Telling It Like It Is

"We can have fun in some other way, but there are some matters that you should not make a joke of."
- Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, PAP MP, Straits Times, April 3, 2001, commenting on Think Centre's April Fool's joke last year when it announced that some of its members would be contesting in the general elections in Jalan Beasr GRC.

"It was meant to be a joke. I think different people may have different thresholds for jokes."
- Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, PAP MP, in response to the KL media's furore over his "wild animals" remark.

"We believe that affected staff would prefer a quick exit with dignity."
- OCBC spokesman Mr Peter Zheng on why OCBC gave retrenched staff one-day notices and not until the end of the month to leave.

" ... in the final analysis ... Remaking Singapore should be about creating a Singapore that is less dependent on foreign infusion of funds and skills, and sustainable on its own enterprise and creative juices."
- Ex-ISD Chua Lee Hoong, Straits Times, Apr 17, 2002

"The foreign capital addiction: If Singapore would assist local private companies in becoming more competitive, it must wean itself away from dependence on MNCs."
- Dr Chee Soon Juan, 'Your Future, My Faith, Our Freedom', published in 2001

"It is a bold - and incredible - assertion for a man armed only with a doctorate in physiological psychology from the University of Georgia, facing off against the many trained economists the government is consulting."
- Ex-ISD Chua Lee Hoong, Straits Times Oct 24, 2001

"We have one of the highest savings rates in the world, yet many do not have enough cash for retirement. Why? Is there too much invested in property?"
- Minister and NTUC chief Lim Boon Heng, suggesting less CPF for housing, Straits Times, Apr 4, 2002

"How could savings at a rate of 40 per cent - a rate that is by far the highest in the world - for nearly four decades, still not enough for retirement? The inescapable truth is that HDB apartments have become too expensive ... "
- Dr Chee Soon Juan, 'Your Future, My Faith, Our Freedom', published in 2001

"My family will have a big problem if they increase the GST. We spend about $60 a day. We cannot afford the extra 2 per cent. It is a lot of money for us."
- Mr Sudarsannan, a part-time shop assistant earning $1200 amonth. He has two children, lives in a four room flat and was retrenched from a $3,500 job last year. Straits Times, Apr 12 2002

"I buy my clothes when I travel overseas on business. So the GST wouldn't affect me very much. Yet, I will have a higher income because I don't have to pay so much in taxes."
- Ms Olivia Lim, CEO of listed company Hyflux. Straits Times, Apr 12 2002

"There has been concern that ... people overspend on property, as the funds are lying in their CPF funds, leaving them asset-rich but cash-poor in their retirement years."
- DPM Lee Hsien Loong, Straits Times, Apr 5, 2002

"(Without the CPF), Singaporeans would buy enormous quantities of clothes, shoes, furniture, television sets, radio, tape recorders, hi-fis, washing machines, motor cars. They would have no substantial or permanent asset to show for it."
- Lee Kuan Yew, AWSJ, Oct 21 1985

"We should encourage self-organised communities. One way to facilitate this is to revamp the Societies Act to one of self-regulation .. the right to speak up is fundamental to an open society."
- Minister of State Raymond Lim, Straits Times, Apr 4 2002. Mr Lim's brother is Benny Lim, director of the Internal Security Department

"Cynicism and skepticism arise when the government does not do what it says. But this is a government that does exactly what it says."
- PM Goh Chok Tong, Straits Times, Apr 6 2002

"Singapore get their government cheap. The total tax burden in Singapore is only 18 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) if we go for welfare programmes, have more subsidies, unemployment benefits, free medical care ... then the costs will go up ... so the way to have low cost is for us to have a small government and keep our subsidies to a minimum ... our policy is not to make a profit form our services; it is just to break even or cover our costs."
- DPM Lee Hsien Loong, Straits Times, Apr 5 2002

