Customer Reviews

The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew

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Mr. Lee's book is an outstanding exposition of his vision for Singapore and how he and dedicated comrades made it a reality. For me, it was a special experience in which I was able to check the accuracy of my own research of 25 years ago.

In 1976, my Master's thesis in Asian Studies was entitled Lee Kuan Yew, A Political Biography. It covered the period from Lee's birth until 1963, when Singapore became an independent nation.

In my readings of events in Malaysia and Singapore after WW2, it became apparent that two men, Lee Kuan Yew and Tunku Abdul Rahman, represented strikingly different points of view on how the region should develop. Lee was the assertive representative of the Chinese majority in Singapore (and would-be spokesman of all Straits Chinese). Rahman was a traditional Malay prince and Malaysian prime minister who held very conservative views based on the primacy of the bumiputra, the ethnic Malay minority in its own land. He could not afford to allow Lee to build up Chinese political power on the Malay mainland.

My thesis was simply that Lee Kuan yew came to hold a specific vision of what Singapore should be. When it became clear that his vision could not be realized as a part of Malaysia, there came the split which created the tiny island nation. I based my extensive readings and research mostly upon secondary sources, including writings by Alex Josey and others who worked closely with Lee. I also read Lee's collected speeches and other primary material, as much as was available.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Mr. lee's first volume showed that I had been credibly accurate in my conclusions about what and how he did to create Singapore. Those conclusions included knowledge of the warts on his political complexion, and the reasons for them. Over the ensuing years, I have read much about how Lee and the People's Action Party ran a repressive police state. Yet, other readings and a short stay in Singapore in 1998 showed me strongly that Singaporeans live in a modern, prosperous and quite open society. The PAP's conservative policies have made it a success story and have also created structures intended to carry the nation forward into a future of more of the same. Mr. Lee's first volume details the struggles and victories which laid the foundation for this success.

I most strongly recommend this book for all who want to understand how one man, leading a group of similarly dedicated colleagues, created a nation which expressed his vision of what it could be, a successful modern society in a part of the world where close neighbors are much less so.

Alright, the title was just to get your attention. Although LKY did recall his own childhood caning at the hands of his school master with a little too much relish. That said, the Singapore story is indeed a fascinating one - and in this book LKY did an excellent job of telling his account of that story. With everyone from Margaret Thatcher and George Bush to - somewhat unexpectedly - John Chambers (Cisco CEO) and Scott McNealy (SunMicro CEO) genuflecting in Lee's direction from the dust jackets, there's no need for me to rehash his greatness. Instead, I will try to stay on the critical side of things.

This book is the first in a 2 volume set covering the years from LKY's childhood to 1965, when Singapore was expelled from the Malaysian federation. The book is structured chronologically, thereby giving a very coherent narrative of the years in question. In contrast the 2nd volume of the set is organized into "thematic discussions" from which the reader must piece together the exact sequence of events. The second volume reads a bit like a political testament and will not surprise anyone already knowledgeable about modern Singapore and LKY's many pronouncements. Personally I find this volume to be more interesting because of the many insights that it provided into LKY's mind.

LKY's prose is much like the man himself - factual, direct, sometimes witty, always to the point. Eloquent rhetoric is not his forte, and his lawyerly obsession with details can be tedious at times. One also wishes that Mr Lee had been more reflective on his personal motivations and beliefs, or at least provided more analytical insights into the events and people that he described. Nonetheless, it's a good and often gripping read, and one must simply accept that LKY is not a man to commit acts of introspection in public too often.

