister Mahathir expressed his displeasure with the POA as it failed to include a piece of railway land in Bukit Timah for joint development in 1993. It was only in 2010 when the matter was resolved under Malaysia's Najib Razak and Lee's son, Lee Hsien Loong.

Following Lee's death, Mahathir posted a blog post that suggested his respect for Lee despite their differences, stating that while "I am afraid on most other issues we could not agree [...] [h]is passage marks the end of the period when those who fought for independence lead their countries and knew the value of independence. ASEAN lost a strong leadership after President Suharto and Lee Kuan Yew".[102]

Lee Kuan Yew and his wife Kwa Geok Choo with United States President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy Reagan on 8 October 1985 at the White House

As the Vietnam War began to lose its popularity in the United States, Lee made his first official visit to the United States in October 1967, and declared to President Lyndon B. Johnson that his support for the war in Vietnam was “unequivocal”. Lee saw the war as necessary for states in Southeast Asia like Singapore to buy time for stabilizing their governments and economies.[103][104] Lee cultivated close relationships with presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan[105], as well as former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger[106] and George Shultz.[107] In 1967, Nixon, who was running for president in 1968, visited Singapore and met with Lee who advised that the United States had much to gain by engaging with China, culminating in Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China.[108]

In October 1985, Lee made a state visit to the United States on the invitation of President Reagan and addressed a joint session of the United States Congress. Lee appealed to Congress the importance of free trade and not to turn towards protectionism.

It is inherent in America's position as the preeminent economic, political and military power to have to settle and uphold the rules for orderly change and progress... In the interests of peace and security America must uphold the rules of international conduct which rewards peaceful cooperative behaviour and punishes transgressions of the peace. A replay of the depression of the 1930s, which led to World War II, will be ruinous for all. All the major powers of the West share the responsibility of not repeating this mistake. But America's is the primary responsibility, for she is the anchor economy of the free- market economies of the world.[109]

In May 1988, E. Mason "Hank" Hendrickson, was serving as the First Secretary of the United States Embassy when he was expelled by the Singapore government.[110][111][112] The Singaporean government alleged that Hendrickson attempted to interfere in Singapore's internal affairs by cultivating opposition figures in a "Marxist conspiracy".[113] Then-First Deputy Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong claimed that Hendrickson's alleged conspiracy could have resulted in the election of 20 or 30 opposition politicians to Parliament, which in his words could lead to "horrendous" effects, possibly even the paralysis and fall of the Singaporean government.[114] In the aftermath of Hendrickson's expulsion, the U.S. State Department praised his performance in Singapore and denied any impropriety in his actions.[110] The State Department also expelled Robert Chua, a senior-level Singaporean diplomat equal in rank to Mason, from Washington, D.C. in response.[115][116] The State Department's refusal to reprimand Hendrickson, along with their expulsion of the Singaporean diplomat, sparked a rare protest in Singapore by the National Trades Union Congress; they drove buses around the U.S. embassy, held a rally attended by four thousand workers, and issued a statement deriding the U.S. as "sneaky, arrogant, and untrustworthy".[117]

Lee was very careful to avoid giving any impression of Singapore, which had a three-quarters ethnic Chinese population, being a "Third China" (the first two being the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China). This was due to Singapore's experience with communists, the backdrop of the ongoing Vietnam War, as well as domestic political considerations. As a result, Singapore did not establish diplomatic relations with China until the other countries in the region had decided they wanted to do so, to avoid portraying a pro-China bias.[118] [119] His official visits to China starting in 1976 were conducted in English, to assure other countries that he represented Singapore, and not a "Third China".[120]

In November 1978, after China had stabilized following political turmoil in the aftermath of Mao Zedong's death and the Gang of Four, Deng Xiaoping visited Singapore and met Lee. Deng, who was very impressed with Singapore's economic development, greenery and housing, and later sent tens of thousands of Chinese to Singapore and countries around the world to learn from their experiences and bring back their knowledge as part of the opening of China beginning in December 1978. Lee, on the other hand, advised Deng to stop exporting Communist ideologies to Southeast Asia, advice that Deng later followed.[121][122] This culminated in the exchange of Trade Offices between the two nations in September 1981.[123] In 1985, commercial air services between mainland China and Singapore commenced[124] and China appointed Goh Keng Swee, Singapore's finance minister in the post-independence years, as advisor on the development of Special Economic Zones. [125]

On 3 October 1990, Singapore revised diplomatic relations from the Republic of China to the People's Republic of China.

