Lee Kuan Yew has died aged 91. If there is such a thing as a benign dictator, he might have been it.
He formed the People’s Action Party in 1954 as a 31 year old. He became PM in 1959 when they won 43 out of 51 seats. Singapore then merged with Malaysia, but Malaysia severed ties in 1965 when led to Singapore becoming an independent state – a state with almost no natural resources.
He won seven elections in a row, with basically no effective opposition parties. In 1990 he officially retired as Prime Minister but remained a de facto head of state as senior minister.
I doubt any one individual has ever been so influential in a country’s development, and overwhelmingly for the better.
