Interesting commentary from The Star:

However, Singapore’s founding father has shown he still retains the world’s admiration for his role in the contemporary history of Singapore and the region.

In Washington last week, he was accorded the first lifetime achievement award by the US-Asean Business Council – with tributes from the current US and two former presidents at the ceremony.

President Barack Obama, who met him at the Oval Office and who will be in Singapore, said Lee was “one of the legendary figures of Asia in the 20th and 21st centuries… somebody who helped to trigger the Asian economic miracle.”

Among a list of high-powered figures who were present were Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, who said: “All of us who have worked with him have benefited from his wisdom, his insight and his dedication.”

Henry Kissinger said: “I’ve known him for 40 years. I would say I’ve not learned as much from anybody as I have from Lee Kuan Yew.” …

His “lifetime award” has also raised questions about whether this was his last hurrah, and if the 86-year-old leader intends to seek another five more years in office.

“It is always risky to predict an imminent Lee retirement. He has a habit of proving it wrong,” said a local reporter. “However at 86, he is visibly slower. How long can he go on?”

The international buzz is adding to the national debate about what possible impacts his eventual exit will have on Singapore.

Although he has distanced himself from the day-to-day running of the country, Lee is widely believed to hold significant influence over the Republic. …

Much of the blame is levelled, fairly or unfairly, at Lee’s influence. Some foreigners have found the level of vehemence hard to understand given Singapore’s advanced state of progress.

During a dinner among regional journalists, one editor from a developing country asked me to explain why so many Singaporeans were so angry with the architect of their prosperity.

“We’d be happy to swap our leader for Lee anytime,” he said. It reflects how much society is changing.

Lee recently said the evolving mindsets of the young and their response to the world’s changes will alter Singapore’s political landscape in future “and not because I won’t be around.”