Lee Kuan Yew, the man who turned Singapore from a poor city to a developed country, has died. He served as the country’s prime minister for 31 years, died on Sunday, aged 91.
Announcing his death “with deep sorrow”, Lee Hsien Loong, Yew’s son and press secretary of the prime minister, said Yew passed away peacefully at the Singapore General Hospital at 03:18 local time on Monday (19:18 GMT on Sunday).
“The Prime Minister is deeply grieved to announce the passing of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the founding Prime Minister of Singapore,” his office said in a statement quoted by BBC. Yew co-founded the People’s Action Party, which has governed Singapore since 1959. He was its first prime minister. The Cambridge-educated lawyer led Singapore through merger with, and then separation from, Malaysia – something that he described as a “moment of anguish”.
Speaking at a press conference after the split in 1965, he pledged to build a meritocratic, multi-racial nation. But tiny Singapore – with no natural resources – needed a new economic model. “We knew that if we were just like our neighbours, we would die,” he told the New York Times in 2007. “Because we’ve got nothing to offer against what they have to offer. So we had to produce something which is different and better than what they have.” By investing in education and luring American investors to the country, he turned Singapore to a manufacturing hub, also making it a centre for the oil-refining industry. It would go on to become a wealthy, financially stable country Yew, though, clamped down on the press, ruthlessly quashing political opponents and dissidents.
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