If you enjoyed Mahathir's ' Doctor in the House' then this book should also be equally interesting to you. Mahathir and Lee Kuan Yew wrote in very similar style - easy and simple to read. While Mahathir gave the impression that he worked on the book single-handedly ( he only brought in some people to edit at the later stages on recommendation of his daughter, Marina) , Lee Kuan Yew assembled a team of academicians, archivists, journalists, researchers, ex-diplomats etc etc to help him work on the book.
Within the last one week, pakdokter had managed to finish about 200 of the 700 or so pages of the Singapore Story. The 15 chapters making Part 1 of this book gave a clear description of the early years of Singapore upon seperation from Malaysia. Lee Kuan Yew was wary of the threat of his neigbours. His feared most the threat of the communists as well as the 'Malay Ultras' - leaders from Umno in Malaysia - which pakdokter conclude include people like Syed Jaafar Albar and Mahathir Mohamad. He did not even trust the small batallion of soldiers left in Singapore as these soldiers were from the Malaysian Armed Forces. Lee described in good detail how he went about building up his own armed forces and started the National Service Programme to create a 'combat-ready' pool of citizen soldiers. There was a tinge of ' paranoia' when he discussed the security issues. But this was quite understandable then.
How Lee went about dismantling the Chinese medium Nanyang College and Ngee Ann College into an English medium world class universities should also be good reading with lessons to learn for our leaders in Malaysia.
People have critised Lee Kuan Yew for his so-called authoritarian ways and intolerance to 'press freedom' - but read his explanation to his actions and decisions - and pakdokter came out with empathy to his cause.
How Lee Kuan Yew dealt with the threat of massive unemployment following the British Army withdrawal also made interesting reading. Lee Kuan Yew brought in industries which gave these otherwise jobless masses work in the factories. ( Malaysia took a similar approach and got labour-intensive factories to the country as well.) His decision to build Changi Airport also boosted tourism by making Singapore a travel hub. And to complement this he made Singapore 'green' and cleaned up the Singapore river.
Lee Kuan Yew's success is there for all of us to see! And for us Malaysians, there is no harm reading this book and learn from its many pages......
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