"... a pupil is streamed between eight and nine, and nine and 10. At this stage of their development, their intellect has not developed fully yet ... so I think the age at which streaming takes place should be reviewed."
- PAP MP Dr Ong Seh Hong, Straits Times, Apr 2, 2002

"Cognitive developments in humans does not follow a regimented schedule. The rate of development varies from individual to individual. A child showing less academic ability during the formative years is thus not necessarily less capable ... it is grave mistake to administer an examination to cultivate the 'intelligence' of children and then stream them according to their abilities as though we know everything about their cognitive abilities by the age of 10 years."
- Dr Chee Soon Juan, 'Your Future, My Faith, Our Freedom', published in 2001

"Singapore is not a hotel. It is a home, it is our home. Greater partcipation and involvement by Singaporeans will undoubtedly give them a greater sense of ownership."
- PAP MP for Holland-Bukit Panjang GRC, Gan Kim Yong in his maiden Parliamentary speech on April 1st 2002

"Singapore must be a home to Singaporeans, not a hotel. For it to be a home, Singaporeans must be given a say in how the country is run."
- Dr Chee Soon Juan, in his book "Dare To Change" which was first published in 1994

"I used to be hungry in school because I didn't have enough money."
- Six-year old Susan Peng, whose father earns $400 working as a coffee-shop assistant.

"You pay peanuts, you get monkeys."
- On why PAP ministers should be paid million-dollar salaries

"I pointed to an article with bold headlines reporting that the police had refused to allow the PAP to hold a rally at Empress Place, and then to the last paragraph where in small type it added the meeting would take place where we were now. I compared this with a prominent report about an SPA rally. This was flagrant bias."
- Lee Kuan Yew complaining about the Straits Times in 1959.

"The Foreign Talent Policy is about using the vulnerable to make the vulnerable even more vulnerable."
- Dr Chee Soon Juan, at the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents' Club, on the use of cheap foreign talent by the PAP government to suppress wages in Singapore.

"CPF, bus fares - if you can't say anything about these because they are political, what is left?"
- Dr Tan Chong Kee, former editor of Sintercom, upon receiving a letter from the Singapore Broadcasting Authority, asking the website to register itself within 14 days because in 'engaged in the propagation, promotion or discussion of political issues relating to Singapore on the internet.' Straits Times, July 11, 2001.

"When I first came to this House in 1976, it was already a one-party Parliament. So, backbenchers were told to play the role of the opposition. But one MP told me that the call was similar to the words of Mao Zedong: Let a thousand flowers bloom ... when flowers bloom, they get chopped."
- MP Tan Soo Khoon, Straits Times, Apr 4 2002, calling for the lifting of Party Whip

"It is in the interest of the people for political parties to be disciplined ... a party whose members are unable to maintain reasonable consensus on its policy positions will find it difficult to inspire confidence in, and get the support of, the voters."
- PM Goh Chok Tong, Straits Times, Apr 6 2002, in article entitled "Not in people's interest to lift the Whip"

"Sometimes, my children look down on themselves."
- Housewife Choo Siew Geok used to give her three children either biscuits or bread and butter for recess because she could not afford anything else.

"To my mind, SingTel sounds good as a company but SingTel is not a company, it's a government. Singapore doesn't have the best of human rights records. It does have different standards to Australia. It doesn't believe in free speech; it doesn't have a transparent democracy, all of which are fundamental to the way we do business and the way we conduct ourselves."
- Mr Kerry Stokes, chairman of the Seven Network in Australia, Sydney Morning Herald, June 22, 2001

"The Singapore government and the Singapore Embassy, together with all other foreign governments and diplomatic missions, enjoy state and diplomatic immunity from legal processes."
- Statement by the Foreign Ministry on Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar's $180m slander suit against the Singapore government over remarks made by Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew

"Some people will feel it's foolish, but I say life is not to be lived for yourself. Life has to be lived for others."
- J.B. Jeyaratnam

