What Lies Beneath the Subtle Differences?
It is startling that two men from the same university who took the same path that led to politics governed differently.
By Masterwordsmith
One of my childhood friend’s late father was in University of Singapore together with Singapore’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew and our own TDM. I vaguely recall how my friend shared with us her late father’s anecdotes about life in their varsity days then. One thing for sure was that all three of them were brilliant scholars but with contrasting interests. My friend’s father went on to become a famous dentist whilst the other two blazed the trail in politics.
Today, The Malaysian Insider carried an article HERE about how race relations would have been better if Singapore not ‘turfed out’, says LKY and that Malaysians would be enjoying his city-state’s brand of nationalism and multi-racialism today, if both nations had not been split in 1965.
In an interview with the New York Times, the 86-year-old Minister Mentor reflectively expressed that the first regret he had of his colourful career was having been “turfed out” of Malaysia.
Interestingly, the published interview did not feature his remarks on Malaysia. They were contained in a transcript of the interview published on the official website of Singapore’s prime minister’s office which can be accessed AT THIS LINK.
“Now we have a very polarised Malaysia — Malays, Chinese and Indians in separate schools, living separate lives and not really getting on with one another. You read them. That’s bad for us as close neighbours,” he said.
He pressed on with his belief that all ethnic communities should free themselves from the shackles of racial segregation in order to promote fairness and equality among the races.
I fully agree with what he said and I am sure many of you do too!
It is startling that two men from the same university who took the same path that led to politics governed differently.
One has retired and in his retirement, knows when to speak and when to keep silent.
The other has retired and has never known when to keep silent.
One made defining achievements for his nation whilst the other….???????
Interestingly, both can be perceived to have exhibited Machiaviellian tactics in certain ways.
One nation is has the highest per capita record for the death penalty while the other still practises the much dreaded ISA.
Whatever the case, I do agree that we all might have turned out differently if Singapore had not been ‘turfed out’ but then again, it was a very complicated scenario then and LKY’s statement does not seem to have taken those into consideration.
Oh well, the two seem to be different and yet quite similar in certain ways, if you know what I mean.
Read more at: http://masterwordsmith-unplugged.blogspot.com/2010/09/similar-and-yet-contrastingly-different.html
