Some years ago I reviewed the third in a curious series of books called Giants of Asia for this newspaper. The interviewing style of the author, US academic Tom Plate, was certainly unusual, by being unremittingly sycophantic. But he was right about the status of his subjects, former leaders of East Asian states. They were indeed “giants”, and none more so than Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding father.
It has been necessary this past week to contemplate life without Mr Lee, as he has been on life support in hospital (his death was also erroneously reported). And it has been hard.
Mr Lee was one of the very last of the post-independence leaders whose dominant personalities transcended the countries they ruled. One thinks of the “big men” of Africa – Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia or Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya. In Asia, Indonesia’s Sukarno, Ne Win in Burma (as it still was during his time) and Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines come to mind.
But Lee Kuan Yew differed from them in two crucial aspects. First, he outlasted them in office and in life. Mr Lee led Singapore as prime minister from 1959 to 1990, and went on to play an influential role as senior minister (1990-2004) under his successor, Goh Chok Tong, and then minister mentor (2004-2011) under the state’s third premier, his son Lee Hsieng Loong.
Second, he was prodigiously successful, which most of his contemporaries were not. Too many came to power as nationalist independence heroes, fully committed to socialism and the ballot box, but within a few years had managed to become “presidents for life”, while their friends and family had accumulated assets not entirely consistent with their professions of left wing beliefs. Their economies, sadly, also too often ended up ruined, while a plutocratic elite still found the dollars for Cadillacs, mansions and expensive western educations for their children.
Mr Lee, on the other hand, unlike those leaders who trumpeted the virtues of democracy while mysteriously winning around 99 per cent in the polls, long made his contempt for one man, one vote clear.
There have always been parliamentary elections in Singapore, but Mr Lee made his doubts plain about the whole system, declaring in a 1990 speech: “With few exceptions, democracy has not brought good government to new developing countries ... westerners value the freedoms and liberties of the individual. As an Asian of Chinese cultural background, my values are for a government which is honest, effective and efficient.”
The great difference with Lee Kuan Yew was that he was astonishingly successful. This, despite the fact that he became a national leader by mishap, or certainly not by his own intention. British rule ended in Singapore when it joined with the already independent Federation of Malaya and the North Borneo states of Sarawak and Sabah in 1963. Two years later, Singapore had been kicked out of Malaysia, and the circumstances were not propitious.
The economy, wrote Mr Lee in his autobiography, was one of his biggest headaches. “We had to make extraordinary efforts to become a tightly knit, rugged and adaptable people who could do things better and cheaper than our neighbours, because they wanted to bypass us.”
What he managed to achieve in Singapore is justly reflected in the title of the second volume of his memoirs: From Third World to First.
Mr Lee’s Singapore was always business-friendly and pragmatic, and he has been consistently unapologetic about the constraints on individual liberty and free speech he considered necessary for the country to progress. Questioned by a BBC reporter about the infamous ban on chewing gum, he replied: “If you can’t think because you can’t chew, try a banana.”
For those brave enough to come out as opponents, life has not been comfortable. And a Singaporean joke concerning an engineer named Lingam suggests that the populace is well aware of the pact they have apparently made over freedom versus development.
Lingam, so the joke goes, applies to move to Malaysia permanently. The Singaporean cabinet is shocked and sets up a task force to investigate. They ask him a series of questions: Why does he want to leave? Does he have any complaints about his job, his salary, his housing, or his children’s schooling?
“No,” Lingam says. “I have no complaints.”
So why, they ask, is he migrating to Malaysia?
“Ah,” he replies, “there I can complain.”
Fair enough. But to older generations of Singaporeans, the transformation they have witnessed conquers all. “If you knew what the country was like when we became independent,” is a familiar refrain. Few will hear anything said against Mr Lee.
Singapore is changing. Mr Lee himself has predicted a time when his ruling PAP will not be in power and the country may well loosen up eventually in all sorts of ways, including allowing the unfettered chewing of gum (although one may well ask what kind of advance that would constitute). But his place in history is assured.
Many others of his era eschewed democracy and tried to become Platonic benevolent despots, but their despotism always ended up exceeding their benevolence and their economic plans ended as dust. Lee Kuan Yew was unique in combining both qualities. If I say we will not see his like again, some may be glad – but modern Singapore is his legacy, his epitaph. I suspect that will suffice.
Sholto Byrnes is a senior fellow at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia
Brief scores:
Toss: Nepal, chose to field
UAE 153-6: Shaiman (59), Usman (30); Regmi 2-23
Nepal 132-7: Jora 53 not out; Zahoor 2-17
Result: UAE won by 21 runs
Series: UAE lead 1-0
Profile of Udrive
Date started: March 2016
Founder: Hasib Khan
Based: Dubai
Employees: 40
Amount raised (to date): $3.25m – $750,000 seed funding in 2017 and a Seed+ round of $2.5m last year. Raised $1.3m from Eureeca investors in January 2021 as part of a Series A round with a $5m target.
