The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew (2 page)
Read The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew Online
Authors: Lee Kuan Yew
Memoirs of
L
EE
K
UAN
Y
EW
At work on my drafts on home PC (Oxley Road).
THE
SINGAPORE
STORY
Memoirs of
L
EE
K
UAN
Y
EW
© 1998 Lee Kuan Yew
First print edition published in 1998
This e-book edition published in 2014 by
Marshall Cavendish Editions
An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International
1 New Industrial Road, Singapore 536196
and
The Straits Times Press
A member of Singapore Press Holdings
1000 Toa Payoh North, Singapore 318994
Cover photograph by George Gascon
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National Library Board Singapore Cataloguing in Publication Data Lee, Kuan Yew,- 1923-
The Singapore story : memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew. – Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Editions Straits Times Press,- [2009]
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13 : 978-981-4276-19-1 (set)
ISBN-13 : 978-981-4276-17-7 (v. 1)
eISBN: 978 981 4561 76 1
1. Lee, Kuan Yew, 1923- 2. Prime ministers- – Singapore – Biography. 3. Singapore - History. 4. Singapore- – Politics and government. I. Title.
DS610.73
959.5705092 – dc22 OCN376939745
To my wife and partner,
Choo
Contents
7. My First Clashes with the Government
8. Widening the Oxley Road Circle
9. The World of the Chinese-educated
11. Round One to the Communists
12. Marshall Accentuates the Crisis
14. Exit Marshall, Enter Lim Yew Hock
15. Three-quarters Independent
16. Flushing Out the Communists
18. Election 1959 – We Fight to Win
20. Glimpses of Troubles Ahead
22. The Tunku’s Merger Bombshell
32. Singapore Declares Independence
35. Venturing into the Malay Heartland
36. Albar Stokes Up Malay Passions
37. Singapore-KL Tensions Mount
38. Constitutional Rearrangements?
39. Seeking Support Down Under
40. UMNO’s “Crush Lee” Campaign
41. The Quest for a Malaysian Malaysia
43. “Talak, Talak, Talak” (I Divorce Thee)
Preface
I had not intended to write my memoirs and did not keep a diary. To do so would have inhibited my work.
Five years after I stepped down as prime minister, my old friend and colleague, Lim Kim San, chairman of Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), convinced me that the young would read my memoirs since they were interested in a book of my old speeches that SPH had published in Chinese. I was also troubled by the apparent over-confidence of a generation that has only known stability, growth and prosperity. I thought our people should understand how vulnerable Singapore was and is, the dangers that beset us, and how we nearly did not make it. Most of all, I hope that they will know that honest and effective government, public order and personal security, economic and social progress did not come about as the natural course of events.
This is not an official history. It is the story of the Singapore I grew up in, the placid years of British colonial rule, the shock of war, the cruel years of Japanese occupation, communist insurrection and terrorism against the returning British, communal riots and intimidation during Malaysia, and the perils of independence. This book deals with the early years which ended with our sudden independence in 1965. My next book will describe the long, hard climb over the next 25 years from poverty to prosperity.
Many, not born or too young when I took office in 1959, do not know how a small country with no natural resources was cut off from its natural hinterland and had to survive in a tough world of nationalistic new states in Southeast Asia. They take it as quite normal that in less
than 40 years the World Bank has reclassified Singapore from a less developed to a developed country.
To write this book I had to revive memories of events long forgotten, reading through minutes of meetings, letters written and received, and oral history transcripts of colleagues. It was psychological stocktaking, and I was surprised how disturbing it was occasionally although these events were past and over with.
I had one powerful critic and helper, my wife, Choo. She went over every word that I wrote, many times. We had endless arguments. She is a conveyancing lawyer by profession. I was not drafting a will or a conveyance to be scrutinised by a judge. Nevertheless she demanded precise, clear and unambiguous language. Choo was a tower of strength, giving me constant emotional and intellectual support.
I have not written, except incidentally, about what was an important part of my life, our three children. They have been a source of joy and satisfaction as Choo and I watched them grow up and, like their peers, build successful careers in the Singapore my policies had transformed.
For my cabinet colleagues and me, our families were at the heart of our team efforts to build a nation from scratch. We wanted a Singapore that our children and those of our fellow citizens would be proud of, a Singapore that would offer all citizens equal and ample opportunities for a fulfilling future. It was this drive in an immigrant Asian society that spurred us on to fight and win against all odds.
Lee Kuan Yew
Singapore, July 1998