A "Good " Dictator !

Singapore mourns the death of it's "Founding Father " with the passing of Lee Kuan Yew at 91.  For over thirty years this one man seemed to have total control of what was otherwise a democracy in Asia.  He was a visionary who turned a sleepy little backwater into a wealthy, bustling financial hub that financially dominates trade despite being a tiny city state.

In his long lifetime Lee Kuan Yew faced many challenges and had his share of disappointments.  Initially his city was a remote outpost of the mighty British Empire until the Japanese invasion led to a humiliating surrender and several years of occupation.   There was a brief period of Federation with Malaysia, but that proved unworkable because of race tensions and differing objectives and it was the negotiating genius of Lee Kuan Yew that achieved separation with a degree of harmony.

The rise of Singapore was a lesson that economists preach to their students.  The island state was not hesitant to diverge from the frusty old regimen of commerce and adopt new ways of doing things, and very often those changes were adopted by the rest of the world.   Singapore was clearly the leader and it's taxation and business administration laws drew world companies to locate to the skyscrapers that made it a world city.

Lee Kuan Yew had the respect of Singapore citizens and they kept him in office despite his implementation of strict rule.   He had no favour for the corruption that was endemic in most Asian countries and he insisted on high standards - often resulting in local laws that ran contrary to world custom.   When a world fad resulted in young men wearing shoulder length hair Lee Kwan Yew took measures that quickly made it disappeare in Singapore.  He was disgusted by wads of chewing gum dropped on the pavement, sticking to the shoes of passers by - and chewing gum became simply "unavailable "in Singapore.

There is no doubt that this prime minister was an autocrat.  Dictators were common in Asian society and in many instances their rule was dysfunctional and little short of kleptocracy.   Lee Kuan Yew was not a man to be crossed with impunity.  He was quite capable of crushing opposition but the fact that his regime stuck rigidly to the rule of law and was basically fair made it stand out as the prime place to do business in Asia.

He was also blunt with his criticisms.  He was appalled when Australian politics at one stage became a shambles, resulting in legislative dysfunction and warned us that we risked becoming "the poor white trash of Asia ".   That certainly stung, but it also caused many to review the policies we were following and compare them to the progressive nature of Singapore's continuing rise.

Lee Kuan Yew left Singapore in good hands and he will be remembered as the man who made it's transformation from a fishing village to a city state possible.   There are lessons to be learned - and much of the technique he applied in Singapore would be of benefit in this country !