"If you want to dance on a bar top, some of us will fall off that bar top. Some people will die as a result of liberalising bar-top dancing. Not just because they've fallen off the bar top, but because it's usually a young girl with a short skirt who's dancing on it, who may attract some insults from some other men. The boyfriend starts fighting. Some people will die. Blood will be shed for liberalising the policy."
- Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Chairman of Remaking S'pore Commitee, Straits Times Oct 3

"...in a show of solidarity, more than 4,000 workers attended a NTUC rally yesterday to protest against American interference in Singapore's politics ... which featured banners, placards and speeches galore."
- Straits Times, May 12 1988

"On Dec 10, 2000, a group of activists had gathered on Speakers Corner to commemorate Human Rights. Two organisers of the event were later called up for questioning by the police who issued a warning that the Speakers Corner must not be used for marches, demonstrations, or 'disorderly behaviour', specifying that chanting slogans, displaying placards, and 'gesticulations' such as 'clenching of fist' were 'indicative of a demonstration or of disorderly behaviour'."
-Dr Chee Soon Juan, Your Future, My Faith, Our Freedom

Singapore is the world's most successful socialist state. While Singapore has the trappings of a democracy, the ruling People's Action Party is living proof that the one-party state survives outside the dustbin of history ... Singapore's economic philosophy more closely mirrors that of another tropical island with a signature rum cocktail: Cuba.
- Asia Times, Hong Kong, Nov 7, 2002

A prosperous, in many ways Western-style nation, Singapore is barely mentioned at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Singapore is no better than its neighbours - in many ways, it's worse. It is the Cuba of Asia (but without the crushing poverty or damaging economic sanctions)...denials of civil and political rights in Singapore are simply of governmental policy.
- Voice of the Asia-Pacific Human Rights Network, May 30, 2002

"We should consider implementing more individual choice for students, rather than forcing them to jump through new and higher hoops to get the same old certificates."
- Chen Jiahao, Straits Times, Nov 30, 2002.

"Why is it impossible to imagine a Sengkang School for Human Rights, or a Bukit Batok school for Leaders of the Fututre?"
- Educator Joyceln Woo calling for an alternative education system to nurture the less academically-inclined, Straits Times, Dec 3, 2002.

"Our universities must become engines of growth for our economy."
- Minister of State for Education Dr Ng Eng Hen, Straits Times, May 22, 2002

SDP NewsWatch : Singaporeans can talk until the cows come home but guess who always has the last say? Without opposition in parliament nothing can change.

"There is no limit on money, but there is for talent. If we are going to count our money like bean counters, we will never become a great nation. We will become a nation of bean counters."
- A*Star chairman Philip Yeo on why Singapore must continue to spend top dollar to attract foreign talents, Straits Times May 11, 2002

"If we go for welfare programs, have more subsidies, unemployment benefits, free medical care ... then the costs will go up"
- DPM Lee Hsien Loong on the "dangers" of welfare, Straits Times, Apr 5, 2002

"We have to bring down our corporate and personal income tax rates to make ourselves more competitive. However, this will cause a large shortfall in government revenue, which has to be made up one way or another. The most effective way to do so is by raising the GST rate."
- DPM Lee Hsien Loong, Straits Times, May 4, 2002

"The Constitution grants citizens the rights to criticize their leaders because these leaders are human beings and not gods. It is only through the people's criticism and supervision that those leaders will make fewer mistakes, and only in this way that the people will avold the misfortune of having their lords and masters ride roughshod over them. Then, and only then, will the people be able to breathe freely."
- Chinese dissident Wei Jinsheng in his first trial, 1979. He was to spend 18 years in prison.

