14 | theceomagazine.com
POLITICAL BEGINNINGS
Lee was working as a lawyer when talk of
independence and reform began sweeping
across Singapore. In 1954, he co-founded the
People’s Action Party (PAP), spending subsequent
years travelling back and forth to London to
help negotiate Singapore’s new constitution as
a self-governing state.
In 1959, Singapore’s first-ever national elections
were held. Campaigning on an anti-colonialist,
anti-Communist platform, Lee promised to
dramatically reform Singapore and re-establish
its identity as an Asian state. The PAP swept to
victory, and in June that year Lee was sworn in as
the country’s first prime minister.
FAILED FEDERATION
Faced with leading a defenceless fledgling nation
with few natural resources, Lee was adamant that
the key to Singapore’s survival lay in federation with
neighbouring Malaya. The territories merged to
create Malaysia in 1963, but the alliance was
short-lived. Violent race riots over Malaysia’s
prioritisation of Muslim Malays would see relations
between the two states deteriorate, resulting in
Malaysia voting to expel Singapore from the
federation in 1965.
During a press conference following the split,
Lee appeared heartbroken, referring to the
federation’s failure as a “moment of anguish”. The
blow would teach him the importance of a unified
society. Quickly composing himself and displaying
the trademark stoic, get-on-with-it attitude, which
would define his leadership, he continued by saying:
“Be firm, be calm... Everybody will have his place:
equal; language, culture, religion.”
NATION BUILDING
Lee quickly set about building up Singapore,
capitalising on its primary strengths; its position as
a trading post and its people. Attracting foreign
investment and creating jobs were at the top of his
agenda. His cabinet wooed multinational companies
by developing First World infrastructure, cracking
down on corruption and working to establish
Singapore as a global financial hub.
“At a time when a lot of countries were flirting
with more nationalistic policies, he was very clear
about an export-led industrial model of growth for
Singapore,” writer and researcher Sudhir Vadaketh
tells The CEO Magazine. “He kept Singapore very
open to foreign ideas, foreign capital and foreign
companies, while at the same time maintaining
strong connections across Asia.”
Lee’s government also started several new
industries, most famously the state’s official carrier
Singapore Airlines. “Lee was not a free market
ideologue but he understood the political
preconditions for market development,” says Garry
Rodan, director of the Asia Research Centre at
Murdoch University. “Here the capacities of the state
loomed large, including the efficiency and integrity
of the bureaucracy in dealings with business.”FOSTERING UNITY
While focused on Singapore’s economic
development, Lee never forgot the lesson learned
from the split with Malaysia. Singapore was a
complex, multiracial nation, and the price of discord
was one his government could not afford to pay.
He introduced the controversial CMIO model
(Chinese–Malay–Indian–Others), which emphasised
ethnic identity and allotted racial quotas when it
came to housing, schools and workplaces. Lee’s goal
was to force integration and counter communalism.
Former Singaporean parliamentarian Calvin Cheng
says the policy was one of Lee’s greatest
achievements. “He built a country where various
races and religions could live together in peace and
harmony,” Cheng tells The CEO Magazine.
Establishing English as the lingua franca and
introducing mandatory military service also
supported national cohesion. To date, all
able-bodied males are conscripted for two years
of military service when they turn 18. “It’s become