We knew that Singapore Senior Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was already near death when the news communiqué from Singapore said that he was critically ill. Yesterday at dawn, Southeast Asia lost a great leader when Lee died at the age of 91. He was known as the Father of Modern Day Singapore. Lee Kuan Yew emerged as Singapore's political leader after World War II when British Colonial rule was on the wane and Singapore was included in the Malaysian Federation, which was created on July 9, 1963. It was that time when Malaysia was about to be given independence by the British and they included Sabah as one of its federated states. This was the beginning of the rift between Malaysia and the Philippines, which until now has yet to be corrected.
However due to political differences and the presence of a large ethnic Chinese people in Singapore, whom Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman distrusted, so he kicked out Singapore from the Malaysian Federation in 1965 and thus Singapore became an independent state. Tunku probably thought that Singapore would go down on its knees and beg the Malaysians to accept them. All Singapore wanted from Malaysia was water, which they granted the island state. The rest is history.
In a talk at the Kennedy School of Government in Harvard in 1967, his audience asked Prime Minister Lee how Singapore was able to become a nation that it had become. Prime Minister Lee said, "One of the first things I did was ask the people of Singapore to move out of their ghettos and become one nation called Singapore." In those days when Singapore was considered a backwater place and Tamils and the Malays were small minorities, they all lived in walled ghettos and with the call of Prime Minister Lee, they all moved out of those ghettos to become proud Singaporeans.
Then Prime Minister Lee was asked that since they have become a nation, what would be their national language. Mr. Lee told the Singaporeans that if they followed the tenets of democracy and put this question into a referendum, then their national language would be Chinese. But he insisted that Singapore was not a Chinese nation, so he told them that English would be the national language, including Mandarin, Tamil and Malay.
Mr. Lee believed that English would be a leveling language and would unify Singapore as one nation and that was exactly what happened to Singapore. They have become a real nation under one flag and all their languages considered as national languages of Singapore. Of course their English slang is quite heavy they are often misunderstood when they pronounce words like car park, which they call "Kah pak!"
But Lee's opposition criticized him and asked why is Singapore adopting the language of their colonizers? Mr. Lee told the Singaporeans, "English is the language of business and I assure you that we will create a First world nation in this sea of 3rd world nations." This is exactly what happened to Singapore 10-years after he delivered that speech in Harvard. Singapore has truly become a great nation state and the envy of the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
My first international trip out of Cebu as a journalist was a visit to Singapore in 1986, when Cebu media stalwarts, The Freeman Editor Juanito Jabat, Radio commentator Emmanuel Rabacal, SunStar's Godofredo Roperos and the late SunStar columnist Boy Veloso went to Singapore to visit newly appointed Philippine Ambassador to Singapore Amb. Frank Benedicto. We were all in awe at what Singapore had become, especially how disciplined were their people, especially the pedestrians and motor traffic.
I recall that Amb. Benedicto gave us a special tour in Singapore that only few people knew at that time. His driver stopped the car by a small shop where the father of Prime Minister Lee, Lee Chin Koon, was there fixing watches in his unassuming shop. We read in this biography that Mr. Lee's grandfather was a wealthy Chinese businessman.
However their family lost their wealth during the Great Depression and they became poor. But despite his being the prime minister of Singapore, Mr. Lee's father lived humbly, which is why his son is so loved in Singapore.
In 1990, Prime Minister Lee made history by voluntarily stepping down. Clearly he did not want to cling on to power and Prime Minster Goh Chok Tong succeeded him. Today Lee Hsien Loong, the son of Lee Kuan Yew is Singapore's Prime Minister. Many Filipinos expressed their sympathy on the passing of Southeast Asia's greatest leader. Many Filipinos hope that someday the Philippines would have our own version of Lee Kuan Yew. Alas, that could never happen with our current system of governance, where we have selfish politicians who make our people poor.
Change our system and then perhaps a Lee Kuan Yew would emerge in our midst.