Monday, January 24, 2011

Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew Urges Muslims to ‘Be Less Strict’

Temasek

Singapore’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew has urged local Muslims to “be less strict on Islamic observances” to aid integration and the city-state’s nation-building process.

Singapore has a predominantly Chinese population, with minority races including Muslim Malays and Indians, and Lee has always stressed the importance of racial harmony.

“I would say today, we can integrate all religions and races except Islam,” he said in “Lee Kuan Yew: Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going,” a new book containing his typically frank views on the city-state and its future.

“I think we were progressing very nicely until the surge of Islam came and if you asked me for my observations, the other communities have easier integration — friends, intermarriages and so on…” he stated.

“I think the Muslims socially do not cause any trouble, but they are distinct and separate,” Lee added, calling on the community to “be less strict on Islamic observances.”

During the book’s launch on Friday, the self-described “pragmatist” warned Singaporeans against complacency, saying the largely ethnic Chinese republic was still a nation in the making.

Describing Singapore in the book as an “80-storey building on marshy land,” Lee said it must contend with hostility from larger Muslim neighbors.

“We’ve got friendly neighbors? Grow up… There is this drive to put us down because we are interlopers,” he said, citing alleged Malaysian and Indonesian efforts to undermine Singapore’s crucial port business.

Singapore was ejected from the Malaysian federation in 1965 in large part due to Kuala Lumpur’s preferential policies for ethnic Malays, and has since built up Southeast Asia’s most modern military to deter foreign aggression.

Turning to local politics, Lee said the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), which has been in power since 1959 when Singapore gained political autonomy from colonial ruler Britain, will someday lose its grip on power.

“There will come a time when eventually the public will say, look, let’s try the other side, either because the PAP has declined in quality or the opposition has put up a team which is equal to the PAP… That day will come.”

“In the next 10 years to 20 years, I don’t think it’ll happen. Beyond that, I cannot tell.”

Lee said that despite a survey showing the contrary, he believed Singaporeans were not yet ready for a non-ethnic-Chinese prime minister.

“A poll says 90 percent of Chinese Singaporeans say they will elect a non-Chinese as PM. Yes, this is the ideal. You believe these polls? Utter rubbish. They say what is politically correct,” he stated.

He also defended the policy of promoting marriage between highly-educated Singaporeans, a policy seen by critics as a form of social engineering, and dismissed the notion of love at first sight.

“People get educated, the bright ones rise, they marry equally well-educated spouses. The result is their children are likely to be smarter than the children of those who are gardeners,” he said.

“It’s a fact of life. You get a good mare, you don’t want a dud stallion to breed with your good mare. You get a poor foal.”

People who are “attracted by physical characteristics” may regret it, he said.

Lee also revealed that he had donated to charity all his earnings of 13 million Singapore dollars ($10 million) since stepping down as prime minister in 1990 after 31 years in power.

Singapore’s cabinet ministers are the highest paid in the world as part of a strategy to prevent corruption and attract talent from the private sector.

Lee, who holds the special title minister mentor, now serves as an adviser to his son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who came to power in 2004.

Amid all the hard-edged talk, Lee showed his tender side when asked about his late wife Kwa Geok Choo, who died aged 89 in October last year.

“It means more solitude. No one to talk to when the day’s work is done,” Lee said in the book, the result of exclusive interviews with journalists from the country’s leading daily, the Straits Times.
Source: Agence France-Presse


Poem For Harry Lee

This is the story of Harry Lee Kuan Yew,

Promised us he’ll govern Singapore anew,

Claimed to be better than Marshall the Jew,

So to him and the PAP our votes flew,

Then seemingly he came in as PM the new,

But soon us S’poreans he started to screw,

One by one all our rights away he blew,

Our brave ones disagreed with his view,

So under the ISA in prison them he threw,

One such poor soul was Dr. Lim Hock Siew,

With a hatchet everyone he threatens to slew,

And in extreme fear of him Singaporeans grew,

Highest salaries he and his ministers withdrew,

Boasting that they are the only brightest few,

Today life in Singapore is no honey and dew,

It has become so bad even a gum you can’t chew,

So its time time to vote out Lee and his crew,

Since all their evils we now already knew.

.

Deen

Temasek

3 comments:

eddy said...

Just wondering what "less strict" means to MM Lee. Can eat non-halal food? can have sex before marriage? can drink liquor? can gamble? better to take off the tudung for the Muslim women? No need to peform the five times daily prayers? No need to go to Friday prayers?

Classic MM Lee, every time the Singapore election is around the corner he will come up with something to divide and rule his country. Is it not supposed to be unity in diversity.

To the Singapore Muslim Malays, you deserve the PAP party you elected into Government.

Anonymous said...

I am waiting to read what will the malaysian chinese have to say to lky statement "
A poll says 90 percent of Chinese Singaporeans say they will elect a non-Chinese as PM. Yes, this is the ideal. You believe these polls? Utter rubbish. They say what is politically correct,” he stated."

As i recall ,he said something similar when he chosed goh as prime minister instead of the indian minister(i can't remember his name)who was the better candidate than goh(merit?ahem..).

So,just curious how the chinese are going to spin this?The last time their conveniently ignore it.

People need to understand that lky is not just a simple intellectual racist but a refine narcist supremacist.

Anonymous said...

I welcome the poll finding that any capable race can be the PM of Singapore as a Malaysian Chinese. I have an Indian Singaporean Cousin.