Despite faults, Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew has left an enviable record

It seems that if he had wanted to, Lee Kuan Yew could have continued as leader of Singapore for another 20 years on top of the 31 he had served before stepping aside in 1990. As it was, he continued to influence the affairs of the city-state he co-founded at the highest level, first as "senior minister" until 2004 and then as "minister mentor" until 2011, making him in a sense one of the longest-serving rulers in history. That is a good starting point for reflecting on the passing yesterday, at the age of 91, of arguably Asia's greatest contemporary statesman.

His leadership is defined by far-sighted economic vision that transformed a colonial trading post into a dynamic, multicultural commercial hub, and by an uncompromising approach to civil and political issues. The difficulty many people still have in reconciling the two will define debate on his legacy for years to come. There is no question that, with the critical support from the start of an outstanding inner circle of top officials and advisers, he overcame a hostile environment to build a dynamic city out of a tiny, unpromising territory. But, in the process, methods that focused unwaveringly on results seen as being in the ultimate best interests of the majority, at the cost of rights and minorities, often affronted liberals.

He cited economic success to justify an authoritarian mix of state control and capitalism that created prosperity against the odds without all the elements of liberal Western democracy. Indeed pragmatism was and remains the state ideology. The cost includes freedom of the press and the liberal use of libel laws largely inherited from the British colonial government to stifle free speech and punish critics. At the same time, an uncompromising stand against corruption still sets Singapore apart and is also cited to justify his brand of tough policies. The city-state ranks seventh in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index of 2014, with Hong Kong at 17th.

It is a measure of Lee's achievements that even though he ceased to play an official role four years ago, the younger generation is not without fear and anxiety about tackling change and evolution that preserves and builds on them. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Lee's son, concedes that the city is at an "inflection point". Near the end of his life, the elder Lee acknowledged that Singapore was "loosening up" under younger leaders. Understandably, he expressed fears that this would come to no good. We trust that respect for his legacy of peace, stability and prosperity will prove him wrong for once.