The Story of Singapore
Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew
Preface
I had not intended to write my memoirs and did not keep a diary. To do so would have inhibited my work.
Five years after I stepped down as Prime Minister, my old friend and colleague, Lim Kim San, chairman of Singapore Press Holding (SPH) convinced me that the young would read my memoirs since they were interested in a book of my old speeches that SPH had published in Chinese. I was also troubled by the apparent over-confidence of a generation that has only known stability , growth and prosperity. I though our people should understand how vulnerable Singapore was and is, the dangers that beset us, and how nearly did not make it. Most of all, I hope that they will know that honest and effective government, public order and personal security, economic and social progress did not come about as natural course of events.
This is not an official history, it is the story of Singapore I grew up in. The placid of years of British colonial rule, the shock of war, the cruel of years of Japanese occupation, the communist insurrection and terrorism against of returning British, the communal riots and intimidation during Malaysia, the perils of independence. This book deals with the early years which ended with our sudden independence in 1965. My next book will describe the long, hard climb over the next 25 years from poverty to prosperity.
Many, no born or too young when I took office in 1959. Do not know how a small country with no resources was cut off from its hinterland had to survive in the tough world of nationalistic new states in Southeast Asia . They take it as quite normal that in less than 40 years The World Bank has reclassified SG from a less Developed to a developed country.
To write this book I had to revive memoirs of events long forgotten, reading thought minutes of meetings, letters written and received, oral history transcripts of college. It was psychological, I was surprised how disturbing was it occasionally although those events were past or over with.
I had a powerful critic and helper, my wife, Choo. She want over every word that I wrote, many times. We had endless arguments. She is a conveyancing lawyer by profession. I was not drafting a will or a conveyance to be scrutinised by a judge. Nevertheless she demanded precise, clear and unambiguous language. Choo was a tower of strength, giving me constant emotional and intellectual support.
I had not written, except incidentally, about what was an important part of my life, our three children. They have been a source of joy and satisfaction as Choo and I watched them grow up and, like their peers, build successful careers in the Singapore my polices had transformed.
My cabinet colleagues and me, our families were at the heart of our team efforts to build a nation from scratch. We wanted a Singapore that our children and those our fellow citizens would be proud of, a singapore that would offer all citizens equal and ample opportunities of fulfilling future. It was this drive in an immigrant Asia society that spurred us on to fight and win against all odds.
Lee Kuan Yew
July 1998
The end
世上无难事 只怕有心人，经过一个星期的死记硬背终于可以默写出来《新加坡的故事》 这本书的序言，会读就会写，而我们学习英文最大的障碍就是无可救药的口语！ 俺是大连银，就练练着一股海蛎味道的英文吧！ 加油！