Remembering Lee Kuan Yew

It will take a little while before the world hears the last tribute to Lee Kuan Yew, the highly revered founding father of modern Singapore, who died on Monday at 91. But it is unlikely that anyone could describe his life in just a few words as well as his own son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has described him. Just as the Gospel avoids the slightest extravagance when Mark describes our Lord in one simple sentence--“He has done all things well”--the prime minister’s succinct description of his own father’s life says it all: “He fought for our independence, built a nation where there was none, and made us proud to be Singaporeans. We won’t see another man like him.”

There are four interrelated truths in these two short sentences. Each one of them would need volumes to cover. However, Lee’s Memoirs contain only two volumes: “The Singapore Story,” which speaks of the city-state’s history until its separation from Malaysia in 1965 and released in 1999, and “From Third World to First: The Singapore Story,” which speaks of its transformation into a developed nation. The Singapore Story is Lee Kuan Yew’s story, and he will be remembered for as long as Singapore is there. But the world’s memory bank will have to supply many of the details.