What emerges from these pages is how much LKY's political philosophy, and therefore the Shape of modern Singapore, has been mould by his experience as a young man. Lee himself admitted that the 3 years he spent under Japanese occupation were the most influential of his life. From those years he learned about the exercise of raw power, the link between adaptability and survival, not to mention the deterring effects of harsh punishments on crime. (He noted - a little admiringly perhaps - that one could always leave the door open at night under Japanese occupation. The penalty for burglary seems to have been having your head displayed on a stake in a public square.) As one of the best students in Singapore he easily gained admission to Cambridge after the war and spent several happy years as a law student in England. The occasional racism he encountered did not affect him much. On the other had he was so impressed by the Labor welfare state that he remained a Fabian socialist till the 70's. He never did like the Communists though. As the scion of a prominent (though bankrupted by the Depression) family he instinctively disliked the rabble-rousing tactics of the Communists, though his aversion did not prevent him from forming a united front with the Communist MCP in the fight against British colonialism. It should be noted that once self-rule has been achieved, he was not above using the British to clamp down on his MCP allies.

To his credit, the savagery that he witnessed as a young man did not seem to have rubbed off on him. Though often harsh and always Machiavellian, Lee was never bloody, and seldom brutal. In many regards he was a true visionary. Born Chinese, raised among Malays, and educated by the British, he envisioned a multi-racial, multi-cultural nation long before it was politically correct. The rejection of that vision by Malaysia is probably the greatest disappointment of his life. In economic matters, he was that rare breed with the heart of a socialist and the mind of a free-market capitalist - again, long before such notions became the IMF orthodoxy. In political matters, however, he never did seem to move beyond the siege mentality of the early days of independence and never could leave behind the shadows of the Japanese occupiers and Communist subversives. He never grasped the importance of building institutions larger than himself and learned to appreciate the value of an open, competitive political culture. In his book LKY took great pleasure in ridiculing those conservative "King's Chinese" who were born under British rule and could not imagine anything otherwise. It's ironic that in the not too distant future, books may appear ridiculing him as someone born fighting subversives and cannot imagine a world at peace.

There's a fine line separating the great administrator and the truly visionary leader. For more than 40 years LKY has straddled that line. Unfortunately for himself and Singapore, he never did manage to bring his other foot across.

This book is a gripping read and puts you strongly on LKY's side in the battle for freeing Singapore from the grips of the colonial British, the communists and finally the Malaysians. Very eye-opening for those Westerners who can't understand how this society came to be both so modern and remain so authoritarian. Full of personal honesty and insight.

LKY is one of the most amazing statespersons this century and is certainly one with incredible political skill - Singapore couldn't be half the country it is today without him. To have coexisted with communists in his party for 10 years and to still have kept his integrity took an inordinate amount of personal character - a strength which has served Singapore enormously well.

However, one complaint I have is that Mr. Lee does not provide a lot of personal insight into what drove him in the battle for Singapore - nowhere in the book does he talk about how or why his love for a free Singapore became so strong, and there is not a lot of insight into the source of his own strengths (of which there are many) and weaknesses (of which he has a few). He seems to have picked up views early on which have never lessened, even as times have changed - for example, he admits that he learned the importance of strong penalties for crimes from his experiences during the Japanese occupation in World War II, yet 50 years on Singapore is the country in the world with the highest number of executions per capita, even more than China - is it really still as important for the country to be as authoritarian now as the Japanese were in wartime?

Also, although Mr. Lee owns up to his mistakes along the way quite openly, he doesn't provide his personal motives behind his long struggle, his feelings for his actions and friends, even when he was clearly overcame as in his breakdown during his independence press conference in August 1965, and the reasons why he was so much more perceptive and successful than other leaders. I hope to see more introspection in the second volume. A wonderful read, nonetheless.

While I found Harry Lee's book a fascinating view of Singapore's post war to separation from the Malaysian Federation engrossing, it is important to acknowledge that this is only one view of the story.

Harry Lee has produced a fine and detailed narrative, yet it is punctuated with indications of how readily he uses stereotypical views of other races to justify his own views and actions.

I heartily recommend the book, but read this political history as one would read any other - with caution - Lee's view is only one, it is not 'the one'.

