Lee Kuan Yew - Founder of Modern Singapore -:- 李光耀 － 现代新加坡之父
A Tribute to LKY.
I am one of many who is deeply moved by the capabilities of members of the first and second generations team hand-picked by Lee Kuan Yew to lead Singapore in the early years of the 1960’s. People like Goh Keng Swee who transformed Jurong Township into a vibrant Industrial Estate, Toh Chin Chye for all his backroom community work in organising the People’s Association, Rajaratnam who handled Foreign Affairs so ably well, Eddie Barker for his management of the legal system, Ong Pang Boon for his wise decision to use the simplified Chinese for a bi-lingual in Education, Lim Kim San for heading the housing crisis so well, just to mention a few. There were many others and all were the best first and second team players who set the stage for Singapore’s success.
But, we are most indebted to Lee Kuan Yew for his manpower planning, for his foresight in steering Singapore to a vibrant modern city state. His vision of a greener and cleaner Singapore (planting of trees in every constituent, massive commitment to the Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) System, and so on, have made definite inroads to the current healthy environment of an urban City.
Personally, I am indebted to LKY and his team for selected me on a Colombo Plan Scholarship to the United Kingdom to study topics that I was totally unaware existed - that of Quantity Surveying and Property Valuation. He and his team had motivated the cream of high school graduates into studies in areas so far away from the traditional top career choices of medicine, accountancy and the legal professions to the many skills so much needed to build the foundations of modern Singapore. These skills include those in construction, property, banking, insurance, even sports and film making, just to name a few. Subsequently he was instrumental in getting the best in the returned scholars in many areas of expertise to build his second, third and fourth leadership teams for Singapore’s success.
The Rt Hon Mr Lee Kuan Yew had given many Singaporeans their aspirations to move forward along their success ladders.
Seldom do we see a man doing so much of those Mission-Impossible tasks to ensure the survival of a Nation throughout his life.
Yes, Lord, May LKY rest in peace.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/22/singapore-lee-kuan-yew-dies-91
“The US president, Barack Obama, called Lee a “true giant of history” while the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, called him a “legendary figure in Asia” and China’s president, Xi Jinping, praised Lee as an “old friend of the Chinese people”.
[This article was first published in Linkedin and in Facebook on March 24th 2015 under Francis Lai - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/lky-tribute-francis-lai?trk=mp-reader-card. It has just been updated on the morning of Friday 6th January 2017.]