Lee Kuan Yew must be recognized as one of the more successful post-colonial leaders of the twentieth century. He served as Prime Minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1990. And even when he stepped down from power, he was given the title of Minister Mentor as his influence over decision-making in Singapore remained hegemonic.
Singapore is a nation of over five million people with a dearth of natural resources. Lee Kuan Yew had a profound understanding of economic development. He realized that Singapore had to position itself in a competitive world economy. He skillfully avoided ideological dogma and chiseled out an economic pathway that has worked for the people of Singapore. The state was very much involved in the economic developmental process but there was space for foreign domestic investment and for the cultivation of a private sector in Singapore.
Lee Kuan Yew often stated that culture is indispensable to development. He forced Singaporeans in his autocratic style to adhere to certain cultural precepts. Critics have made much of the outlawing of spitting in the streets or chewing gum or throwing garbage from the balcony. But more significant in understanding the Singaporean miracle is the emphasis placed on science, mathematics and technology to ensure that the workforce in Singapore could cope with the information and technological revolution taking place in a globalized world.
There is a literature in the field of economic development that seeks to explain why the capitalist revolution initially occurred in protestant countries. In these countries like England and Germany, in the post-reformation age there was a receptivity to science and a strong belief in the work ethic.
Lee Kuan Yew courted corporations with advance technology to invest in Singapore. The economic model that Lee Kuan Yee brought to Singapore has changed the lives of the people on that island of over 5 million people. Seth Mydans who wrote Lee Kuan Yew’s obituary in the New York Times, March 22, 2015, mentioned the five C’s that has brought a certain level of contentment among Singaporeans – cash, condo, car, credit cards and country clubs. Singapore’s economic growth over decades has produced an affluent society. The ranking of nations by the United Nations Development Program places Singapore above the United States.
Singapore has a majority Chinese population. They opted to leave the Malaysian Federation in 1965. Singapore seems to have benefited from the Confucius heritage that is still embedded in the Chinese weltanschauung. In capitalist society, the emphasis is on the individual, the accumulation of wealth in contrast to the Confucius precept of the larger good, of humankind pursuing virtue. Obviously, in the case of Singapore and China, culture is definitely influenced by economic dynamics. In a semi-democratic quasi-authoritarian state, Lee Kuan Yew has forged an effective model of development and the people of Singapore have benefited from a non-dogmatic system that has enriched the coffers of the average worker in Singapore.
There is evidence that when Deng Xiaoping succeeded Mao Zedong in 1976, he was very much influenced by the economic model in Singapore. Deng took a non-dogmatic approach to Chinese economic development. The Soviet model of centralization was extremely unproductive and inefficient. As Deng Xiaoping is reported to have stated, “Whether the cat is black or white, what matters is can it catch the mice”.
China under Mao Zedong failed to catch any mice. The Great Leap Forward in the 1950s to accelerate economic development was an unmitigated disaster and Mao’s cultural revolution of the 1960s hurt the process of economic growth. Deng Xiaoping jettisoned the Soviet system of centralized planning in 1978 and opened the Chinese economy to foreign domestic investment and created space for a domestic private sector. The state remained as a major player in what the Chinese Communist Party chose to call their socialist market economy.
The Chinese Communist Party kept the monopoly of state power yet concomitantly co-existing with multi-national corporations and national economic enterprises. The economic growth rates from 1979 to 2013 were phenomenal and have transformed China into a nation of billionaires, millionaires and with the largest middle class in the world. Nonetheless, China is plagued with a messy urban problem of transients and floaters virtually squatting in urban areas. In addition, the standard of living in urban areas is much higher than the rural areas.
The China model is far more complex than the Singaporean model, not only in the magnitude of China’s population but the fact that the Chinese Communist Party monopolizes state power. The new Chairman of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping, is terrified that the plethora of corruption that plagues contemporary China and particularly the corruption in high levels of the Party and government threaten the legitimacy of the regime. Xi Jinping has embarked on an anti-corruption crusade with no compunctions of prosecuting even members of the Politburo who have been involved in corruption.
Lee Kuan Yew was able to avoid corruption scandals in the Singaporean government. Prominent office holders were paid salaries similar to their peers in the private sector. As Seth Wydans points out in his obituary of Lee Kuan Yew, he was willing to go toe-to-toe with his critics, taking out libel suits against naysayers who accused him of nepotism.
Singapore is now less of a one party state as the Opposition has tapped into a vein of discontent with the People’s Action Party much to the chagrin of Lee Kuan Yew who was comfortable with the PAP monopolizing state power. Despite the autocratic tendencies of Lee Kuan Yew, in the post-colonial era, he is something of an icon. He successfully created a mixed economic model suitable to the peculiarities of the Singaporean people. That export-oriented model has provided the people of Singapore with the material benefits of a modern society. For that accomplishment, Lee Kuan Yew has to be recognized as one of the giants of the twentieth century.
Dr. Basil Wilson is Provost Emeritus of John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Executive Director of the King Research Institute, Monroe College, Bronx, New York. He can be reached at: basilwilson@caribbean-events.com.
