By Tom Plate
SINGAPORE ― Many residents of this famous and successful city-state doubt that the new book “Hard Truths” offers true full disclosure. The political system here is not open in the breezy (even sloppy) manner of a Western democracy, and so such wonder about this new runaway bestseller spotlighting the wide-ranging views of Singapore’s founder Lee Kuan Yew is no surprise.
But is it warranted?
The soft truth is that I have been coming here on reporting trips virtually every year since 1996 and I can’t answer the question, either. But what must be said about this extraordinarily skilled 458-page compendium of interviews and commentary about the venerable Singaporean legend LKY is that it gives lie to the notion that this place is some sort of totalitarian society.
Call it a “soft” authoritarian political system or even call it a Singapore Inc. economic system, if you like. In fact, label it almost anything you want ― but do not call it totalitarian.
No such totally closed society ― the abject totality of the closure being the essence of the definition of the term ― could have supported a culture that could have produced so broad and deep and in fact so free-wheeling a national self-examination.
The book’s formal title is: “Lee Kuan Yew/Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going.” It’s based on a mountain of interviews with Lee, now titled minister mentor, conducted with almost Jesuitical thoroughness by a crack team of editors and reporters from the Straits Times. This is the island state’s leading daily newspaper and (easily) one of Asia’s most comprehensive and professional.
I have been scratching my head for days now trying to recall a comparable tome from America’s political culture. I think there is none.
In this book Lee does his thing in his usual inimitable way ― and this engaging and entertaining act is almost always worth the price of admission.
He tosses off deep political insights like a contemporary Asian sage and lobs out politically incorrect bombshells like an irreverent (but think very high-end) nightclub satirist. You laugh almost as much as you marvel over the guy’s amazing brain. I always tell my university students that anyone interviewing Lee Kuan Yew who leaves with a flat story is a failed journalist who belongs in another business … like accounting.
But let’s be honest: There is a stern and relentlessly old-fashioned side to Lee, however widely admired among world leaders for the quality of his geopolitical analysis and of course for the astonishing achievements of his beloved Singapore (its most recent recorded growth rate hovers at 14 percent).
The fact is he can be pretty starchy and unyielding, and so maybe the best chapter in thus superb volume is “Not Your Average Grandad.” It was conducted and written by Rachel Lin, at 25 years of age, the youngest of the Straits Times team of seven. Let it be true of allegedly starchy Singapore that more like her roam the island with such a free spirit.
The brave and hip Lin peppers the elder statesman with queries about homosexuality, love-at-first-sight, fave films, gothic rock bands and body tattoos. At times Lee admits he has little idea of what the young woman is talking about. Undeterred, she says at one point, almost instructionally: “This may be a bit shocking but many young Singaporeans are specifically getting yakuza-inspired tattoos now …”
You can almost imagine seeing Lee’s jaw drop: For while he is in no way out of his depth with the Kissingers of the world but hilariously, he was no match for this young un-fearing with-it journalist.
In fact, it is to take absolutely nothing away from Lee’s many insightful contributions to walk away from the book even more in admiration of the concise and highly informative commentary sections provided by Straits Times editors sandwiched between the lengthy chapter conversations.
Many of them bring a level of self-examination and critical awareness about their national progress and political system that easily rival the depth of our own ongoing political self-examination here in the United States. The editors ask themselves whether the country’s economic progress is sustainable and its present course correct. Their evaluation is as penetrating as it is subtle.
No truly closed society could yield such open-minded self-review. This is an astonishing book well worth reading beyond the narrow confines of Singapore, the tiny non-totalitarian city-state. Anyone concerned about the quality of governance and the state of the world will learn from it.
Veteran U.S. journalist Tom Plate is the distinguished scholar of Asian and Pacific Affairs at Loyola Marymount University, the largest Catholic University on America’s West Coast. He is currently in Southeast Asia promoting his new book “Conversations With Mahathir Mohamad” (Marshall Cavendish). He can be reached at platecolumn@gmail.com.
Originally published February 25, 2011 in the Korea Times.
