Harry Lee Kuan Yew, (16 September 1923 – 23 March 2015)
The man who created an economic powerhouse out of a city state dies. Harry Lee Kuan Yew, could be called a enlighten despot in that he had no truck with ‘democracy’ with its ability to produce the ‘wrong’ result, he went for modernity by any means possible. This meant that his rule had the singular object of raising the economic activity of Singapore without the ideological baggage of being purely capitalistic or communistic in nature. In fact if his rule had a ‘ism’ it would be ‘multicultralism’, as long as it were hard working and had its allegiances to Singapore.
Part of his view in governance was that the smallest sign of public impoliteness must be stamped on so things such as chewing gum was stamped out. He was also not in favour of religion being politically powerful which meant that civil society was seen as rational. He also created a hard core view for his country on things such as corruption (made it very difficult to happen), sexuality (left it to the personal view) and corporal punishment ( allowed it in all areas including the military).
He later in life created a good governance program to help others run a successful country and society. He may have been an autocrat but it was certainly done for the best of the country and not to enrich his family and cronies as is usual the case with despotic regimes.