Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister and architect of the tiny city-state’s rapid rise from British military outpost to global trade centre, dies aged 91.
Lee died on Monday after he was hospitalised in early February with severe pneumonia. In footage broadcast by Channel NewsAsia, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said his father built a nation and gave Singaporeans a proud national identity.
“We won’t see another man like him. To many Singaporeans, and indeed others too, Lee Kuan Yew was Singapore,” he added.
In his lifetime, Lee drew praise for his market-friendly policies but also criticism at home and abroad for his strict controls over the press, public protest and political opponents. Lee had receded from public and political life over the past few years, but he was still seen as an influential figure in the government of Lee Hsien Loong, his eldest son.
Lee, a British-educated lawyer, is credited with building Singapore into one of the world’s wealthiest nations on a per capita basis with a strong, pervasive role for the state and little patience for dissent. He was unapologetic for the more draconian side to his leadership and clamping down fiercely on his opponents, saying it was essential for the country’s security.
“We have to lock up people, without trial, whether they are communists, whether they are language chauvinists, whether they are religious extremists. If you don’t do that, the country would be in ruins,” he said in 1986.
Among other hardline measures, long hair for men was outlawed in the 1970s – the Bee Gees and Led Zeppelin cancelled gigs due to the ban – and chewing gum remains on the forbidden list today. Graffiti is punishable by caning.
“Harry” Lee became Singapore’s first prime minister in 1959 and held on to power for 31 years, overseeing the island’s transformation from a port city battling crime and poverty into one of Asia’s most prosperous nations. Even after stepping down as leader in 1990 – signing off as the world’s then longest-serving prime minister – the acerbic Lee stayed on in the cabinet until 2011. He was a member of parliament until his death.
Lee, a fourth-generation Singaporean, co-founded the People’s Action Party (PAP), which has ruled the city since 1959 and led the newly born country when it was separated from Malaysia in 1965. He stepped down as prime minister in 1990, handing power to Goh Chok Tong, but remained influential as senior minister in Goh’s cabinet and later as “minister mentor” when his son became prime minister in 2004.