Lee Kuan Yew gave Singapore a republic, and the poetry came later
Beverly Murray reflects on a nation made in the image of a pragmatic man with no time for whimsy
To capture the essence of Singapore's former prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, you could point to the fact that Richard Nixon once described him as a man who "might have attained the world stature of a Churchill, a Disraeli, or a Gladstone" were he born in another country. Or the fact that Lee has served as a mentor to the likes of Deng Xiaoping and Xi Jinping . Or, more recently, Obama's assessment that Lee is a "legendary figure of Asia in the 20th and 21st centuries".
These vaunted accolades are guaranteed a place in the historical chronicles. However, to judge a man by his accomplishments, certainly one who has left an indelible imprint on the national psyche of an entire country, one needs to really delve into the flavours, the rhythms, the rojak of Singapore life.
Which is to say - one needs to go back. Back to when Lee was in his prime and brimming with vitality, back to when Singapore was on the brink of taking the world stage, back before Marina Bay Sands or the Singapore Flyer dominated the landscape. Back to when I was in Primary 1. Sitting cross-legged on the floor with other squirming seven-year-olds, while a music teacher patiently sounded out the notes to our very first lesson in productivity:
Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Till your good is better And your better, best.
We sang this all the way home. It was an ethos that underpinned our collective spirit, echoing well into our later years. There were no As for effort in Lee's Singapore. Instead, there was his institutionalised demand, pure and strikingly simple - for the best. Not your best, which was entirely subjective, and easily dismantled by the accomplishments of another. But the best. The kind that was unequivocal. The kind that topped lists compiled by the World Health Organisation, the World Bank and the OECD.
All biographers point to Lee's near obsession with perfection, but few capture the true magic of his legacy. Most world leaders, narcissists by nature, dream of presiding over a well-educated and sophisticated electorate. A handful have had the wherewithal to build the infrastructure necessary for one. But Lee was the only one who possessed the brilliance and tenacity to achieve this goal in fewer than 30 years.