“Conversations with Lee Kuan Yew” book launched
A new book about Lee Kuan Yew is out, but as reported before, the Singapore-published book’s author, Tom Plate, is one of Lee’s top apologists and “candid” opinions are few and far between. CNA:
A detailed and candid book on Singapore’s Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, billed as the first extended conversation with a Western journalist was launched on Wednesday.
“Conversations With Lee Kuan Yew” is written by American columnist Tom Plate.
How does an American present an accurate and non-judgemental view of Singapore? For columnist Tom Plate, he took that challenge head-on – and being from Los Angeles, he approached the story as if he was writing a screenplay on a blockbuster that is Singapore.
Tom Plate, author of “Conversations With Lee Kuan Yew”, said: “You come into a room, and you start talking with him and he cracks a joke and you say something. And then you disagree, he agrees, and back and forth, and it’s almost like a movie.
“No footnotes, a lot of dialogue and it’s an intimate but issue oriented profile of a political giant.” …
For the author, it was also an opportunity to dispel some Western perceived myths about Singapore.
Mr Plate said: “He’s state of the art political management – I mean this is not a chewing gum, caning environment; this is a serious place, brilliant people.
“We Americans don’t know everything, we’ve made our share of mistakes, but we make a terrible mistake when we write Asia off.”
And what was his most memorable moment with Mr Lee?
Mr Plate said: “At one point, his press secretary felt that Minister Mentor was tired and we should cut the session short and (as a) typical journalist, you’re a journalist, you know what I mean, we weren’t going to let that happen, right?
“We want to squeeze every last minute we could and I said ‘No, I’m not moving. You can leave, but I’m not moving.’ And I think Lee Kuan Yew might have overheard the conversation and he came back and he said, ‘No I’m staying, we’re going to finish.’ So he was very committed to finishing the project.”
Speaking briefly at the book launch, Mr Lee acknowledged that “on the whole, he (the author) got my point of view across.”
Filed under: Book review, Event, Quotes | 6 Comments
i read one of the Article in this book about Mr.Lees opinion about Sri Lanka. being a Sri Lankan who studied in Singapore i want to say thank you Mr. Lee for speaking the truth . i wish we had a leader like you here in Sri Lanka to make this country better . may u live long sir .
I admire MM Lee for being the great leader that he is even after he stepped down from being a PM. To MM. Lee, I am proud being a singaporean because of a leader like you steering the wheel of this country until it because what it is today.
Thank you, Sir. and may you live forever.
Am absolutely enjoying the book. Very good read and I like the style of writing too.
Best wishes!
Dear Chamalka
You do realize when you made your comments that if Sri Lanka had had LKY as leader, you; as an ‘incapable’ (that’s a synopsis of what he thinks the Sinhalese race is) Sinhalese, would have had no significant place in your country, don’t you? The more capable tamils (Jaffna tamils?) would be having your job despite your Singapore education!
Be thankful that SL is a full fledged democracy – if you did not experience what it took to make Singapore what it is today you cannot make any comparisons – my knowledge of Sri Lankans (all ethnic groups) is that they would never have accepted LKY style of governance! Never!
Dear Florine,
If democracy comes at the price of everything you own right now. Would you still want it? Full-fledged democracy, as the many developed countries have shown us, fails. It is not a perfect tool. Look at all the bipartisan arguments in US. It will eventually lead to a political deadlock where no policies can be put in place. Better still, politicians will introduce popular but “problematic in the long-term” policies just like what they are doing in US and UK?
Besides, would you rather the oppositions take over the governing the nation? I am no advocate of LKY, but just look at the bigger picture. We may not be a full-fledged democracy like America, but we are no North Korea either. I think the value of democracy is grossly overvalued by the people today…
I hope you understand where I am coming from and I harbour no ill-intention, just hopes that you would consider the cons of democracy too.
Yours faithfully,
Kenny
The fate of Singapore post-LKY is best summarized by the once Perm Sec, Dr Ngiam:
Q. With all this pessimism surrounding Singapore’s prospects today, what’s your personal prognosis? Will Singapore survive Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew?
A. Unequivocally yes, Singapore will survive SM Lee but provided he leaves the right legacy. What sort of legacy he wants to leave is for him to say, but I, a blooming upstart, dare to suggest to him that we should open up politically and allow talent to be spread throughout our society so that an alternative leadership can emerge.So far, the People’s Action Party’s tactic is to put all the scholars into the civil service because it believes the way to retain political power forever is to have a monopoly on talent. But in my view, that’s a very short term view. It is the law of nature that all things must atrophy. Unless SM allows serious political challenges to emerge from the alternative elite out there, the incumbent elite will just coast along. At the first sign of a grassroots revolt, they will probably collapse just like the incumbent Progressive Party to the left-wing PAP onslaught in the late 1950s. I think our leaders have to accept that Singapore is larger than the PAP. …
I suspect we have started to believe our own propaganda. There is also a particular brand of Singapore elite arrogance creeping in. Some civil servants behave like they have a mandate from the emperor. We think we are little Lee Kuan Yews. SM Lee has earned his spurs, with his fine intellect and international standing. But even Lee Kuan Yew sometimes doesn’t behave like Lee Kuan Yew. There is also a trend of intellectualisation for its own sake, which loses a sense of the pragmatic concerns of the larger world. The Chinese, for example, keep good archives of the Imperial examinations which used to be held at the Temple of Heaven. At the beginning, the scholars were tested on very practical subjects, such as how to control floods in their province. But over time, they were examined on the Confucian Analects and Chinese poetry composition. Hence, they became emasculated by the system, a worrying fate which could befall Singapore.
Let me even venture further to say this – IF PAP post LKY do not open up politically and in allowing its citizen more voice/participation in 5 years (or even less) there will indeed be a revolt – people power. It will be a sad day to see the detrimental end of PAP goes down the history flame like that while they still have a chance to remedy it. They are already losing ground /touch with what this generation of young wants if they don’t realized it by now.
Mark my words.