Lee Kuan Yew Quotes

Lee Kuan Yew CH GCMG SPMJ , commonly referred to by his initials LKY, was the first Prime Minister of Singapore, governing for three decades. Lee is recognised as the nation's founding father, with the country described as transitioning from the "third world to first world in a single generation" under his leadership.

After attending the London School of Economics, Lee graduated from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University, with double starred-first-class honours in law. In 1950, he became a barrister of the Middle Temple and practised law until 1959. Lee co-founded the People's Action Party in 1954 and was its first secretary-general until 1992, leading the party to eight consecutive victories. After Lee chose to step down as Prime Minister in 1990, he served as Senior Minister under his successor, Goh Chok Tong until 2004, then as Minister Mentor until 2011, under his son Lee Hsien Loong. In total, Lee held successive ministerial positions for 56 years. He continued to serve his Tanjong Pagar constituency for nearly 60 years as a Member of Parliament until his death in 2015. From 1991, he helmed the 5-member Tanjong Pagar GRC, and was returned unopposed for a record five elections.

Lee campaigned for Britain to relinquish its colonial rule, and eventually attained through a national referendum to merge with other former British territories to form Malaysia in 1963. But racial strife and ideological differences led to its separation to become a sovereign city-state two years later. With overwhelming parliamentary control at every election, Lee oversaw Singapore's transformation from a stagnant British crown colony with a natural deep harbour to an Asian Tiger economy. In the process, he forged a system of meritocratic, highly effective and incorrupt government and civil service. Many of his policies are now taught at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

Lee eschewed populist policies in favor of pragmatic long-term social and economic measures. With meritocracy and multiracialism as governing principles, Lee made English the common language to integrate its immigrant society and to facilitate trade with the West, whilst mandating bilingualism in schools to preserve students' mother tongue and ethnic identity. Lee's rule was criticised, for curtailing civil liberties and bringing libel suits against political opponents. He argued that such disciplinary measures were necessary for political stability, which together with rule of law, were essential for economic progress.

On 23 March 2015, Lee Kuan Yew died of pneumonia, at 91. In a week of national mourning, 1.7 million residents and guests paid tribute to him at his lying-in-state at Parliament House and at community tribute sites around the island.

✵ 16. September 1923 – 23. March 2015
Lee Kuan Yew photo
Lee Kuan Yew: 72   quotes 12   likes

Famous Lee Kuan Yew Quotes

“At the end of the day, if you are in Aljunied, ask yourself: Do you want one MP, one Non-Constituency MP, one celebrity who has been away 30 years, and two unknowns to look after you? Or would you prefer me and my hand-picked colleagues?”

assessment on the alternative Workers' Party candidates contesting in the Aljunied GRC for General Elections 2011 (Yahoo News, April 30, 2011, http://sg.news.yahoo.com/aljunied-voters-will-regret-choosing-wp--mm-lee.html)
2010s

“… If you can't think because you can't chew, try a banana”

2000. Lee was responding to a BBC reporter who suggested that Singapore's draconian laws (including the ban on chewing gum) could stifle the people's creativity. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/820234.stm
2000s

Lee Kuan Yew Quotes about people

“Of course there are Chinese millionaires in big cars and big houses. Is it the answer to make a few Malay millionaires with big cars and big houses? How does telling a Malay bus driver that he should support the party of his Malay director (UMNO) and the Chinese bus conductor to join another party of his Chinese director (MCA) - how does that improve the standards of the Malay bus driver and the Chinese bus conductor who are both workers in the same company? If we delude people into believing that they are poor because there are no Malay rights or because opposition members oppose Malay rights, where are we going to end up? You let people in the kampongs believe that they are poor because we don't speak Malay, because the government does not write in Malay, so he expects a miracle to take place in 1967 (the year Malay would become the national and sole official language in Malaysia). The moment we all start speaking Malay, he is going to have an uplift in the standard of living, and if doesn't happen, what happens then? Meanwhile, whenever there is a failure of economic, social and educational policies, you come back and say, oh, these wicked Chinese, Indian and others opposing Malay rights. They don't oppose Malay rights. They, the Malay, have the right as Malaysian citizens to go up to the level of training and education that the more competitive societies, the non-Malay society, has produced. That is what must be done, isn't it? Not to feed them with this obscurantist doctrine that all they have got to do is to get Malay rights for the few special Malays and their problem has been resolved.”

Lee Kuan Yew in the Parliament of Malaysia, 1965 http://maddruid.com/?p=645
1960s

Lee Kuan Yew Quotes about thinking

“I have never been over concerned or obsessed with opinion polls or popularity polls. I think a leader who is, is a weak leader. Between being loved and being feared, I have always believed Machiavelli was right. If nobody is afraid of me, I’m meaningless.”

The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew, 1998, as quoted by http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-05-24/tech/30081331_1_singaporean-lee-kuan-yew-political-landscape
1990s

Lee Kuan Yew: Trending quotes

“Whoever governs Singapore must have that iron in him. Or give it up. This is not a game of cards! This is your life and mine! I've spent a whole lifetime building this and as long as I'm in charge, nobody is going to knock it down.”

Rally in 1980, related to the then-ongoing Singapore Airlines pilot strikes due to salary issue http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32012346
1980s

Lee Kuan Yew Quotes

“I have said this on many a previous occasion: that had the mix in Singapore been different, had it been 75% Indians, 15% Malays and the rest Chinese, it would not have worked. Because they believe in the politics of contention, of opposition. But because the culture was such that the populace sought a practical way out of their difficulties, therefore it has worked.”

