Mr Lee was never afraid of controversy. He did not court headlines deliberately, but neither would he self-censor if it meant his views were less sharply focused and expressed.
As a 32-year-old, Mr Lee said: “I have been accused of many things in my life, but not even my worst enemy has ever accused me of being afraid to speak my mind.”
This was one of his key strengths, in Mr Kausikan’s view: “The disciplined clarity of his thought and expression was one of the primary sources of the influence Mr Lee wielded, disproportionate for the leader of a small country like Singapore. His views were valued because they were unvarnished and gave a fresh and unique perspective. He said things that leaders of much larger and more powerful countries may well have thought and may have liked to say, but for one reason or another, could not themselves prudently say. And so he made Singapore relevant.”
Speaking in 2009, Mr Lee had said of Singapore’s foreign policy fundamentals: “Independence was thrust upon Singapore. The fundamentals of our foreign policy were forged during those vulnerable early years. They remain relevant because small countries have little power to alter the region, let alone the world. A small country must seek a maximum number of friends, while maintaining the freedom to be itself as a sovereign and independent nation. Both parts of the equation — a maximum number of friends and freedom to be ourselves — are equally important and interrelated.
“Friendship, in international relations, is not a function of goodwill or personal affection. We must make ourselves relevant so that other countries have an interest in our continued survival and prosperity as a sovereign and independent nation. Singapore cannot take its relevance for granted. Small countries perform no vital or irreplaceable functions in the international system. Singapore has to continually reconstruct itself and keep its relevance to the world and to create political and economic space. This is the economic imperative for Singapore.”
Yet Mr Lee also forged close personal friendships with world leaders, amity that has helped Singapore in many areas, from security to economics.
His personal ties with regional leaders such as late Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak and Indonesian President Suharto smoothed the way for the founding of ASEAN in 1967.
His friendship with members of United Kingdom Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s government helped delay the British troops’ withdrawal to late 1971, buying Singapore time to build up its own defence forces.
He also held long-term friendships with world leaders and senior officials such as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping.
Despite his personal friendships with world leaders, he was not afraid to stand up to a greater power where needed. There were famous instances, such as in 1968, when he turned down a direct appeal by Indonesian President Suharto to pardon two Indonesian marines for the MacDonald House bombing; and in 1994, when, as Senior Minister, he refused American appeals against the caning of Michael Fay. In widely reported comments on local television, he had said of the US: “The country dares not restrain or punish the individuals, forgiving them for whatever they have done... That’s why the whole country is in chaos. Drugs, violence, unemployment and homelessness, all sorts of problems in its society.”
Former President S R Nathan also recalls how Mr Lee declined a gift from late Chinese Premier Hua Guofeng on his first visit to China in 1976. The gift was a book by Australian academic Neville Maxwell on the 1962 Sino-Indian war, and Hua told Mr Lee that it was “the correct version of the India-China war”.
Mr Nathan said: “When PM took the book, he looked at the front and back cover and then handed it back to Premier Hua, saying, ‘Mr Prime Minister, this is your version of the war. There is another version, the Indian version. And in any case I am from South-east Asia — it’s nothing to do with us.’ Hua showed no reaction, but a silence fell in the room.
“Even to this day, I sometimes get asked about this incident (by) people who cannot bring themselves to believe that the PM of a small country like Singapore would have dared to incur Chinese displeasure by such a response.”
Source: Today
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