RIP Lee Kwan Yew

[Queequeg]

See: title

[Queequeg]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/23/world/asia/lee-kuan-yew-founding-father-and-first-premier-of-singapore-dies-at-91.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1409232722000&bicmet=1419773522000&_r=0

[garbon]

I'm really glad we could get two threads about him...

[Eddie Teach]

A chance for Martinus to dance on his grave a second time.

[Norgy]

Is he Armenian?

[Martinus]

I thought we already had one thread about Lick One Yew?

[Sheilbh]

Pretty incredible legacy to leave behind, he's probably one of the most important and influential men of the mid-late twentieth century.

[Valmy]

Pretty incredible legacy to leave behind, he's probably one of the most important and influential men of the mid-late twentieth century.

Outside of Southeast Asia what was his importance and influence?

[Ed Anger]

Pretty incredible legacy to leave behind, he's probably one of the most important and influential men of the mid-late twentieth century.

Outside of Southeast Asia what was his importance and influence?

Having that punk Michael Fay beaten.

[Monoriu]

Pretty incredible legacy to leave behind, he's probably one of the most important and influential men of the mid-late twentieth century.

Outside of Southeast Asia what was his importance and influence?

He was a peace broker between mainland China and Taiwan in the 90s.  Lee is Chinese, has great international standing and is seen as an honest broker between the two sides. 

Probably even more important is his ideology.  Every time someone says that only western style liberal democracies succeed, one of the most potent counter arguments is to point to Singapore.  Clean, efficient government, first world living standards and growth, somewhat curtailed civil liberties, a mix of democracy and dictatorship, all in a tiny city-state that isn't supposed to survive on its own.  Singapore is seen as a viable alternative to western style liberal democracies. 

[Valmy]

He was a peace broker between mainland China and Taiwan in the 90s.  Lee is Chinese, has great international standing and is seen as an honest broker between the two sides.

Well that's a thing.

Probably even more important is his ideology.  Every time someone says that only western style liberal democracies succeed, one of the most potent counter arguments is to point to Singapore.  Clean, efficient government, first world living standards and growth, somewhat curtailed civil liberties, a mix of democracy and dictatorship, all in a tiny city-state that isn't supposed to survive on its own.  Singapore is seen as a viable alternative to western style liberal democracies. 

I am not sure the idea that a benevolent dictatorship is a great form of government has ever gone away. The problem is that those are hard to find.

[Martinus]

It is hardly benevolent - of course if you are like Mono and you don't believe in personal freedom, then sure it is an example of a "success story". But so was nazi Germany until early 1940s, if your definition of a success is Holocaust of the Jews.

[Admiral Yi]

I think Lee's influence is more along the lines of dictatorships seeking ex post justification rather than honestly serving as a model for other countries to emulate.

So not very influential.

[Monoriu]

I am not sure the idea that a benevolent dictatorship is a great form of government has ever gone away. The problem is that those are hard to find.

See, he has done it.  It is not a theory.  Here is a rich, generally happy, peaceful one-party state that holds genuine, if flawed elections every few years, and the people vote for it every time.  It may not be much in the eyes of the US or western Europe.  But for places like China, Iraq, Afganistan etc, Singapore can serve as a role model.

[Sheilbh]

Disagree. I think he's one of the father figures of the modern East Asian model and considerably more influential than any PM of Singapore has a right to be.