In December 2018, China conferred a posthumous China Reform Friendship Medal on Lee for his "critical role in promoting Singapore's participation in China's reform journey".[126]

Lee opposed the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1978.[127] The Singapore government organized an international campaign to condemn Vietnam and provided aid to the Khmer Rouge which was fighting against Vietnamese occupation during the Cambodian–Vietnamese War from 1978 to 1989. In his memoirs, Lee recounted that in 1982, "Singapore gave the first few hundreds of several batches of AK-47 rifles, hand grenades, ammunition and communication equipment" to the Khmer Rouge resistance forces. [128][129]

The first time Lee was asked a question publicly about LGBT rights in Singapore was during a CNN interview in 1998. The question was posed by an unnamed homosexual man in Singapore who asked about the future of LGBT people there. Lee replied that it was not for the government to decide whether or not homosexuality was acceptable; it was for the Singaporean society to decide. He also said he did not think an "aggressive gay rights movement" would change people's minds on the issue. He added that the government would not interfere or harass anybody, whether heterosexual or otherwise.[171]

Lee next answered a question about homosexuality at a Young PAP meeting in 2007. The questioner was Loretta Chen, an openly lesbian young PAP member and a bilingual theatre director in Singapore. She asked if the current censorship rules in Singapore were too equivocal and where censorship was headed in the next two decades. Chen referred to a controversial play about Singaporean porn actress Annabel Chong which explored pornography and alternative sexuality. Lee was then asked if he believed homosexuality was a product of nature or nurture. He replied that he had asked doctors about homosexuality and had been told that it was caused by a genetic random transmission of genes.[172][173]

In Lee's book Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going, he was asked about homosexuality again. The questions touched on his personal views of LGBT, LGBT people adopting children and hurdles for LGBT Singaporeans. He was asked how he would react if one of his grandchildren turned out to be homosexual. He replied that he would accept his grandchild because homosexuality is a genetic code.[174] One of the questions asked was if LGBT couples could adopt children. He did not think LGBT people were suited to bringing up a child as they have no maternal instinct aroused by the process of pregnancy.[175]

In May 2019, it was reported that Lee's grandson and son of Lee Hsien Yang, Li Huanwu (Chinese: 李桓武), who is homosexual, had married his partner in South Africa.[176]

Lee identified himself as a "nominal Buddhist" on several occasions, most recently in 2013. During an event at NUS in 1990, Lee told the audience that he accepted beads from a Buddhist because he is a nominal Buddhist.[177] In 2009, Lee Kuan Yew identified himself as a member of the Buddhist/Taoist community.[178][179] In 2013, in a biography "One Man's View of the World", when asked if he still considers himself a "nominal Buddhist", Lee replied:

Yes, I would. I go through the motions and the rituals. I am not a Christian. I am not a Taoist. I do not belong to any special sect.[180]

When asked to describe the rituals, Lee explained:

On set days you've got to give offerings to your ancestors—food and so on. All that is laid out by the servants. But it will go off after my generation. It is like clearing the graves during Qing Ming. With each passing generation, fewer people go. It is a ritual.

Lee was sometimes identified by others as an agnostic,[181] notably during an interview with Goh Keng Swee in 1983 when the latter identified S. Rajaratnam and Lee as agnostics.[182] Lee personally stated his agnosticism during an interview with The New York Times in 2010, but elaborated that he had practised Chinese folk religion while growing up.[183] Lee ceased religious practices of Chinese folk religious customs following the death of his father in 1997.[184] He reinforced his religious views in his autobiography, stating: "I wouldn't call myself an atheist. I neither deny nor accept that there is a God".[185] Two of his younger brothers, Freddy Lee[186] and Lee Suan Yew, have been active members of the Anglican and Methodist churches respectively.[184]