[President's Address, Debate on President's Address, Parliament of Singapore, http://sprs.parl.gov.sg/search/topic.jsp?currentTopicID=00062986-ZZ&currentPubID=00069476-ZZ&topicKey=00069476-ZZ.00062986-ZZ_1%2Bid005_19850301_S0005_T00051-president-address%2B, March 01 1985, January 16 2015]
1980s

“Without the elected president and if there is a freak result, within two or three years, the army would have to come in and stop it”

MM Lee Kuan Yew on what would happen if a profligate opposition government touched Singapore's vast monetary reserves, "Lee Kuan Yew defends PAP's Political Dominance", Reuters, 16 September 2006
2000s

“Please do not assume that you can change governments. Young people don’t understand this.”

MM Lee Kuan Yew, after 2006 Elections http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/singapore-tries-to-imagine-a-future-without-lee-kuan-yew/2015/03/18/b12acc7c-cbe7-11e4-8730-4f473416e759_story.html
2000s

“If Singapore is a nanny state, then I am proud to have fostered one.”

Lee Kuan Yew, in a wry aside to critics who have accused him of governing Singapore like a nanny state, From Third World to First, The Singapore Story: 1965-2000, Lee Kuan Yew. 2000)
2000s

“What if Mr Mah is unable to defend himself, he deserves to lose? No country in the world has given its citizens an asset as valuable as what we've given every family here. And if you say that policy is at fault, you must be daft.”

when asked about a Straits Times report that cited keen opposition interest in contesting Tampines GRC, which National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan helms, so that they can raise the affordability of public housing as an election issue. Prime Minister's Office, January 28 2010 http://www.pmo.gov.sg/content/pmosite/mediacentre/inthenews/ministermentor/2010/January/fewer_foreign_workersinfiveyearssaysmm.html
2010s

“Freedom of the press, freedom of the news media, must be subordinated to the overriding needs of the integrity of Singapore, and to the primacy of purpose of an elected government.”

Address To The General Assembly Of The International Press Institute At Helsinki Wednesday, 9th June, 1971 http://journalism.sg/lee-kuan-yews-1971-speech-on-the-press/
1970s

“I make no apologies that the PAP is the Government and the Government is the PAP.”

(quoted in Milne and Mauzy 1990, p. 85) http://books.google.com/books?id=gzdbfu55IGgC&pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=I+make+no+apologies+that+the+PAP+is+the+Government+and+the+Government+is+the&source=bl&ots=S0zsvGrdSE&sig=BdKP_Lx7rh0f0xG6Y0dmn8TgGWc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=lNjuUqqGD8PlsATSi4DACw&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=I%20make%20no%20apologies%20that%20the%20PAP%20is%20the%20Government%20and%20the%20Government%20is%20the&f=false
1980s

“If Aljunied decides to go that way, well Aljunied has five years to live and repent.”

warning voters in Aljunied GRC on the consequence of voting for the alternative Workers' Party, which the PAP eventually lost to. (Yahoo News, April 30, 2011, http://sg.news.yahoo.com/aljunied-voters-will-regret-choosing-wp--mm-lee.html)
2010s

“There is a conspiracy to do us in. Why?… They see us as a threat to the rest of Singapore.”

on why Human Rights Groups criticise Singapore's governance (Agence France-Presse, July 12 2008, http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=124971)
2000s

“Even from my sick bed, even if you are going to lower me into the grave and I feel something is going wrong, I will get up.”

1988 National Day Rally, when he discussed the leadership transition to Goh Chok Tong in 1990. As quoted in The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia: Volume 2, The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
1980s

“At the end of the day, we are so many digits in the machine. The point is – are these digits stronger than the competitors' digits?”

MM Lee Kuan Yew on Singapore workers, History of Singapore, 2005
2000s

“If all the 300 (top civil servants and political elite) were to crash in one jumbo jet, then Singapore will disintegrate.”

On how Singapore cannot afford the luxury of multiparty politics, 1975 http://books.google.com/books?id=4dE0AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA322&lpg=PA322&dq=300+were+to+crash+in+one+Jumbo+jet,+then+Singapore+will+disintegrate&source=bl&ots=8x2BWCDeVq&sig=VWl7jJHHDzDXYqLLJw39k8NrEkY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RBbsUsPvF-bSsATvuICoCA&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=300%20were%20to%20crash%20in%20one%20Jumbo%20jet%2C%20then%20Singapore%20will%20disintegrate&f=false http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1975/5/13/in-lee-kuan-yews-singapore-prosperity/#
1970s

“He took over, and he said: 'If I have to shoot 200,000 students to save China from another 100 years of disorder, so be it.”

Recalling how former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping dealt with the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, Straits Times, Aug 17, 2004
2000s

“For me, it is a moment of anguish. All my life, my whole adult life, I believed in merger and unity of the two territories.”

August 9, 1965, when Lee announced the separation of Singapore from Malaysia, as quoted in The Theatre and the State in Singapore: Orthodoxy and Resistance, Terence Chong
1960s

“Look, Jeyaretnam can't win the infighting. I'll tell you why. WE are in charge. Every government ministry and department is under our control. And in the infighting, he will go down for the count every time… I will make him crawl on his bended knees, and beg for mercy.”

1981, as recounted by former President C. V. Devan Nair, as quoted in Beyond suspicion?: the Singapore judiciary, Francis T. Seow http://www.singapore-window.org/sw99/90321dn.htm
1980s

“That was the year the British decided to get out and sell everything. So I immediately held an election. I knew the people will be dead scared. And I won my bet big-time.”

On winning 88% of the votes in 1968 (actual share was 84.43%), The Straits Times, March 7, 2007
2000s

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