A model for democracy

“If I have to shoot 200,000 students to save China from another 100 years of disorder, so be it.”
- Lee Kuan Yew evoking the ghost of Deng Xiaoping whilst endorsing the Tiananmen Square massacre, Straits Times, Aug 17, 2004

*warning! rambling post ahead*

A year after I returned with a degree and started serving my bond, I had a worry. It was that I might get jaded. The fear of having the grind of daily life seep ennui throughout my system.

I chanced upon this website while searching for quotes on democracy.

Amazingly, I agree with each and every quote found below at different junctures of my life. Many are contradictory hence I must emphasise "different junctures".

Did education and (mis)directed observations of our cultural, political and economic landscapes led to this conclusion?

Recently I was sharing with my big big boss that I was interested in the study of economics because of the central idea of "unlimited wants from limited resources". He pursued economics in his university days as well and was interested in the application of economic theories. Especially in the incentivising and disincentivising of humans to shape behaviours.

There was a recent article in AssTee about a Sri Lankan lawyer whose father was a former Sri Lanka High Commissioner to Singapore. The lawyer is presently a Singapore citizen.

Rather than lamenting the lack of liberal democracy, she suggests, 'our youth should be channelled to focus on the competitive advantages that they are going to enjoy in what has been called the 'New Asian Hemisphere',' by Professor Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. That 'hemisphere' includes China, India, Singapore and the Middle East.

She believes our youth will 'out-perform' Western counterparts.

She is delighted that today, the friends of her offspring agree with her that 'Singapore's strength has been its style of leadership'.

Her house of debate may have opened a couple of doors in young minds.

No, this is not about the free-rider problem. Yes, defence is both a public good (non-excludable and non-rival) as well as a merit good (positive externalities, though questionable) and foreign talents, new immigrants and expatriates do free-ride depending on how you define payment. Instead, it's about the problem of choice.

“But we either believe in democracy or we not. If we do, then, we must say categorically, without qualification, that no restraint from the any democratic processes, other than by the ordinary law of the land, should be allowed… If you believe in democracy, you must believe in it unconditionally. If you believe that men should be free, then, they should have the right of free association, of free speech, of free publication. Then, no law should permit those democratic processes to be set at nought.”
- Lee Kuan Yew as an opposition leader, April 27, 1955


“Repression, Sir is a habit that grows. I am told it is like making love - it is always easier the second time! The first time there may be pangs of conscience, a sense of guilt. But once embarked on this course with constant repetition you get more and more brazen in the attack. All you have to do is to dissolve organizations and societies and banish and detain the key political workers in these societies. Then miraculously everything is tranquil on the surface. Then an intimidated press and the government-controlled radio together can regularly sing your praises, and slowly and steadily the people are made to forget the evil things that have already been done, or if these things are referred to again they’re conveniently distorted and distorted with impunity, because there will be no opposition to contradict.”
-Lee Kuan Yew as an opposition PAP member speaking to David Marshall, Singapore Legislative Assembly, Debates, 4 October, 1956

“These powers will not be allowed to be used against political opponents within the system who compete for the right to work the system. That is fundamental and basic or the powers will have destroyed the purpose for which they were forged.”
- Lee Kuan Yew speaking in Parliament on the Preservation of Public Security Act, a precursor to the ISA, Oct 14, 1959

“It is essential to rear a generation at the very top of society that has all the qualities needed to lead and give the people the inspiration and the drive to make it succeed. In short; the elite. Every society tries to produce this type. The British have special schools for them: the gifted and talented are sent to Eton and Harrow.”
- Lee Kuan Yew, August 1966

“The human being is an unequal creature. That is a fact. And we start off with the proposition. All the great religions, all the great movements, all the great political ideology, say let us make the human being as equal as possible. In fact, he is not equal, never will be.”
- Lee Kuan Yew, from a speech during the 1960s, Success Stories

“One-man-one-vote is a most difficult form of government. Results can be erratic.”
- Lee Kuan Yew, Dec 19 1984

“We have to lock up people, without trial, whether they are communists, whether they are language chauvinists, whether they are religious extremists. If you don’t do that, the country would be in ruins.”
- Lee Kuan Yew, 1986

“They say people can think for themselves? Do you honestly believe that the chap who can’t pass primary six knows the consequence of his choice when he answers a question viscerally, on language, culture and religion? But we knew the consequences. We would starve, we would have race riots. We would disintegrate.”
- Lee Kuan Yew, The Man & His Ideas, 1997

“I started off believing all men were equal. I now know that’s the most unlikely thing ever to have been, because millions of years have passed over evolution, people have scattered across the face of this earth, been isolated from each other, developed independently, had different intermixtures between races, peoples, climates, soils… I didn’t start off with that knowledge. But by observation, reading, watching, arguing, asking, that is the conclusion I’ve come to.”
- Lee Kuan Yew, The Man & His Ideas, 1997

“If I tell Singaporeans - we are all equal regardless of race, language, religion, culture. Then they will say, "Look, I’m doing poorly. You are responsible." But I can show that from British times, certain groups have always done poorly, in mathematics and in science. But I’m not God, I can’t change you. But I can encourage you, give you extra help to make you do, say maybe, 20% better.”
- Lee Kuan Yew, Success Stories, 2002