As Singapore's Prime Minister from 1959 to 1990, Lee presided over many of Singapore's advancements. Singapore's Gross National Product per capita rose from $1,240 in 1959 to $18,437 in 1990. The unemployment rate in Singapore dropped from 13.5% in 1959 to 1.7% in 1990. External trade increased from $7.3 billion in 1959 to $205 billion in 1990. In other areas, the life expectancy at birth for Singaporeans rose from 65 years at 1960 to 74 years in 1990. The population of Singapore increased from 1.6 million in 1959 to 3 million in 1990. The number of public flats in Singapore rose from 22,975 in 1959 (then under the Singapore Improvement Trust) to 667,575 in 1990. The Singaporean literacy rate increased from 52% in 1957 to 90% in 1990. Telephone lines per 100 Singaporeans increased from 3 in 1960 to 38 in 1990. Visitor arrivals to Singapore rose from 100,000 in 1960 to 5.3 million in 1990.[188]

During the three decades in which Lee held office, Singapore grew from a developing country to one of the most developed nations in Asia.[189] Lee said that Singapore's only natural resources are its people and their strong work ethic.[190]

Lee's achievements in Singapore had a profound effect on the Communist leadership in China, who made a major effort, especially under Deng Xiaoping, to emulate his policies of economic growth, entrepreneurship and subtle suppression of dissent. Over 22,000 Chinese officials were sent to Singapore to study its methods.[7] He has also had a major influence on thinking in Russia in recent years.[191]

Other world leaders also praised Lee. Henry Kissinger once wrote of Lee: "One of the asymmetries of history is the lack of correspondence between the abilities of some leaders and the power of their countries." Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher praised "his way of penetrating the fog of propaganda and expressing with unique clarity the issues of our time and the way to tackle them". A later British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, called Lee "the smartest leader I ever met".[192]

On the other hand, many Singaporeans have criticised Lee as authoritarian and as intolerant of dissent, citing his numerous—mostly successful—attempts to sue political opponents and newspapers who express an unfavourable opinion. Reporters Without Borders, an international media pressure group, requested Lee and other senior Singaporean officials to stop taking libel suits against journalists.[193]

In addition, Lee was accused of promoting a culture of elitism among Singapore's ruling class. Michael Barr in his book The Ruling Elite of Singapore: Networks of Influence and Power claims that the system of meritocracy in Singapore is not quite how the government presents it; rather, it is a system of nepotism and collusion run by Lee's family and their crony friends and allies. Barr claims further that although the government presents the city-state as multi-ethnic and cosmopolitan, all the networks are dominated by ethnic Chinese, leaving the minority Malay and Indian ethnic groups powerless. According to Barr, the entire process of selecting and grooming of future political and economic talent is monopolised in the hands of the ruling People's Action Party, which Lee himself founded with a handful of other British-educated ethnic Chinese that he met in his days at Cambridge.[194]

In 1999, the former Singaporean President Devan Nair, who was living in Canada, remarked in an interview with the Toronto The Globe and Mail that Lee's technique of suing his opponents into bankruptcy or oblivion was an abrogation of political rights. He also remarked that Lee is "an increasingly self-righteous know-all", surrounded by "department store dummies". In response to these remarks, Lee sued Nair in a Canadian court and Nair countersued. Lee then brought a motion to have Nair's counterclaim thrown out of court. Lee argued that Nair's counterclaim disclosed no reasonable cause of action and constituted an inflammatory attack on the integrity of the Singapore government. However, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice refused to throw out Nair's counterclaim, holding that Lee had abused the litigating process and therefore Nair had a reasonable cause of action.[195]

According to Lee's memoirs, Nair was forced to resign as President due to his alleged alcoholism, a charge which Nair denied.

