F O R E W O R D I n 1997, Lee Kuan Yew: The Man And His Ideas was published. It was the first book that tried to capture the essence of Singapore’s first prime minister and the ideas that shaped modern Singapore. The authors – Han Fook Kwang, Warren Fernandez and Sumiko Tan – surveyed more than 2,000 speeches Lee made over almost a half century of his political life, beginning with his first political speech while a student in Britain in 1950. They then identified those which had made a difference to Singapore. Forty-six speeches were eventually selected. Lee also gave the authors a series of interviews – 13 in all over about 30 hours, from August 1994 through to February 1995. In them, he elaborated on how he came round to his key ideas and whether experience later led him to modify them or strengthened his beliefs even more. These interviews were woven into the 11 chapters. The best-selling 455-page book was published by Times Editions, part of the Times Publishing Group, and The Straits Times Press, part of Singapore Press Holdings. Times Editions is now part of Marshall Cavendish, which belongs to Fraser and Neave, Limited (“F&N”). This e-book is published jointly by The Straits Times and Times Publishing Ltd as a public service to commemorate the life and work of Lee. It is free for download. It draws from the original book’s contents and adds interactive elements and some new content. It features an edited version of the original Introduction and reproduces three chapters, as well as 24 speeches and excerpts from the interviews which give a flavour of Lee’s life, work and vision. This includes his views on leadership, democracy, the nature of societies, the role of the media as well as his thoughts on his family and friendships. Some of the speeches were made in the years after The Man And His Ideas was published. We have added audio clips from the 1994/1995 interviews held at Lee’s Istana office. We have included more photographs of Lee taken for the book on Jan 17, 1995, when he autographed the books for sale for charity on Sept 16, 1997, and when the book was launched on Oct 10, 1997. Lee died at the age of 91 on March 23, 2015, Singapore’s Jubilee year of independence. More than anyone else, Lee Kuan Yew made Singapore what it is today. For those interested in how his ideas transformed Singapore, this e-book should be a useful starting point. Warren Fernandez/Sumiko Tan March 2015 C O N T E N T S F O R E W O R D H O W T O U S E T H I S E - B O O K I N T R O D U C T I O N I D I D M Y B E S T I T B E G A N W H E N M Y W O R L D C O L L A P S E D C U L T U R E , T H E X - F A C T O R S P E E C H E S A N D I N T E R V I E W S C R E D I T S I N T R O D U C T I O N W hen Lee Kuan Yew wanted Singapore to become a garden city, to soften the harshness of life in one of the world’s most densely populated countries, he did not write a memorandum to the environment minister or to the head of the agency responsible for parks and trees. He did not form a committee nor seek outside help to hire the best landscapists money could buy. For one thing, in the 1960s, when he was thinking of these matters, money was in short supply. In fact, having been unceremoniously booted out of Malaysia, the country’s economic survival was hanging in the balance. For another, there was no environment minister to speak of then, so low down in the list of priorities were these matters. When jobs had to be created and communists fought in the streets, only the birds were interested in flowers and trees. But Lee was interested. And he became personally involved in the project of transforming Singapore from just concrete and steel to Singapore, Garden City: On June 16, 1963, Mr Lee concrete, steel, trees, shrubs, launched the first tree-planting campaign by planting a mempat tree (above) at what was then Farrer Circus. flowers and parks. He would He started an annual Tree Planting Day in 1971 and has become personally knowledgeable planted a tree in Tanjong Pagar every year since. He marked 50 years of the greening of Singapore by planting a rain tree at Holland Village Park on June 16, 2013. He attended his last tree-planting ceremony on Nov 2, 2014. 1 / 10