"Upgrading workers' minds is just as important, if not more so, than upgrading their skills. A workforce that is empowered is a workforce that is secure in outlook is a workforce that is productive. It is not a coincidence that productivity levels of workers in democractic countries are also the highest."
-"First World...For Whom," an SDP Report on Labour and Poverty

"I ignore polling as a method of government. I think that shows a certain weakness of mind - an inability to chart a course whichever way the wind blows, whichever way the media encourages the people to go, you follow. You are not a leader."
- Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Success Stories, 2002

"If I were in authority in Singapore indefinitely without having to ask those who are governed whether they like what is being done, then I would not have the slightest doubt that I could govern much more effectively in their interests."
- Mr Lee Kuan Yew, 1962

"In the early days, people could voice out loud. The press was free. So there was a genuine feeling they were fighting for the country. But after 30 years of systematically squeezing the voice of the people by the PAP to "choke" level, people don't care anymore. In karate, you strike with a powerful yell. So how can you be interested in fighting for the country if you can't even whimper? No amount of coaxing will work. The only way is to free the people. Return to them the freedom of speech and the true freedom to vote. "
- FEIHK, reacting to SM Lee's speech to university students, Sintercom forum, Feb 2003

"I'm at a stage of my life where I'm utterly disillusioned with the political process in Singapore. In fact I've made a personal vow to publish one last book in Singapore, and that'll be me calling it quits with this country...If you care too much about Singapore, first it'll break your spirit, and finally it will break your heart."
- 25-year-old Alfian Sa'at, Singaporean poet, author and playwright in Sintercom interview. Read the interview here

"If some politicians do try to find ideological excuses for their unwillingness to allow reductions of the state's power, they mostly come up with the following: 'People have chosen us in an election; it is therefore their will that we rule the country on their behalf.' Of course, this is nonsense: Civil society is in reality the only truly solid foundation of a democratic political system. Without a life-giving background in the form of a diversely structured civil society, political parties as well as the supreme political institutions of the state wither, lack new blood, lose momentum and invention, and are eventually reduced to uninteresting closed groups of political professionals that largely do without any external input."
- Vaclav Havel, ex-President of Czech Republic, 1999
Source: http://www.eng.yabloko.ru/Publ/Archive/Speech/gavel-260499.html

"It's a Disneyland concept. When you queue up for Disney attractions, they will always say 45-minute queue ...So when they actually are able to clear the queue in 30 minutes, you feel very happy. So likewise the first MRT line, Mr Sim Kee Boon, very wisely said so - instead of saying five years, I think he said 6 years. So when it was opened in 5 years, 'oh we are ahead of schedule!"
- Khaw Boon Wan, Acting Minister for Transport, on how to manage public expectations, CNA, Apr 2, 2003

"Singapore is a relentlessly G-rated experience, micromanaged by a state that has the look and feel of a very large corporation...An affluent microcosm whose citizens inhabit something that feels like, well, Disneyland. Disneyland with the death penalty."
- Author William Gibson, 1993
Read Gibson's report

"It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from the government."
-Thomas Paine 'The Rights of Man' c.1792

"The criticisms of Singapore in the Western press are often misplaced: they focus on the laws against jaywalking in the streets and urinating in the lifts and dropping chewing-gum wrappers on the pavements, and they only make me wish we had similar laws in Britain. However, the superficially clean image of the state serves to hide a more important truth: the suppression of well-intentioned dissent by a government bent on maintaining a monopoly of its political power may be achieved within a democractic framework, as well as under a dictatorship."

- Geoffrey Robertson QC, foreword in 'Lee Law's: How Singapore crushes dissent' by Chris Lydgate

"I have visited (Burma) and I know that there is only one instrument of government, and that is the army...If I were Aung San Suu Kyi, I think I'd rather be behind a fence and be a symbol than after two or three years, be found impotent."
- SM Lee Kuan Yew, Reuters, Jun 6, 1996, which sparked a flurry of protests from Burmese students.


