On 9 August 1965, Singapore was kicked out of the Federation of Malaysia and forced to declare independence. The situation in newly independent Singapore is like this, with a total population of 2 million, 75% of which are Chinese, and the surrounding countries are not friendly to the Chinese, or have hateful behavior. To make matters worse, Singapore's per capita GDP was only US$450, and even freshwater was imported.
Lee Kuan Yew also mentioned his troubles in his memoirs, "Some countries were originally independent, some countries won independence, and Singapore's independence was imposed on it." I never imagined that at the age of 42, with the responsibility of independently managing Singapore and taking care of the livelihoods of 2 million people, we were ordered to leave Malaysia and go our own way, with a bright future, but we did not know where to go. ”
After the end of World War II, Singapore, as an entrepot trade center, had a single economic structure and no so-called industrial base at all. This situation was exacerbated by the withdrawal of the British troops. But life still has to go on, not to mention Lee Kuan Yew's ambitions. However, we find that the first decision made by the Lee Kuan Yew government was to make English the Chinese and abolish the Chinese language.
Many people still have difficulty understanding that more than 70% of Singapore is Chinese, isn't it better to govern in Chinese? Lee Kuan Yew didn't think so at all, and for a long time Lee Kuan Yew didn't give an explanation for abolishing the Chinese language until 2013. In this year, Lee Kuan Yew wrote "Lee Kuan Yew's View of the World", in which Lee Kuan Yew finally gave an explanation for this.
It turned out that after Singapore's independence, the representatives of the local Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry lobbied Lee Kuan Yew in a group, hoping to make Chinese the Chinese singapore. Lee Kuan Yew spoke toughly with the delegates, "You have to knock me down, otherwise Chinese will never be the Chinese singapore." "Making English the official language is one of the hallmarks of Lee Kuan Yew's embrace of the West.
Lee Kuan Yew said: "Fortunately, in the past it was the British who ruled Singapore, and what it left behind was English. If Singapore were to be ruled by France, as in Vietnam, we would have to forget French and learn English in order to connect with the world, which would have been a very painful and difficult transition. We chose to use English as our first language so that we could be more competitive on the international stage. ”
Lee Kuan Yew was well aware that Singapore was small and had no natural resources, and attracting foreign investment was the most important thing. Lee Kuan Yew became a "super salesman" who went to the United States to lobby big companies to enter the industrial park. At the same time, Lee Kuan Yew attaches great importance to recruiting young talents who have returned from studying abroad. In order to learn from foreign advanced knowledge and experience, Lee Kuan Yew set up a high scholarship and selected outstanding young people to study in developed countries every year.
Lee Kuan Yew's efforts paid off, and Singapore's development gradually embarked on the fast track of take-off, creating the "Singapore model" for this purpose. When Lee Kuan Yew stepped down in 1990, Singapore's per capita GDP was US$14,504, more than 30 times that of independence in 1965, making it a veritable developed country.
Reference: Lee Kuan Yew's View of the World