Drishyam 2
Directed by: Jeethu Joseph
Starring: Mohanlal, Meena, Ansiba, Murali Gopy
Rating: 4 stars
How it works
1) The liquid nanoclay is a mixture of water and clay that aims to convert desert land to fertile ground
2) Instead of water draining straight through the sand, it apparently helps the soil retain water
3) One application is said to last five years
4) The cost of treatment per hectare (2.4 acres) of desert varies from $7,000 to $10,000 per hectare
Innotech Profile
Date started: 2013
Founder/CEO: Othman Al Mandhari
Based: Muscat, Oman
Sector: Additive manufacturing, 3D printing technologies
Size: 15 full-time employees
Stage: Seed stage and seeking Series A round of financing
Investors: Oman Technology Fund from 2017 to 2019, exited through an agreement with a new investor to secure new funding that it under negotiation right now.
Company profile
Name: Maly Tech
Started: 2023
Founder: Mo Ibrahim
Based: Dubai International Financial Centre
Sector: FinTech
Funds raised: $1.6 million
Current number of staff: 15
Investment stage: Pre-seed, planning first seed round
Investors: GCC-based angel investors
The Color Purple
Director: Blitz Bazawule
Starring: Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P Henson, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo
Rating: 4/5
Results
2.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 1,700m; Winner: AF Mezmar, Adam McLean (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer).
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3.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 1,200m; Winner: Gold Silver, Sam Hitchcott, Ibrahim Aseel.
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Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya
Directors: Amit Joshi and Aradhana Sah
Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Kriti Sanon, Dharmendra, Dimple Kapadia, Rakesh Bedi
Rating: 4/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kinetic 7
Started: 2018
Founder: Rick Parish
Based: Abu Dhabi, UAE
Industry: Clean cooking
Funding: $10 million
Investors: Self-funded
THE BIO:
Sabri Razouk, 74
Athlete and fitness trainer
Married, father of six
Favourite exercise: Bench press
Must-eat weekly meal: Steak with beans, carrots, broccoli, crust and corn
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The specs
Engine 60kwh FWD
Battery Rimac 120kwh Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (LiNiMnCoO2) chemistry
Power 204hp Torque 360Nm
Price, base / as tested Dh174,500
57 Seconds
Director: Rusty Cundieff
Stars: Josh Hutcherson, Morgan Freeman, Greg Germann, Lovie Simone
Rating: 2/5
The specs
Price, base / as tested Dh1,470,000 (est)
Engine 6.9-litre twin-turbo W12
Gearbox eight-speed automatic
Power 626bhp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 900Nm @ 1,350rpm
Fuel economy, combined 14.0L / 100km
How to get there
Emirates (www.emirates.com) flies directly to Hanoi, Vietnam, with fares starting from around Dh2,725 return, while Etihad (www.etihad.com) fares cost about Dh2,213 return with a stop. Chuong is 25 kilometres south of Hanoi.
AS WE EXIST
Author: Kaoutar Harchi
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COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Clara
Started: 2019
Founders: Patrick Rogers, Lee McMahon, Arthur Guest, Ahmed Arif
Based: Dubai
Industry: LegalTech
Funding size: $4 million of seed financing
Investors: Wamda Capital, Shorooq Partners, Techstars, 500 Global, OTF, Venture Souq, Knuru Capital, Plug and Play and The LegalTech Fund
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ARM IPO DETAILS
Share price: Undisclosed
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Lead underwriters: Barclays, Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase and Mizuho Financial Group
Company Profile
Company name: Hoopla
Date started: March 2023
Founder: Jacqueline Perrottet
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Investment required: $500,000
Day 3, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Just three balls remained in an exhausting day for Sri Lanka’s bowlers when they were afforded some belated cheer. Nuwan Pradeep, unrewarded in 15 overs to that point, let slip a seemingly innocuous delivery down the legside. Babar Azam feathered it behind, and Niroshan Dickwella dived to make a fine catch.
Stat of the day - 2.56 Shan Masood and Sami Aslam are the 16th opening partnership Pakistan have had in Tests in the past five years. That turnover at the top of the order – a new pair every 2.56 Test matches on average – is by far the fastest rate among the leading Test sides. Masood and Aslam put on 114 in their first alliance in Abu Dhabi.
The verdict Even by the normal standards of Test cricket in the UAE, this has been slow going. Pakistan’s run-rate of 2.38 per over is the lowest they have managed in a Test match in this country. With just 14 wickets having fallen in three days so far, it is difficult to see 26 dropping to bring about a result over the next two.
The Byblos iftar in numbers
29 or 30 days – the number of iftar services held during the holy month
50 staff members required to prepare an iftar
200 to 350 the number of people served iftar nightly
160 litres of the traditional Ramadan drink, jalab, is served in total
500 litres of soup is served during the holy month
200 kilograms of meat is used for various dishes
350 kilograms of onion is used in dishes
5 minutes – the average time that staff have to eat