Singapore is like a durian, says Lee Kuan Yew

Singaporeans love durians. But did you know that Mr Lee Kuan Yew once likened Singapore to the durian for its thorny outside and rich inside?

On Singapore being kicked out of Malaysia, Mr Lee Kuan Yew said in September 1965:

Some people think that just because we are a small place, they can put the screws on us. It is not so easy. We are a small place in size, and geography. But in the quality
of the men, the administration, the organisation, the mettle in a people, the fibre - therefore, don't try. That is why we got booted out.

If they could have just squeezed us like an orange and squeezed the juice out, I think the juice would have been squeezed out of us, and all the goodness would have been sucked away. But it was a bit harder, wasn't it? It was more like the durian.

You try and squeeze it, your hand gets hurt. And so they say, "Right, throw out the durian."

But inside the durian is a very useful ingredient, high protein. And
we will progress.