"It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it ...With so close a relationship between fear and corruption it is little wonder that in any society where fear is rife corruption in all forms becomes deeply entrenched. "
- Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate

"The United States did not go into Iraq to destroy Islam. It is not in Iraq to hit out at a Muslim country. It is clear to everyone, unless that person wears blinkers, that this is a war to remove the weapons of mass destruction from Saddam Hussein."
- Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong

"Let us get down to fundamentals. Is this an open, or is this a closed society? Is it a society where men can preach ideas - novel, unorthodox, heresies, to established churches and established governments - where there is a constant contest for men's hearts and minds on the basis of what is right, of what is just, of what is in the national interests, or is it a closed society where the mass media - the newspapaers, the journals, publications, TV, radio - either bound by sound or by sight, or both sound and sight, men's minds are fed with a constant drone of sycophantic support for a particular orthodox political philosophy? I am talking of the principle of the open society, the open debate, ideas, not intimidation, persuasion not coercion..."
- Lee Kuan Yew, Malaysian Parliamentary Debates, Dec 18, 1964

"Under the PAP rule, there is no genuine parliamentary democracy. In essence, it has been practising a one-party rule. It seems to want to remain as the sole, dominant party, with other smaller parties acting as marginal opposition and 'sparring partners' for new PAP MPs. The opposition parties will never be allowed to grow strong...There is always the danger of one-party rule slipping into one-man rule, and worse still, into dynastic rule."
- Chia Thye Poh, Philotin: No. 2, Aug 1989

"A truly free nation is one where people do not live in fear of government."
-Ted Lang, columnist for the The Patriotist and Sierra Times

"In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce and brave man, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot."
-Mark Twain

"If you don't include your women graduates in your breeding pool and leave them on the shelf, you would end up a more stupid society...So what happens? There will be less bright people to support dumb people in the next generation. That's a problem."
- Lee Kuan Yew, National Day rally, 1983

"If nature does not wish that weaker individuals should mate with the stronger, she wishes even less that a superior race should intermingle with an inferior one; because in such a case all her efforts, throughout hundreds of thousands of years, to establish an evolutionary higher stage of being, may thus be rendered futile."
- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Chapter XI, Race and People

"We must encourage those who earn less than $200 per month and cannot afford to nurture and educate many children never to have more than two... We will regret the time lost if we do not now take the first tentative steps towards correcting a trend which can leave our society with a large number of the physically, intellecually and culturally anaemic."
- Lee Kuan Yew, 1967

"Since the inferior is always numerically superior to the best, the worst would multiply itself so much faster...that the best would necessarily be pushed to the background. Therefore a correction in favour of the better must be undertaken."
- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Chapter XI, Race and People

Sources:

Lee Kuan Yew: Race, Culture and Genes by Michael D. Barr

Mein Kampf, Chapter XI, Race and People by Adolf Hitler

"Singapore is a one-party state and bears the injuries that all one-party states do to themselves...In Singapore, the question is being asked more often these days : what is the point of being one of the best fed, best administered, best educated nations in Asia if that nation is also one of the least free?"
- The Australian, editorial, May 21, 1971

"...different types of intelligence, individual differences in developmental rates, and the various test tools/classroom approaches all contribute to bringing out different performances in people. A one-size-fits-all approach by the PAP is both outdated and unhelpful."
- Dr Chee Soon Juan on the education system, SDP website, Jun 20, 2003

"We have to move away from one-size-for-all measures of ability, towards a more flexible system of admissions into some of our schools..."
- Acting Minister for Education Tharman Shanmugaratnam on the education system, Sunday Times, Mar 7, 2004

"Lee (Kuan Yew)'s view of Asian cultures is not only unsupportable but self-serving ...The fact that Lee's Singapore, a small city-state, needs a near-totalitarian police state to assert control over its citizens contradicts his assertion that everything would be all right if governments would refrain from interfering in the private affairs of the family. The proper way to cure the ills of industrial societies is not to impose the terror of a police state but to emphasize ethical education, give high regard to spiritual values, and promote high standards in culture and the arts."
- Kim Dae Jung, Is Culture Destiny? - A response to Lee Kuan Yew

"When you are constantly moving forward, searching for the cutting edge, everyone behind you always believes you have gone too far. The further back from the cutting edge they are, the more extreme and indeed, insane, you appear, to them to be. In this way, one person's 'madness' can be another's common sense."
-Martin Luther King Jr.

