温故而知新
The Singapore Story
Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew
Preface
I had not intended to write my memoirs and keep a diary. To do so would inhibited my work.
Five years after I stepped down as a Prime Minister. My old friend, Lim Kim San, chair man of Singapore Press Holding (SPH) convinced me that 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 trouble in apparent over-confidence of a generation that has only known stability growth and prosperity. I thought our people should understand how vulnerable Singapore was and is. The dangers that beset us, how nearly did not make it. Most of all, I hope that they will know the honest and effective government, public order and personal security, economic and social progress did not come about as a natural course events.
This is not a official history, it is the story of Singapore I grew up in, the placid of years of British colonial rule, the cruel of Japanese occupation, the communist insurrection and terrorism against the 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 my office in 1959, did not know how a small country with no resources was cut off from its hinterland had to survive in the tough world of the nationalistic new states of the Southeast Asia. They take it as quite normal that in less than 40 years the World Bank reclassified SG from a less developed to a developed country.
To write this book I had to revive memoirs of enemy’s long forgotten, reading minutes of meeting, letter written and received, oral history transcripts of my colleagues. It was psychological stocktaking, I was surprised how disturbing it was occasionally although these were past or with end.
I have a powerful critic and helper, my wife, Choo, she want over every word I wrote, many times. We had endless arguments. She is a conveyancing lawyer by perfusion, I was nit drafting a will or a conveyancing to be scrutinised by a judge. Nevertheless, she demanded precise, clear and unambiguous language. Choo was a tower of strength , give me constant emotional and intellectual support.
I have no written, expect 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 there peers, build successful careers in the SG my policies had transformed.
未完待续