Lee Kuan Yew: Government

Lee Kuan Yew was First Prime Minister of Singapore. Explore interesting quotes on government.
Lee Kuan Yew: 144   quotes 12   likes

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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