From Third World to First: The Singapore Story 1965-2000 Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew, March/2014

Few gave tiny Singapore much chance of survival when independence was thrust upon it in 1965. Today the former British trading post is a thriving Asian metropolis with one of the world’s highest per capita income. The story of that transformation is told here by Singapore’s charismatic, controversial founding father Lee Kuan Yew. From Third World To First continues where the best-selling first volume, The Singapore Story, left off, and brings up to date the story of Singapore’s dramatic rise.

Delving deep into his own meticulous notes and previously unpublished papers and cabinet records, Lee details the extraordinary efforts it took for an island city-state in Southeast Asia to survive, with just “a razor’s edge” to manoeuvre in, as Albert Winsemius, Singapore’s economic advisor in the 1960s, put it.

We read how a young man of 42 and his cabinet colleagues finished off the communist threat to the fledging state’s security, and began the long, hard work of building a nation: creating an army from scratch, stamping out corruption, providing mass public housing, and masterminding a national airline and airport. 

Lee writes frankly about his trenchant approach to political opponents and his often unorthodox views on human rights, democracy and inherited intelligence, aiming always “to be correct, not politically correct”. Nothing about Singapore escaped his watchful eye: whether choosing shrubs for roadsides, restoring the romance of historic Raffles Hotel of persuading young men to marry women as well-educated as themselves. Today’s safe, tidy Singapore certainly bears his stamp, but as he writes, “If this is a nanny state, I am proud to have fostered one.”

Lee’s domestic canvas in Singapore was small, but his vigour and talent assured him a larger place in world affairs, which he writes about in inimitable style. He brings history to life with his cogent analysis of strategic issues, and candid, sometimes acerbic pen-portraits of people he met, including the indomitable Margaret Thatcher, hearty Ronal Reagan and poetry-quoting Jiang Zemin. 

About the Author:

Lee Kuan Yew was born in Singapore on 16 September 1923, a third-generation descendant of immigrants from China’s Guangdong province. He read law at Cambridge University, England. In 1954, he formed the People’s Action Party. Five years later, his party won the Singapore general election and he became prime minister at 35. In November 1990 he assumed the post of senior minister. Lee Kuan Yew is now Singapore’s minister mentor.