Asian Dilemmas

WHEN Lee Kuan Yew talks, Asia listens. Even people who don’t like him at least pay attention. And so interest ran high when Singapore’s Senior Minister visited Manila in November 1992 at the invitation of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In characteristic fashion, Lee told the audience he had at first hesitated to accept the invitation because he knew his would be “a contrary opinion.” In equally characteristic fashion, he went on to give it to them anyway, right between the eyes:

Contrary to what American political commentators say, I do not believe that democracy necessarily leads to development. I believe that what a country needs to develop is discipline more than democracy. The exuberance of democracy leads to undisciplined and disorderly conditions which are inimical to development. The ultimate test of the value of a political system is whether it helps that society to establish conditions which improve the standard of living for the majority of its people plus enabling the maximum of personal freedoms compatible with the freedoms of others in society.

WM

About the Author

William McGurn

Featured Tags

WHEN Lee Kuan Yew talks, Asia listens. Even people who don’t like him at least pay attention. And so interest ran high when Singapore’s Senior Minister visited Manila in November 1992 at the invitation of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In characteristic fashion, Lee told the audience he had at first hesitated to accept the invitation because he knew his would be “a contrary opinion.” In equally characteristic fashion, he went on to give it to them anyway, right between the eyes:

Contrary to what American political commentators say, I do not believe that democracy necessarily leads to development. I believe that what a country needs to develop is discipline more than democracy. The exuberance of democracy leads to undisciplined and disorderly conditions which are inimical to development. The ultimate test of the value of a political system is whether it helps that society to establish conditions which improve the standard of living for the majority of its people plus enabling the maximum of personal freedoms compatible with the freedoms of others in society.