LEE KUAN YEW

He is the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore, governing for three decades. By the time he chose to step down to enable a stable leadership renewal, he had become the world's longest-serving Prime Minister. He is one of the most influential political figures in South-East Asia. Senior Minister in 1990. On 12 November 1954, Lee, together with a group of fellow English-educated middle-class men, formed the PAP in an expedient alliance with the pro-communist trade unionists won the Tanjong Pagar seat in the 1955 elections. Co-founder and first secretary-general of the People's Action Party (PAP), he led the party to eight victories from 1959 to 1990, oversaw the separation of Singapore from Malaysia in 1965. On 12 November 1954, Lee, together with a group of fellow English-educated middle-class men whom he himself described as "beer-swilling bourgeois", formed the "socialist" PAP in an expedient alliance with the pro-communist trade unionists won the Tanjong Pagar seat in the 1955 elections He is the Chairman of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation. He operated a successful black market business selling tapioca-based glue called Stikfas during WWII. After Malayan Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman proposed the formation of a federation, which would include Malaya, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak in 1961, Mr. Lee began to campaign for a merger with Malaysia to end British colonial rule. Lee began to seek international recognition of Singapore's independence. He declared a policy of neutrality and non-alignment, following Switzerland's model. He asked Goh Keng Swee to build up the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and requested help from other countries, particularly Israel, for advice, training and facilities.Lee introduced legislation giving the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) greater power to conduct arrests, search, call up witnesses, and investigate bank accounts and income-tax returns of suspected persons and their families. He proposed to link the salaries of ministers, judges, and top civil servants to the salaries of top professionals in the private sector. Lee started a vigorous Stop at Two family planning campaign. Lee sparked the 'Great Marriage Debate' when he encouraged Singapore men to choose highly-educated women as wives Lee also introduced incentives such as tax rebates, schooling, and housing priorities for graduate mothers who had three or four children, in a reversal of the over-successful 'Stop-at-Two' family planning campaign in the 1960s and 1970sOne of Lee Kuan Yew's abiding beliefs has been in the efficacy of corporal punishment in the form of caning The PAP government under Lee extended its use to an ever-expanding range of crimes.[20] By 1993 it was mandatory for 42 offences and optional for a further 42.[21] Those routinely ordered by the courts to be caned now include drug addicts and illegal immigrants. From 602 canings in 1987, the figure rose to 3,244 in 1993[22] and to 6,404 in 2007.[23]Lee also introduced caning in the Singapore Armed Forces, and Singapore is one of few countries in the world where corporal punishment is an official penalty in military discipline. Since the early 2000s, Lee has expressed concern about the declining proficiency of Mandarin among younger Chinese Singaporeans. In one of his parliamentary speeches, he said: "Singaporeans must learn to juggle English and Mandarin". Subsequently, in December 2004, a one-year long campaign called Cool! (Hua yu Cool!) was launched, in an attempt to attract young viewers to learn and speak Mandarin. Lee announced that he has decided to leave the Cabinet for Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his team to have a fresh clean slate.[31]During the three decades in which Lee held office, Singapore grew from being a developing country to one of the most developed nations in Asia, despite its small population, limited land space and lack of natural resources In 2004 the National University of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy was named after him, one of the first cases of an institution in Singapore doing so.