Good Quotes —— The Wit and Wisdom of Lee Kuan Yew (3)

The laws against corruption should be tightened to shift the onus of proof onto the person who possesses more assets than his income warrants. Two or three big fish brought to justice successfully, will have salutary effect on everyone.―――On Corruption

Once a political system has been corrupted right from the very top leaders to the lowest rungs of the bureaucracy, the problem is very complicated. The cleansing and disinfecting has to start from top and go downwards in a thorough and systematic way. It is long and laborious process that can be carried out only by a very strong group of leaders with the strength and moral authority derived from unquestioned integrity.―――On Corruption

In 1977, we passed laws to prohibit any person or his nominee from holding more tha[n] 3 per cent of the ordinary shares of a newspaper […] I do not subscribe to the Western practice that allows a wealthy press baron to decide what voters should read day after day.―――On Media

Singapore’s experience has been that once women are educated equally with men and given the same job opportunities, they do not see any point in having large families which drag down the standards of living of the family and of society and make their lives a drudgery.―――On Equality

To keep your language alive, you have to speak and read it frequently. The more you use one language, the less you use other languages. So the more languages you learn, the greater the difficulties of retaining them at a high level of fluency.―――On Language

[T]he ritualised, conformist approach to thinking and learning, which was designed to secure the stability of successive dynasties, had prevented innovations in human thought and the discovery of further inventions. The result was that a great civilisation had become stagnant. It failed to rejuvenate itself in time to face the strength of an industrialised Europe.―――On Language

[Americans’] real interest is what Freedom House has stated, that Singapore sets the wrong example for China, showing China that it can maintain social discipline and order with high economic growth but without becoming full-fledged American-style democracy. This is the reason why the American media always attacks Singapore.―――On International Relations

Good Quotes —— The Wit and Wisdom of Lee Kuan Yew (2)

In the heat of election battle, people and political parties tend to be sidetracked onto minor and irrelevant issues…[A]s you know, the habit is to do two things. First insult and denigrate your opponents. Second, promise the electorate anything and everything – the sun, the moon and the stars.―――On Politics

[Politics] is a marathon, not a hundred yards spurt. With every passing speech, with every passing act, the character, the style, the strength, the weaknesses are etched in the minds of the public. You can do a PR job…and you suddenly find with a whole host of ghostwriters and advisers, that the man becomes scholarly, learned, solicitous in his speech. Catch him at a press conference and a question-and-answer session, where the ghosts cannot whisper to him, and the man is betrayed.―――On Politics

From our perilous years in the ‘50s and ‘60s, a whole generation of Singaporeans was educated in a harsh political school… Our children have no memories of troubled times… A younger generation of ministers also missed this experience. Fierce combat has made the older ministers what they are. For those amongst us, the older ones that were weak or slow or nervous, they became early casualties. Those present are survivors of a Darwinian process of natural selection. We have keen survival instincts, familiar with every trick, underhand or dastardly manoeuvre. We know how to deal with very scoundrel.―――On Politics

I do not yet know of a man who became a leader as a result of having undergone a leadership course.―――On Leadership

Too much emphasis was laid on the examination and the paper qualification. We were, therefore, rearing a whole generation of softies, who are clever; who wore spectacles but who were weak from want of enough exercise, enough sunshine, and with not enough guts in them.―――On Leadership

If you are impulsive and lucky, you may even pass off as an incisive mind and a decisive commander. If you are unlucky, then you are a hasty bungler and a fool. Or if you take much time for a careful weighing of the odds, but the decision nevertheless turned out wrong, people may well think you are a ditherer…to act decisively.―――On Leadership

No army, however brave, can win when its generals are weak.―――On Leadership