In 1984, the Graduate Mothers' Scheme was launched. It gave priority for public services to mothers with higher-educational qualification, prompting allegations of eugenics.[196] In his speeches preceding the scheme, he had urged highly educated women to have more children, claiming that "social delinquents" would dominate unless their fertility rate increased. A proponent of nature over nurture he stated that "intelligence is 80% nature and 20% nurture" and attributed the successes of his children to genetics.[197]

On 24 September 2008 the High Court of Singapore, in a summary judgment by Justice Woo Bih Li, ruled that the Far Eastern Economic Review magazine (Hugo Restall, editor), defamed Lee and his son, the Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong. The court found the 2006 article "Singapore's 'Martyr': Chee Soon Juan" suggested that Lee "ha[d] been running and continue[d] to run Singapore in the same corrupt manner as Durai operated [the National Kidney Foundation] and he ha[d] been using libel actions to suppress those who would question [him] to avoid exposure of his corruption".[198] The court ordered the Review, owned by Dow Jones & Company (in turn owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp), to pay damages to the complainants. The magazine appealed but lost.[198][199]

In 2010 Lee, together with his son Lee Hsien Loong, and Goh Chok Tong, threatened legal action against The New York Times Company, which owns the International Herald Tribune, regarding an Op-Ed piece titled "All in the Family" of 15 February 2010 by Philip Bowring, a freelance columnist and former editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review. The International Herald Tribune apologised in March that readers of the article may "infer that the younger Lee did not achieve his position through merit". The New York Times Company and Bowring also agreed to pay S$60,000 to Lee Hsien Loong, S$50,000 to Lee and S$50,000 to Goh (totalling about US$114,000 at the time), in addition to legal costs. The case stemmed from a 1994 settlement between the three Singaporean leaders and the paper about an article, also by Bowring, that referred to "dynastic politics" in East Asian countries, including Singapore. In that settlement, Bowring agreed not to say or imply that the younger Lee had attained his position through nepotism by his father Lee Kuan Yew. In response, media-rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders wrote an open letter to urge Lee and other top officials of the Singapore government to stop taking "libel actions" against journalists.[200][201][202] Bowring passed over without comment the accession of Lee Jr in the long and detailed obituary to Lee he wrote for The Guardian.[203]

In 1999, in a discussion forum, Lee Kuan Yew was asked whether the emotional bonds of various ethnic groups in Singapore could be a hurdle to nation building, Lee replied: "Yes, I think so, over a long period of time, and selectively. We must not make an error. If, for instance, you put in a Malay officer who's very religious and who has family ties in Malaysia in charge of a machine-gun unit, that's a very tricky business. We've got to know his background. I'm saying these things because they are real, and if I don't think that, and I think even if today the Prime Minister doesn't think carefully about this, we could have a tragedy. So, these are problems which, as poly students, you're colour-blind to, but when you face life in reality, it's a different proposition".[204]

In 2011, WikiLeaks published diplomatic cables attributing controversial comments on Islam to Lee. WikiLeaks quoted Lee as having described Islam as a "venomous religion". Lee called the remarks "false" and looked up to MFA's filenote of meeting and found no record of the claim, stating: "I did talk about extremist terrorists like the Jemaah Islamiyah group, and the jihadist preachers who brainwashed them. They are implacable in wanting to put down all who do not agree with them. So their Islam is a perverted version, which the overwhelming majority of Muslims in Singapore do not subscribe to". He added that "Singapore Muslim leaders were rational and that the ultimate solution to extremist terrorism was to give moderate Muslims the courage to stand up and speak out against radicals who hijacked Islam to recruit volunteers for their violent ends".[205][206]

In Lee Kuan Yew: Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going, Lee stated that Singaporean Muslims faced difficulties in integrating because of their religion, and urged them to "be less strict on Islamic observances". His remarks drew firestorm from Malay/Muslim leaders and MPs in Singapore, prompting a strong reaction from his son Lee Hsien Loong, the Prime Minister at that time, who said "My views on Muslims’ integration in Singapore differed from the Minister Mentor's. Muslims are a valued and respected community, who have done a good deal to strengthen our harmony and social cohesion." Lee Kuan Yew then told the media "I made this one comment on the Muslims integrating with other communities probably two or three years ago. Ministers and MPs, both Malay and non-Malay, have since told me that Singapore Malays have indeed made special efforts to integrate with the other communities, especially since 9/11, and that my call is out of date." Subsequently, he added: "I stand corrected. I hope that this trend will continue in the future."[207][208]

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