国际英语新闻:Lee Kuan Yew, Founder of Modern Singapore, Dies at 91

At the age of 42 Lee became Singapore’s sole leader, driving hard on economic growth to build the Republic and to foster unity. “I am not here to play someone else’s game. I have a few million people’s lives to account for and Singapore will survive.”
 
Analysts say Lees’ strengths lay in setting standards and objectives, a “strategic thinker” promoting Singapore’s most valuable resource - its people.
 
Foreign investment followed. With economic growth running often at near 10 percent over the decades, Lee helped define a model of capitalist development that was
 also adopted by the so-called “Asian Tigers:” Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.
 
As the country industrialized, Singapore rose as a modern city state, says Michael Barr, a political scientist at Flinders University in South Australia.
 
“One of Lee Kuan Yew’s great achievements - I think - his positive legacies - is how he recognized and built on Singapore’s natural advantages - and capitalized on them in a way that really is exceptional,” said Barr.
 
Singapore became the world’s busiest seaport, only recently eclipsed by Shanghai. Investment flowed into oil refining, development as a regional transport hub; a national airline to reach global prominence and a banking sector as a vital part in global financial markets.
 
Barr says Lee also brought together key administrators able to chart Singapore’s future development.
 
“He brought serious political leadership and political mass to what was a group of strong-minded and imaginative men and competent administrators. And without his political leadership would not have been able to establish the political hegemony that they have been able to,” said Barr.
 
Lee’s tough approach to politics and opponents also led to a reputation of “authoritarianism.”  The government’s application of the Internal Security Act (ISA) against opponents and critics was used to detain politicians, activists, trade unionists.
 
In 1963, 100 people were arrested, including former newspaper editor Said Zahari, who was held for 17 years without trial. In 1987, 22 Roman Catholic Church officials, social activists and professionals were detained, accused of a left wing conspiracy. In the face of local and foreign media criticism Lee sued the outlets in the courts. But Lee was no apologist for his tough stance.
 
“Whoever governs Singapore must have that iron in him or give it up. This is not a game of cards. This is your life and mine," he said. "I’ve spent a whole life in building this and as long as I am in charge nobody’s going to knock it down.”
 
Singapore remains a country where the state exercises tight controls over speech. In 2014, Reporters without Borders’ Press Freedom Survey, ranked Singapore among the lowest countries in southeast Asia for press freedoms, behind Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia.