One of my favorite places is Singapore. The first time I traveled there I felt it was a nation to be admired and imitated. I didn’t know much about their history only that when I was in third year high school, in our Economics class, it was mentioned that Singapore was one of the “tiger cub” economies among some Asian countries including Philippines. This was in the early nineties. By the late nineties, my first experience, the nation has become into a full-grown “tiger”, a nation to beat amongst Asian countries even until now.
In my vacation there I had a glimpse of their history and the brief experience of living in a society reaping the fruits of a government who looks after the countrymen simply because these countrymen, themselves, respect and support their government. This mutual and cyclical honor between the government and its people has made its mark in making Singapore a very progressive Asian nation.
Like most success stories, the country and its people started in an unfortunate state. Much of its people were doing hard labor in its time of colonization by the British and at a time of its merger with Malaysia. A turning point for Singapore came in the name and face of Lee Kuan Yew.
Lee Kuan Yew was the first and longest serving Prime Minister of Singapore. Although his political career involved being pro-British he realized the British did not have the support of the Chinese and instead he established his connections among the Chinese instead. And despite his push for the merger with Malaysia but the Malaysian Prime Minister deciding that Singapore should be separated, Lee Kuan Yew never gave up his thrust for pushing Singapore from being a Third World country to a First World metropolitan city it is today.
It’s been told that behind Singapore’s success is Lee Kuan Yew. There had been flak during his governance, his style of leadership being autocratic and dictatorial, but no doubt that it had all been worth it and perhaps his style of leadership was what the nation needed to uplift itself and progressively move forward. This goes to show that democracy is not for all.
Lee Kuan Yew embodies the qualities I would like the leader of my country to be.
He definitely walked his talk. He is notably a no nonsense person and was open and frank on truths. Criticisms were aplenty but respect was slowly gaining. He was a brilliant planner too in his time of governance. He was just as concerned with the future as he was with the present. He was humble enough to know that he could not rule Singapore forever so with this, he planned out his succession so that the nation’s progress would continue even without him. Clearly, this is a strong indicative of the impact and influence of the leader’s values—when you have molded your followers so well that they can be independent and still function for the greater good.
Another admirable quality of Lee Kuan Yew was his persistence. It is believed that when Malaysia chose to separate itself from Singapore, it became the lowest point of his life. But there was no other way for Lee Kuan Yew but to pick himself up and move forward, taking Singapore’s pride with him. It was as if it was his way of vengeance when left in the dark by the neighboring country. It is definitely in trying times that distinguishes true leaders from puppets. Lee Kuan Yew was and remains to be a force to reckon. One can feel the honor that Singaporeans carry with them and this is mainly because they live in a society that functions together to maintain peace and order and they are governed by a disciplined system that definitely watches over their welfare. It is no doubt that Lee Kuan Yew has given this legacy to them.
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