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MM Lee says US can be a benign stabiliser of the world

By Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia
Posted: 23 October 2009 2143 hrs

SINGAPORE: Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said he believes that the US can be a benign stabiliser of the world as without it East Asia would never have grown as it has.

He said this in an interview focusing largely on US-China relations with Charlie Rose which was aired on Bloomberg TV.

Still, the looming deficit in the US is what worries Mr Lee as that strikes at the heart of US global leadership.

His concern is that if the US dollar comes to grief in the short term and there's a run on it and the financial community begins to move its assets out, that's when trouble begins.

Turning to China, Mr Lee said the country may be proud of its 5,000 years of civilisation.

But it's got to understand that with membership in the world order also comes obligations and responsibility and China also has to give something back to the people of the world.

On Singapore, he said it has maintained its position by riding the shifts of the world and the country won't take sides - not between America and China, or between China and India as it looks at what's developing in a multi-polar world.

Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stori...013347/1/.html

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MM Lee lectures Americans on the “Chinese mindset”
http://www.temasekreview.com/2009/10...inese-mindset/

From our Correspondent

Singapore’s “wise” old man and self-acclaimed “expert” on China, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has dished out his customary “understanding” of China to the Americans again, this time on the Charlie Rose show.

On the National Talk show, MM Lee implored the United States to gain an understanding of the “Chinese mindset”.

“Look, they don’t want to be an honorary member of the West, unlike Russia. They’re quite happy to be Chinese and to remain as such…So when you tell them you ought to do this, you ought to do that, they say yes, thank you. But at the back of their minds, (they ask) ‘We’ve lasted 5,000 years, have you?” said Lee.

Since relinquishing his position as prime minister in 1990, Lee had tried to portray himself as an international statesman and bridge between the West and China.

He recounted (brimming with pride) former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping’s visit to Singapore in 1978 which left an indelible impression on him and insinuated that it helped spurred him to liberalize the Chinese economy.

Lee’s frequent boasts about China “learning” from Singapore has brought sharp rebuttals and criticisms from others in the Chinese-speaking world.

One famous Hong Kong commentator remarked that the Chinese leaders are only exercising due courtesy to Lee and the only thing China ever wants to learn from Singapore is its unique one-party system of government.

Though Lee was an ethnic Chinese, he was English-educated and was unable to speak Mandarin fluently till he became Singapore’s prime minister.

Before the PAP won power, he had to rely heavily on his Chinese-educated colleague Lim Chin Siong to win over the Chinese masses.

Lee was staunchly anti-communist and anti-China in the 1960s. Fearful of the lingering influence and strength of the Chinese elites, he abolished vernacular education and introduced English as the medium of education for all schools in Singapore.

Singapore’s only Chinese university, Nan Tah, was merged with the University of Singapore to form the National University of Singapore in 1980.

With the rise of China in 1980s, Lee made a stunning U-turn and embraced his former foes – the Chinese communists.

Despite his frequent claims that he has “in-depth” knowledge and understanding of China, his first major foray in China ended in disaster.

The Suzhou-Singapore industrial park was a brain-child of Lee to replicate a Singapore-style technological park in the city of Suzhou. However, it failed to take off due to lack of support from the local officials which clearly exposed Lee’s understanding of the Chinese culture and mindset.

Singapore eventually left the management of the park to the Chinese in 1999 with losses amounting to millions, if not billions of dollars. Till today, the losses are still unaccounted for.

Lee’s continued infatuation with China is reflected in many of Singapore’s policies including its liberal immigration policy which has come under fire in recent weeks.

Concerned about the impact of the declining birth rate on Singapore’s racial balance, Singapore embarked on an ambitious program in the early 2000s to increase the population via immigration with a substantial proportion of the new migrants coming from China.

The case of Zhang Yuanyuan highlights the relative ease of which mainland Chinese can obtain PR and citizenship in Singapore.

Ms Zhang came to Singapore on a student’s pass in 2003 armed with only a diploma from an unknown Chinese high school. She became a PR within 2 months of application. Ms Zhang found work as a Chinese language teacher in Singapore which is hardly considered a qualified professional.

The insidious “sinicization” of Singapore has caused widespread resentment and unhappiness on the ground even amongst the local Chinese who are culturally and linguistically different from their counterparts in China.

With China becoming an economic powerhouse, Singapore will only grow more and more reliant on China instead of the other way round.

At current rate the mainland Chinese are swarming over Singapore, it is only a matter of time before Singapore is relegated to become a second or even third tier city of China.