Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Singapore- Brain Child of Lee Kuan Yew


Ever wondered if a fishing village be the world's affluent city-state with world's best infrastructure and low crime rates? The very place with no resources where the immigrants to malaya were forced to stay now pulls huge crowds from all over the world who come to seek their betterment in life. A small island standing so proud and tall that the world nations listen to its words and look up to it for lessons.
All this sprangup from one man's dream- Lee Kuan Yew, He saw to it that his dream came true right within his life time.Lee Kuan Yew was born in Singapore on September 16, 1923. He came from a middle class Chinese Hakka family which had been established in Singapore since his great grandfather migrated to the island in the mid-19th century. In 1931 he attended the Telok Kurau English School. Four years later, he moved to Raffles Institution, where he excelled in his studies and was always at the top of his class. Even at that early age, Lee demonstrated his potential and one of his teachers in Raffles Institution correctly predicted that he would "do well, unusually well" and attain "a high place in life." In 1939 Lee sat for the Senior Cambridge Examination and emerged as the top student for the whole of Malaya.Lee Kuan Yew was educated in England to be a lawyer.

He led Singapore to independence and served as its first prime minister. He was regularly re-elected from 1959 until he stepped down in 1990. Under his guidance Singapore became a financial and industrial powerhouse despite a lack of abundant natural resources.

Lee ruled with ultimate authority, and his zeal for law and order was legendary. All these are the rosy pictures of his sucess- ever wondered what he overcame,what he sacrified? Initially when he started a polititian he couldnt rouse the general public as his chinese oratory skills were limited. He used other great orators to talk for in his party. He surrounded himself with the best of the men by education and by virtue and used their knowledge to decide singapore's course. He had to make some tough decisions like getting rid of the communist and joining the malaya region and then again seperating from it.He did pay heavy price with his mistakes and learned quickly. It was blessing in disguise- singapore was left to float or sink and singapore rose, rose so high that the whole region look at it in awe.Its a testimony for confidence, believing in dreams and working persistently towards it.Even now Lee Kuan Yew serves as minister mentor urging singapore to continously work on ways to staying ahead. Be it any field singapore government would have planned way ahead of other countires. A lesson that sucess is not a destination but a journey.Attention to detail is given in every decision taken. Vision and planning ahead of times all its own. All these virtues being the gift this man- Lee Kuan Yew.He is a very good example to everyone of us to demonstrate that the world is full of hope and abundance, its in us to envision and dream big and consistently work towards it with organized planning. Let the power of ur dreams and ur beliefs influence some of the best brains and together make it come true.
Lee Kuan Yew was the Singapore Prime Minister (1959-1990) and Senior Minister (1990-2004). Since 2004 he has been in the role of Minister Mentor.

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