I'm an American who's lived in Singapore . . . and complained about it!!! After reading Lee's book, I'm embarrassed by my xenophobia and chauvinism. I now understand why things are the they are in Singapore, and why Lee HAD TO DO THE THINGS HE DID. Mr. Lee, I extend my apologies, and I simply can't wait for the next Volume of your memoirs.

As an American who has spent years living in Singapore, I cautiosly read Lee Kuan Yew's book. I expected a tome of self-congratulatory hogwash, but I was rewarded with a candid, sometimes brutally honest, story of the making of a country. Whether you love him or hate him, Lee Kuan Yew is the only person who could write the definative story of the making of this marvelous Republic called Singapore. It is well written, with careful insights, amazing stories of courage and self sacrifice, and a good bit of humor. I highly reccomend it.

It might be of interest to you to know that Lee Kuan Yew's writing style was deliberately adapted and simplified to reach not just scholars, but a larger audience: the general public, and more specifically, the younger generation of Singaporeans. If you have read his speeches, you will know that he is exceptionally eloquent and known for being adept at the English language.

Perhaps the greater purpose that the Senior Minister had in mind was that this book will become a text that is found in every history classroom in Singapore, although it will undoubtedly be dissected by scholars as well.

Lee Kuan Yew's straight-forward style of writing conveyed historic facts, his political analysis, and acute judgment of people and circumstances with clarity, which was not to be clouded by style.

I have not lived in Singapore, nor have I visited this city-state, so my comments may lack some of the perspective others have expressed in their reviews. But it also means I may not have any of their bias either.

I found Lee's memoirs fascinating and very enlightening. Throughout his political career, Lee and his People's Action Party were in constant battle with the communists and other political forces that either sought to oppress Singapore and Malaya, or to promote a racist government that gave benefit to the Malays while leaving the indiginous Chinese and Indians voiceless. It is true that Lee's PAP government used authoritarian measures at times, but given the struggles Singapore faced, it is a good thing that it did.

The issue of racism in the central Malaya government was most interesting, and Lee shows how this racism, or bias in favor of the native Malays, led ultimately to Singapore being expelled from the Malaysian nation. That turning point was when Lee spoke in parliment in Malay without a prepared speech and critisized the government for wasting its time on deciding what would be the national language and who would control schools while all Malaysians were suffering economic troubles in the country.

While it is true this is an autobiography, and naturally would present Lee's perspective on his life and the issues he faced, Lee does so in my view rather even-handedly, including excerpts of what his critics were saying about him and not responding to these criticisms directly. Rather, he would portray what the events were and what he believed needed to be done. It is my conclusion that contrary to Lee's critics, his vision of Singapore was egalitarian and while socialist in practice, he always had all the races' needs in mind.

Of particular interest to me was Lee's observations of the various African leaders he met with during the early sixties, as well as how he saw in the way the Vatican selected a pope a political method to keep the PAP free of communist infiltration. And Lee's vision of how law and order is meted out gains interesting perspective from his rememberances of the Japanese occupation of the territory during WWII.

An excellent and easy to ready book.

I was born and grew up in Singapore. It is a pity that the history of Singapore was not taught in school during my time. I enjoyed reading the book as it provides excellent historical facts on how Singapore gained its independence. I have always admire the senior PM for his foresight and his courage to implement unpopular policies. Although I do not agreed with some of his policies, what he did for the country is marvellous. It is a must read for all Singaporeans to truly appreciate what the first generation MPs have done for the country. Looking forward to the second volume.

When I first picked up this book, I told myself to read it with caution. I expected a totally biased view on the formation of Singapore. However, the contents were a pleasent surprise. Lee wrote the book with such finesse that he kept me up all night for a week, glued to his pages. His writing style is full of excitement and references to actual events that shaped singapore. I was so engrossed that I totally forgot about my schoolwork. I was impressed by his achievement and i must say that the book is timely, allowing younger generations to understand the Singapore they never knew, and the Singapore that is today. I can't wait for volume 2.