LKY admits Singapore Already had Critical Resources before the PAP

I felt that this is an important piece that should be made public so that Singaporeans can see for themselves that many were made to believe and not what had transpired.

Our Founding father was none other than Sir Stamford Raffles. The ‘Founding fathers’ were the British and the generation of that time period who had built the infrastructures, ports, amenities, etc.

The PAP had inherited a ‘throne’ not rightfully theirs to claim but should be for all to share in improving the ‘modernization of Singapore’.

The ‘good few’ of their members did put up much hard works and they were Goh Keng Swee, Lim Kim San, Ong Pang Boon and Toh Chin Chye but not the others, I feel.  LKY and the others were just ‘basking in the reflected glory’.

As I had written before, LKY was not able to produce any good results without them (i.e, after ’84) (‘LKY letters show he is clueless without others‘). You can trace back old records to show that Singapore had started to decline from that year.

If our present conditions are not better than the earlier years, that alone can confirm my statement.

Anyway, coming back to my point about PAP had inherited a ‘throne’, in the following Hansard, LKY admitted as much:

“We can make maximum use of our resources which are not all that slender…

First, we have more than average human intelligence, diligence, skills, knowledge and expertise. (i.e, Singaporeans ourselves)

Second, our superb geographic location at the southernmost tip of the continent of Asia, straddling the route between the Indian and the Pacific Oceans, the northern and the southern hemispheres. We have been important for 150 years as a great sea junction. And for the last 20 years we have also grown in importance as a great air junction…

Our third asset is the accumulation of 150 years of infrastructure and experience, in commerce, industry and communications. This does not mean just the physical buildings, the ports, airports, warehouses, roads, banks, shops, power stations, water-works, telephones and cables. More important are the invisibles, the accumulations of knowledge and expertise; how to run the port and the airport economically and efficiently; how to keep up to date with containerised ships and jumbo jets; what banking, money, finance, stocks and shares, bills of lading, and insurance are about; how and what to buy in bulk from the industrial countries and break bulk to retail in the area, and conversely how to buy retail and package in bulk for export to industrial countries. This requires a well-trained professional, managerial and executive elite, supported by a well educated, skilled and industrious working population.

Nothing can more emphasise the importance of these three factors than if hon. Members were to consider what would happen if Singapore did not have these three assets:

1. the human resources
2. the strategic geographic location, and
3. the built-up infrastructure both physical structure and the know-how.

* – * – * – * – * – * – *

09-05-1968, Hansard

The Prime Minister (Mr Lee Kuan Yew): Mr Speaker, Sir, we of the P.A.P, have been given a mandate as great as the responsibility that goes with the task. We shall do our best.

Singaporeans are a hard-headed people. If we maintain group discipline, if everyone contributes his fullest share of physical and intellectual effort to the fulfilment of our plans, we shall not fail. We can and we shall build up an adequate defence force before the 1st of January, 1972. We can counter recession, expand our economy, train and educate artisans, technicians and the technocrats of our growing industrial and servicing sectors.

In the next few years, as British forces withdraw and leave Singapore and Malaysia to make their own arrangements for security, we shall find out whether, as a community, we are like a creeper or a tree. Both the creeper and the sapling need support. But unlike a creeper, a sapling does not need support as it grows older and stronger. It will grow into a tree and dispense with the supporting stake. No amount of aid and assistance, grants and loans, technical assistance and training can do the job which we must do for ourselves. A people who are by nature creepers must, when the stake they have been leaning on is removed, fall and crawl on the ground. If we are that sort of a society, then even with all this brave talk by leaders and encouraging noises by observers and commentators, and all the fine words of comfort and promise of aid, we will still find ourselves crawling on the ground.

However, the manifestations of the last decade point to a sapling growing sturdier and stronger as it matures into an upright tree. The stake, which the British presence provided, has enabled sapling Singapore to grow straight and tall without being too buffeted by the winds while it is still young and fragile.

We must have that spirit of self-reliance and self-respect as a community if we are to be compared to a tree. To join the growing numbers of countries who beg for alms from the developed countries, would destroy our pride and undermine our self-confidence.

Quite a number of countries, after gaining independence, have failed economically and collapsed socially. They lacked one essential quality: self-discipline, either in their leaders, or more often both in their leaders and their people. It requires self-discipline to budget and live within your means, when you can just print more money. It requires self-discipline to maintain the integrity and efficiency of government and administration and to punish and keep down corruption, especially in high places. Self-indulgence would soon lead to personal wealth and security for the few, the political leaders, the military chieftains, and the principal administrators. Whatever the evils of British, French, or Dutch colonial administrations, they provided firm, rigid frameworks within which constructive endeavour was rewarded. Seldom were colonial budgets ever in deficit. They invariably spent less than what they got out of each colony, for colonies were intended to provide profits, not incur losses. They kept stern discipline and stable conditions, sound currencies, good sanitation and healthy conditions. It is sad to see how in many countries, national heroes have let their country slide down the drain to filth and squalor, corruption and degradation, where the kick-back and the rake-off has become a way of life, and the whole country sinks in self-debasement and despair.

If the political leadership ever allows Singapore to degenerate into these conditions, then we shall perish. For we have not got that agricultural base where you can scatter seed on the ground, and the soil, the rain and the sun will produce you the rice, the corn and the fruits with which to feed yourselves.

On the other hand, with imaginative and intelligent leadership and stiff standards of honest and just administration, we can make maximum use of our resources which are not all that slender. We have not often underlined these valuable resources. Let me enumerate them:

First, we have more than average human intelligence, diligence, skills, knowledge and expertise.

Second, our superb geographic location at the southernmost tip of the continent of Asia, straddling the route between the Indian and the Pacific Oceans, the northern and the southern hemispheres. We have been important for 150 years as a great sea junction. And for the last 20 years we have also grown in importance as a great air junction.

Hon. Members may remember the Maltese Labour leader, Mr Born Mintoff, visiting us in December 1967. A Rhodes scholar, he does not lack perception or articulation. After a few days in Singapore, he said, privately and publicly over radio and television, that Singapore was better off than Malta because Singapore did not have to face the stiff competition that the Maltese face from their neighbours. In other words, the Italians in Naples and Genoa, the Greeks in Athens and the French in Marseilles, all have higher skills and work harder and so take business away from Malta.

Changing the passive into the active tense, it means that we work harder, are better organised, and more efficient than many others in the neighbourhood. We sell the same things cheaper, we do the same job for a lower price, and we offer to buy the same produce at better prices than anywhere else in the region.

Our third asset is the accumulation of 150 years of infrastructure and experience, in commerce, industry and communications. This does not mean just the physical buildings, the ports, airports, warehouses, roads, banks, shops, power stations, water-works, telephones and cables. More important are the invisibles, the accumulations of knowledge and expertise; how to run the port and the airport economically and efficiently; how to keep up to date with containerised ships and jumbo jets; what banking, money, finance, stocks and shares, bills of lading, and insurance are about; how and what to buy in bulk from the industrial countries and break bulk to retail in the area, and conversely how to buy retail and package in bulk for export to industrial countries. This requires a well-trained professional, managerial and executive elite, supported by a well educated, skilled and industrious working population.

Nothing can more emphasise the importance of these three factors than if hon. Members were to consider what would happen if Singapore did not have these three assets: the human resources, the strategic geographic location, and the built-up infrastructure both physical structure and the know-how.

These assets constitute our inheritance. We must maintain and improve upon what we have inherited. Bustling commercial and administrative centres have been known to sink into disrepair for lack of self-discipline, often starting with the leaders, but invariably infecting the whole population.