The 87-year old Mr. Lee Kuan Yew – father of current Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, minister mentor, former prime minister (1959 – 1990) and also the founding father of Singapore – has resigned from the country’s cabinet after his party’s worst election result on 7 May 2011 since independence. He said “the time has come for a younger generation to carry Singapore forward in a more difficult and complex situation.” This is a key moment in Singapore history.
Are you curious how Mr. Lee Kuan Yew dominated Singapore’s development for over 50 years, and made Singapore from a fishing village to one of the world’s richest and safest countries? Below are three good books which you can learn from the great living man in history.
1. The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew

One of the must-read politician’s autobiography. The autobiography stories an English speaking Cambridge educated ‘Straits Chinese’ man grew up without knowing the local languages grew up through WWII, from a black-market entrepreneur during war to the founder of the state with his sharp analytical mind and visionary. The autobiography also provides insight into the relationship between the Malaysia and Indonesia surrounding Singapore, and also the relationship with the Communist Party.
2. From Third World to First : The Singapore Story: 1965-2000

The second memoir of Singapore’s arrogant and visionary leader, Lee Kuan Yew. The man transformed the country from colonial backwater to economic powerhouse. Despite providing economic freedom like encouraging entrepreneurship, Lee also has complete social control such as banning chewing gum in the country. The book also describes Lee pro-elitist thinking, such as one of its proposal for tax breaks and schooling incentives to encourage educated men and women to marry each other and have children. A great book which is more difficult to read as compared to the first memoirs for those lacks a strong grounding in macroeconomics. The book does not only includes development of Singapore in terms of social, economic and political, but also the man’s foreign relations.
3. Conversations with Lee Kuan Yew: Citizen Singapore: How to Build a Nation (Giants of Asia series)

A full-length book of two days session with Lee Kuan Yew was recently published in December 2010 by an American Journalist, Tom Plate. The book has 24 chapters covering a wide range of topics which includes the old Lee’s temper, family, countries, and management method. A book to get Westerner journalist’s views and observations on Lee Kuan Yew, as Tom Plate relayed his thoughts into the book.
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