SINGAPORE ― Many residents of this famous and successful city-state doubt that the new book “Hard Truths” offers true full disclosure. The political system here is not open in the breezy (even sloppy) manner of a Western democracy, and so such wonder about this new runaway bestseller spotlighting the wide-ranging views of Singapore’s founder Lee Kuan Yew is no surprise.
But is it warranted?
The soft truth is that I have been coming here on reporting trips virtually every year since 1996 and I can’t answer the question, either. But what must be said about this extraordinarily skilled 458-page compendium of interviews and commentary about the venerable Singaporean legend LKY is that it gives lie to the notion that this place is some sort of totalitarian society.
Call it a “soft” authoritarian political system or even call it a Singapore Inc. economic system, if you like. In fact, label it almost anything you want ― but do not call it totalitarian.
No such totally closed society ― the abject totality of the closure being the essence of the definition of the term ― could have supported a culture that could have produced so broad and deep and in fact so free-wheeling a national self-examination.
The book’s formal title is: “Lee Kuan Yew/Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going.” It’s based on a mountain of interviews with Lee, now titled minister mentor, conducted with almost Jesuitical thoroughness by a crack team of editors and reporters from the Straits Times. This is the island state’s leading daily newspaper and (easily) one of Asia’s most comprehensive and professional.
I have been scratching my head for days now trying to recall a comparable tome from America’s political culture. I think there is none.
In this book Lee does his thing in his usual inimitable way ― and this engaging and entertaining act is almost always worth the price of admission.
He tosses off deep political insights like a contemporary Asian sage and lobs out politically incorrect bombshells like an irreverent (but think very high-end) nightclub satirist. You laugh almost as much as you marvel over the guy’s amazing brain. I always tell my university students that anyone interviewing Lee Kuan Yew who leaves with a flat story is a failed journalist who belongs in another business … like accounting.
But let’s be honest: There is a stern and relentlessly old-fashioned side to Lee, however widely admired among world leaders for the quality of his geopolitical analysis and of course for the astonishing achievements of his beloved Singapore (its most recent recorded growth rate hovers at 14 percent).
The fact is he can be pretty starchy and unyielding, and so maybe the best chapter in thus superb volume is “Not Your Average Grandad.” It was conducted and written by Rachel Lin, at 25 years of age, the youngest of the Straits Times team of seven. Let it be true of allegedly starchy Singapore that more like her roam the island with such a free spirit.
The brave and hip Lin peppers the elder statesman with queries about homosexuality, love-at-first-sight, fave films, gothic rock bands and body tattoos. At times Lee admits he has little idea of what the young woman is talking about. Undeterred, she says at one point, almost instructionally: “This may be a bit shocking but many young Singaporeans are specifically getting yakuza-inspired tattoos now …”
You can almost imagine seeing Lee’s jaw drop: For while he is in no way out of his depth with the Kissingers of the world but hilariously, he was no match for this young un-fearing with-it journalist.
In fact, it is to take absolutely nothing away from Lee’s many insightful contributions to walk away from the book even more in admiration of the concise and highly informative commentary sections provided by Straits Times editors sandwiched between the lengthy chapter conversations.
Many of them bring a level of self-examination and critical awareness about their national progress and political system that easily rival the depth of our own ongoing political self-examination here in the United States. The editors ask themselves whether the country’s economic progress is sustainable and its present course correct. Their evaluation is as penetrating as it is subtle.
No truly closed society could yield such open-minded self-review. This is an astonishing book well worth reading beyond the narrow confines of Singapore, the tiny non-totalitarian city-state. Anyone concerned about the quality of governance and the state of the world will learn from it.
Veteran U.S. journalist Tom Plate is the distinguished scholar of Asian and Pacific Affairs at Loyola Marymount University, the largest Catholic University on America’s West Coast. He is currently in Southeast Asia promoting his new book “Conversations With Mahathir Mohamad” (Marshall Cavendish). He can be reached at platecolumn@gmail.com.
Originally published February 25, 2011 in the Korea Times.
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