Some more thoughts on Lee Kuan Yew.
1. Toughness.
Talking about himself, he once said in 1994:
"Nobody doubts that if you take me on, I will put on knuckle-dusters and catch you in a cul-de-sac," he said. "If you think you can hurt me more than I can hurt you, try."
A friend of mine (an Australian) was once elected by his university compatriots to negotiate with the SG government for a wage rise (they did not get it). In the end he had to meet with LKY personally and described it as the scariest experience of his life:
A quote from a CBC NEWS Analysis: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/visionary-perhaps-but-singapore-s-lee-kuan-yew-was-not-democracy-s-friend-1.3008047
In Singapore, Lee locked up opponents without trial, and used the courts to bankrupt critics and defamation suits to bully the international press into silence.
In 1994, the New York Times issued a grovelling apology to avoid colossal damages after suggesting that the Lee family was one of Asia's political dynasties.
Lee had insisted that his son became prime minister, which he is still, and his daughter-in-law head of Singapore's sovereign wealth fund not through nepotism, but because they just happened to be the best candidates.
Publications that do not have local offices to sue have been braver, describing Singapore as "Disneyland with the death penalty" and "Pyongyang with broadband."
But the final result can only be described as good. Singapore is prosperous, with GDP per capita in the top 5 in the world, and a well-educated citizenry. There are two universities in the top 50 list, and Singapore is considered a leader in innovation.
The Brits left colonial Singapore in a poverty-stricken condition. Lee has left it prosperous.
The social engineering programs of his government has been derided by the west, but has produced an ethnically diverse population that is however, homogenous and law-abiding, as Bungi Bill has pointed out. The streets of Australian cities are not particularly safe for a woman to walk in at night, but the streets of Singapore are safe for women to be out alone.
Lee was also pragmatic.
As Deng said, "A cat's color is unimportant, what you want a cat to do is to catch mice." (i.e get results). Both Singapore and China, are run on that operating principle.
He was an anti-communist, but the structures of his People's Action Party ( as well as the Communist Party of China which is almost identical) are both based on Lenin's Vanguard Party as vehicles to gain power, stay in power and decide everything*.
He could be biting in assessment, once informing Australians that they risked becoming, "The poor white trash of Asia."
*that needs some explaining for the western mind, when decisions are to be made, the party apparatus calls in people with experience and who advocate different views to discuss the options, they then attempt to make the best possible decision. Does that consensus model work better than the western adversarial system (government versus opposition). Keep watching the rise of mChina to find out.