"The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair. "
-H.L. Mencken

"People don't use the cane now, except for cows and horses."
- Chief Justice Yong Pung How, Straits Times, Nov 2001

"In Singapore, caning is mandatory for over 40 different offences. According to a Reuters report, on average about 1,000 people a year were sentenced to caning over the ten years to 1994. This must mean that the great majority of court cases are not covered in the local press."
- World Corporal Punishment Research (http://www.corpun.com/sgscr1.htm)

"With few exceptions, democracy has not brought good government to new developing countries...What Asians value may not necessarily be what Americans or Europeans value. Westerners value the freedoms and liberties of the individual. As an Asian of Chinese cultural backround, my values are for a government which is honest, effective and efficient."
- Lee Kuan Yew (educated in Cambridge and speaks English, called Harry when young) in speech entitled 'Democracy, Human Rights and the Realities', Tokyo, Nov 10, 1992

"It's nonsense...Asian people are human beings...Democracy is something everybody would like to have. Everybody would like more freedom."
- Former Taiwan President Lee Teng Hui on "Asian Values" (speaks Hokkien and Japanese), Washington Post, Dec 16, 1997

"With our sacred votes, we have proven to the world that freedom and democracy are indisputable universal values...The spirit of a 'government for all people' lies in the fact that 'the government exists for the people.' The people are the masters and shareholders of the state... Authoritarianism and force can only bring surrender for one time, while democracy and freedom are values that will endure forever."
- Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's (born and educated in Taiwan, speaks little English) inauguration address, May 20, 2000

"Lee [Kuan Yew's] view of Asian values is not only unsupportable but also self-serving."
- Former South Korean President Kim Dae Jung (born and bred in Korea), 1994.

"Supposing Catherine Lim was writing about me and not the prime minister...She would not dare, right? Because my posture, my response has been such that nobody doubts that if you take me on, I will put on knuckle-dusters and catch you in a cul de sac...Anybody who decides to take me on needs to put on knuckle dusters. If you think you can hurt me more than I can hurt you, try. There is no other way you can govern a Chinese society."
- SM Lee Kuan Yew, The Man and His Ideas, 1997

"I want to thank the KMT and PFP parties for their criticisms and suggestions during this campaign period. Taiwan's democracy will only make progress if the ruling and opposition parties engage in serious monitoring and mutual criticism...In Taiwan, we have full democracy, and our freedom and democracy are fully protected. We do not wish to return to the era of authoritarianism."
- President of Taiwan Chen Shui Bian, Mar 21, 2004

"It is clear to everyone, unless that person wears blinkers, that this is a war to remove the weapons of mass destruction from Saddam Hussein."
- PM Goh Chok Tong on the Iraq War, Straits Times, Mar 29, 2003

"The key issue is no longer WMD (weapons of mass destruction) or even the role of the United Nations. The central issue is America's credibility and will to prevail."
- PM Goh Chok Tong on the Iraq War, Straits Times, May 7, 2004

"The American Constitution, and here I am quoting Dr Freeman Dyson, is designed to be operated by crooks, just as the British Constitution is designed to be operated by gentlemen...perhaps a colourful exaggeration. But it does underline the American view of politics and government, and also underline the view of politicians."
- Then-DPM Goh Chok Tong accusing the US of "meddling" in Singapore's politics following the departure of US diplomat E. Mason Hendrickson, Straits Times, June 1, 1988

"US not the enemy, PM Goh tells world."
- PM Goh Chok Tong, Today, June 5, 2004

"Citing how the United States entered into the Iraqi War without United Nations authorisation...SM Lee said it was not enough to have power, but there must also be an international rule of law and broad global agreement, so that enough nations feel fairness has prevailed."
- TODAY quoting SM Lee Kuan Yew, Jun 22, 2004

