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Tag: Lee Kuan Yew

  • NIM advocates for strong institutions

    The Nigerian economy is set for greater development with more focus on Strong institutions, as against the use of strong men.

    This was the submission of the Nigerian Institute of Management, NIM (Chartered) at the 2018 Distinguished Management Lecture, in Victoria Island, Lagos, on Tuesday.

    Prof Olukunle Iyanda, FNIM, the President and Chairman of Council, NIM however noted that strong institution is not built easily, as it involves a lot of time and effort to build it.

    “Strong and enduring institutions take time, commitment, sincerity, and determination to build. As such they cannot be built overnight or within the tenure or even the life time of a single strongman. For example, it took Lee Kuan Yew more than a decade in office to build lasting strong institutions that contributed tremendously to the transformation of Singapore from a third to a first world country within a generation.”

    Advocating further for institutions, Iyanda said “Strong institutions contribute more to development than strong men. Institutions are immortal while men are mortal. Strong men die while institutions often get stronger with age. Again, institutions are not animate beings, capable of having hidden agenda that contradict declared common objectives. Institutions ensure greater continuity and are less susceptible to individual manipulations and idiosyncrasies. It is not a surprise therefore that practically all developed countries are those governed by institutions and concepts, such as the rule of law rather than of men.

    Read Also: ‘No rule of law without strong institutions’

    Giving his lecture titled “The challenges of Institutional building”, the Chief Executive Officer of Centerspread Grey, Mr Moruf Kolawole Ayanwale,  noted that advertising is a tough industry, with high mortality rate, such that the business can possibly die with the owner alive, and as such it is dangerous for a business owner to outgrow his/her business.

    “No matter how successful you are, you must not outgrow your business.  You must avoid the “I have arrived” syndrome, to remain in business. One interesting thing about success unlike failure in business is that you run the danger of being indolent and complacent, believing that the same template will deliver you success year after year. We made sure that at no point did we live beyond our means. We did not become “big men” and “socialites” overnight, the survival and continuity of the business was always paramount, so we invested more in the business.

    Explaining his success story at Centrespread Grey, the Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Management revealed “From the onset, we knew we needed input and direction from experienced minds in business and corporate management. We constituted a board under the chairmanship of Dr. Olawale Cole, and other eminent professionals across different fields of corporate endeavors.

    Ayanwale advised new generation business owners to always keep their eyes on the ball, stay true to their visions, remain resilient and build for the future, and they should not forget to evolve with the times always, while staying professional in business.

  • Lee Kuan Yew: Lessons for African leaders

    SIR: “ What will your contribution be? How will history remember you?’’ were the questions posed by  Kevin Kline – who played professor William Hundert in the 2003  American drama film dubbed “ The Emperor’s club” – to his  students in classic 101. Before these rhetorical cum thought-provoking questions, he rode them off on the rollercoaster of Shutruk Nahunte’s historical riffraff adventurism. Concluding, he averred uncompromisingly that ‘’great conquest without contribution is meaningless. ‘’

    Alas! Lee Kuan Yew is no more – he died on March 23 at 91. He was not just a statesman extraordinaire but also a myth to the Western World. Blending autocracy with patriotism, Yew shattered the Western convention – modernization theory exemplified by W.W. Rostow  – by leapfrogging Singapore from a backward colonial entrepot  into a glittering high tech economy.

    ‘’ Going it alone’’ and building virtually everything from scratch, Lee Kuan Yew did buttress his logic that the Western model of liberal democracy lacks applicability in Asian countries hence he evolved what is  called in some quarters ‘’authoritarian democracy.’’

    ‘’Lee Kuan Yew’’ Kissinger wrote ‘’would not be true to himself were he less frank about his analysis of difference between the individualism of the West and the priority for social cohesion in countries  such  as his and in much of the rest of Asia. He does not ask us to change  our patterns, only to refrain from imposing them on societies with different histories and necessities.’’

