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Singapore¡¦s Lee: the only
true tiger in the region
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By Richard Halloran
Thursday, Jan 07, 2010, Page 8
The next Lunar New Year will be the Year of the Tiger, a time in which natural
leaders with vigor, courage and imagination will supposedly do great things.
Unhappily, not many tigers will be roaming the capitals of the US and Asia as
the year begins, at least not with the stature and statesmanship of the leaders
who, after World War II, had a sense of mission and strategic vision that went
beyond everyday politics.
An exception ¡X Lee Kuan Yew (§õ¥úÄ£), founder of Singapore and prime minister from
1959 to 1990, an organizer of the founding of ASEAN, winner of the Nobel Peace
Prize and now minister mentor of his country.
Lee, who is 86, once said Singaporeans needed ¡§to find a niche for ourselves,
little corners where in spite of our small size we can perform a role that will
be useful to the world. To do that, you will need people at the top,
decision-makers who have got foresight, good minds, who are open to ideas, who
can seize opportunities.¡¨
Not that Lee¡¦s rule has been without controversy.
His critics, at home and abroad, have pointed to his authoritarian ways, accused
him of nepotism in having members of his family appointed to powerful positions
and lamented his repression of the opposition and the press.
Even so, when Lee was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, former US secretary
of state Henry Kissinger said: ¡§He has become a seminal figure for all of us.
I¡¦ve not learned as much from anybody as I have from Mr Lee Kuan Yew. He made
himself an indispensable friend of the United States, not primarily by the power
he represented, but by the quality of his thinking.¡¨
US President Barack Obama is finishing his first year in office without having
proven, despite his Nobel Peace Prize, that he belongs in the same class as
former US presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower, often considered by
historians to have been among the top 10 US presidents.
In China, President Hu Jintao (JÀAÀÜ) is seen as a competent technocrat, but a
lackluster bureaucrat, not in the same league as brutal but charismatic Mao
Zedong (¤ò¿AªF) and the brilliant statesman Zhou Enlai (©P®¦¨Ó). Russian President
Dimitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin do not measure up to Mikhail
Gorbachev, who ended the tyranny of the Soviet Union, closed out the Cold War
and won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, an economist, is given credit for lifting
his country out of the economic doldrums, but few would elevate him to the level
of former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru or Indira Gandhi, who led India onto
the world stage after independence in 1947.
Among US allies, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is floundering, which
has led to speculation that he is on his way out, South Korean President Lee
Myung-bak has been distracted by financial investigations, Philippine President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo sits atop a corrupt, nearly failed state and Thailand¡¦s
turmoil has left it nearly paralyzed.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has enjoyed approval ratings between 60
percent and 70 percent for two years, but has not risen to the level of Sir
Robert Menzies, who put Australia back on its feet in the 16 years he served as
prime minister until 1966. Elsewhere, the legacies of Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam,
Mahathir Mohamad in Malaysia and Sukarno and Suharto in Indonesia, who were
authoritarian but fervent nationalists, have not been replicated, although
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has gotten good marks for
fostering democracy and economic progress.
Other than the formidable minister mentor Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore,
Asia-Pacific capitals today sit atop a bleak landscape bereft of tigers.
Richard Halloran is a writer based in
Hawaii.
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