"I am not in the least interested in international affairs. I am not concerned with international law. I am a poor humble servant of the law in Singapore. Little island."
- Chief Justice Yong Pung How, Straits Times, Oct 1, 2003

"Repression can only go up to a point. When it becomes too acute, the instruments of repression, namely the army and the police, have been proved time and time again in history to have turned their guns on their masters."
- Opposition leader Lee Kuan Yew, Straits Times, May 5, 1959

"If I have to shoot 200,000 students to save China from another 100 years of disorder, so be it."
- Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew evoking the ghost of Deng Xiaoping whilst endorsing the Tiananmen Square massacre, Straits Times, Aug 17, 2004

"If it is not totalitarian to arrest a man and detain him, when you cannot charge him with any offence against any written law - if that is not what we have always cried out against in Fascist states - then what is it?"
- Opposition leader Lee Kuan Yew, Legislative Assembly Debates, Sept 21, 1955

"We have to lock up people, without trial, whether they are communists, whether they are language chauvinists, whether they are religious extremists. If you don't do that, the country would be in ruins."
- Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, 1986

"The US has a very active citizenry, always ready to organise themselves and solve their own problems, without waiting for the government... Singaporeans who have worked and studied in the US pick up some of these values and norms...Singaporeans are less active in organising ourselves than Americans."
- Lee Hsien Loong, speech at Harvard Club, Straits Times, Jan 7, 2004

"What people mean by consultation is an imitation of what they see in America; pressure groups and lobby groups..It's an unthinking adoption of Western practices of development without any pruning and modification to suit our circumstances."
- Lee Kuan Yew, The Man & His Ideas, 1997

"I say this to all Singaporeans. You have to feel passionately about Singapore. Being Singaporean should resonate in our hearts and minds. We built this country...We will fight and, if we must, die to defend our way of life and our home. To opt and emigrate is a cop-out."
- Goh Chok Tong, National Day Rally, 1996

"Supposing I'm now 21, 22, what would I do? I would not be absorbed in wanting to change life in Singapore. I'm not responsible for Singapore...Why should I go and undertake this job and spend my whole life pushing this for a lot of people for whom nothing is good enough? I will have a fall-back position, which many are doing - have a house in Perth or Vancouver or Sydney, or an apartment in London, in case I need some place suddenly, and think about whether I go on to America."
- Lee Kuan Yew, The Man & His Ideas, 1997

"I am not my father. I am myself and people will have to take me for what I am and look for what I am able to do for them."
- Lee Hsien Loong, Straits Times, Jun 7, 2004

"He picked up from me a certain way of thinking, certain logic, certain cut of mind. He has got from his mother a facility with words, and a certain intuition."
- Lee Kuan Yew on Hsien Loong, Straits Times, Jun 22, 2004

"In America itself, after 30 years of experimenting with the Great Society programmes, there is widespread crime and violence, children kill each other with guns, neigbourhoods are insecure, old people feel forgotten, families are falling apart. And the media attacks the integrity and character of your leaders with impunity, drags down all those in authority and blames everyone but itself."
- Lee Kuan Yew, Sept 1995, that is before the 1997 Asia crisis

"Let's try and help the Americans in whatever way we can to solve this problem...They have brought us, through 60 years of peace and stability. Let's keep it."
- Lee Kuan Yew on the US-led war in Iraq, Straits Times, Jun 4, 2004

"Citizens of Singapore cannot change their government democratically."
- Freedom House Annual Report, 2004

"The Singapore government can rightly boast of having the most efficient system of universal suffrage in the world - the perpetual ruling party: the People's Action Party (PAP) knows precisely how many and which seats it will win and which two seats will go to the opposition parties - long before the first ballot is cast."
- Martin Lee, Hong Kong Legislator and Senior Counsel, 2005