    With these principles and quest for personal example ,Yew engineered the world’s first miracle of development. toaday, Singapore – according to World   Bank report – boast one of the highest GDP percapitals in the world

    Yes these were his contributions and history will forever remember him for that.

    Now, who among African leaders can be compared to Lee Kuan Yew? How will history remember the contemporary African leaders? The problem with African politics and government is not just lack of strong institution as Obama observed but lack of patriotic leaders. Parasitic leadership is Africa ‘s greatest bane to development – it is on this hub that other problem revolves.

    It is this problem that separates some contemporary highhanded African leaders from Mr. Yew. What can Zimbabweans pride of Mugabe’s 34 year rule? What can Cameroonians pride of Biya’s 32 year rule? What can Ugandans pride of Museveni’s 32 year rule? Will I ask of Teodoro Obiang of Equitorial Guinea , Deby of Chad, Al Bashir of Sudan, Jammeh of Gambia, Afwerki of Eritrea? Or will I talk about Hasting Banda and Omar Bongo of (un)blessed memories?

    Nothing! Absolutely nothing! All they can show for remain : abject poverty, self aggrandizement cum morbid exposition of primitive acquisition tendencies, poverty of leadership and nepotism. And this is why Africa is underdeveloping.

    Coming home to Nigeria, what we see is complete failure of leadership – where lootocracy reign!

    When dissenting voices talked about Yew ‘s authoritarian history, they forget that liberal  democracy lacks universal application. The essence of government is its purpose and this essence Abraham Lincoln told us is ‘to do for the people what they can’t do for themselves – and this is  what  Yew did for Singaporeans.

    What Africans are asking from their leaders is simple: give us water, electricity, shelter, good healthcare, societal order and security and good roads!

    • Asikason  Jonathan,

     Lapai, Niger State.

     

  • Lessons from Lee

    Lessons from Lee

    Lee Kuan Yew has a lot to teach us in his biography for lifting a humble outpost onto the league of the world’s elite

    The name of Lee Kuan Yew, the charismatic phenom of statecraft and governance, has been a reference point among politicians and political commentators in Nigeria in the past decade. Many see him as a model, and one to be envied and aped.

    When that man died March 23 at the age of 91, he closed the chapter of a generation of leaders who have left their world better than they met it. He belongs in the class of men like Tito and Mandela who would not stand idle while decay and tyranny shadowed the earth. They played a role, and for that history and the destiny of humans would be forever indebted.

    When Lee Kuan Yew was born on September 16, 1923, Singapore was a colonial outpost in thrall of Britain. He became a pilot of the small outpost’s trajectory through the rough and tumble of colonial weaning. He formed a political party, The People’s Action Party (PAP), and staked his genius and his brand of patriotism and politics until his party rose to ascendancy and helped pry it from the grip of colonial Britain.

    He led the country from 1959 to 1990, and in those years Singapore soared from what is known as the Third World to first world, an idea he relished as evidence in his book, From Third World to First World. His is one of a biography of a stallion in statecraft. Singapore was a poor country with no resources. Compare that with Nigeria with the abundance of resources like oil, palm produce and groundnut, and we can understand the power of one man to loft a humble people to the company of the world’s elite nations.

    As he himself had confessed, Singapore did not fall into the stereotype of a strong and vibrant nation. It did not have one language, one culture, a homogeneous population, a common sense of destiny. It overthrew all the assumptions and stood tall. That evokes a strong challenge to Nigeria, with a variegated population with conflicting languages and ethnicities and even religious variance. If Singapore was able to rise above all its insularities, why not Nigeria?

    In Nigeria’s election season, we have seen that tribes and faith have become a central part of electoral permutations and loyalties with the bigger canopy of Nigeria retreating to the shadows of contempt.  As this editorial is written, Nigeria is in the thick of an election with the furies of tribe and faith at play.

    Before Singapore became completely free of Britain in 1965, Lee kuan Yew sought a sort of alliance with Malaysia and that lasted between 1963 and 1965, when it failed, and he had to contend with the distrust and uproar of ethnic tension between the dominant ethnic Chinese and the Malay and Indian minorities. Lee recalls that period as a “moment of anguish,” since the minorities threatened a fragile nation. It was about the same time that Nigeria receded into ethnic imbroglio that crippled the country in a 30-month bloodbath of a civil war.

    But with Lee’s sublime cunning and tough hand and large heart, the ethnic differences did not pop up again on his watch. In 1965, the country became independent. The country grew in the years of Lee’s reign with a system that has become a case study among political scientists and political economists since the 1980’s. He introduced the Westminster model of government in the fashion of Great Britain, and he served as prime minister. In spite of the apparent liberalism of the system, he shunned a multi-party system, so his PAP was the solo party in Singapore. He was not a democrat, and he saw his decision as a pragmatic step. He thought that his style conformed to his impatience for development, and the Cambridge University graduate with double star first class in law, derided the west for its contempt for his authoritarian style.

    His economic model, however, was liberal and he embraced the five Cs of capitalism – cash, condos, credit cards, cars and country clubs. That vaulted the country into what he described as an “oasis of a first world in a third world.” He ran a corruption-free government with transparency and the rule of law. His country topped the World Bank’s ‘ease of doing business” rankings. He took advantage of the country’s natural harbour into a strategic advantage on the Malacca Strait, and was nexus of 40 percent of the world’s maritime trade.

    But it must be noted that not all of Lee’s style will fit today’s globalised world of twitter, internet, instagram and yen for equality and liberalism. A writer called it “Disneyland with death penalty.” Even after he stepped down, his PAP faced revolt and he lost his position as mentor.

    What we must learn from him is the sense of focus in governance and disdain for corruption. The country only had a harbour and it took advantage of it to create a prosperous nation. We must make our own heroes while learning from the virtues of the world’s great. Lee was one of them.

  • Jonathan: Lee Kuan Yew’s example will inspire the world

    Jonathan: Lee Kuan Yew’s example will inspire the world

    President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday commiserated with the government of Singapore on the passing away of the founding father and former Prime Minister of the country, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew.

    Jonathan, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, assured Prime Minister Lee Hsein Loong and the people of Singapore that Nigeria stands in full solidarity with them as they mourn his legendary father who transformed Singapore from a small port city into a highly developed and prosperous centre of global enterprise.

    It reads: “The President and people of Nigeria, for whom the globally acclaimed achievements of Singapore under the leadership of Lee Kuan Yew have been a great source of inspiration over the years, join his compatriots and many admirers across the developing world in paying very well deserved tribute to the late Prime Minister who moved his country “from the third world to the first world” with immense wisdom, courage, resilience and perseverance.

    “In doing so, the late Lee Kuan Yew set a magnificent and enduring example for present and future world leaders to follow and President Jonathan believes that the iconic leader’s accomplishments in the service of his nation will continue to inspire positive development across the world for many years to come,” It added

    The President also urged the people of Singapore to take solace in the knowledge that Lee Kuan Yew will be remembered and honoured forever as a celebrated global citizen whose leadership style, writings, speeches and glorious example will eternally motivate leaders in government and private enterprise.

    He prayed that God Almighty will grant Lee Kuan Yew’s soul eternal rest and comfort his family, people of Singapore and admirers in other countries of the world.

  • Singapore’s ex-PM dies at 91

    Singapore’s ex-PM dies at 91

    Singapore’s first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, 91, is dead.

    A statement by the country’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong confirmed that Lee died at about 03:18 local time on Monday equivalent to 19:18 GMT on Sunday.

    “Mr Lee passed away peacefully at the Singapore general hospital today at 3.18 am,” the statement said.

    Late Lee credited to have built his country into one the richest world nation has been on life support machine after his admission to the hospital on February 5 for severe pneumonia.