Kshs. 4,300/-
( 0 customer reviews ) | From Third World to First : The Singapore Story 1965-2000 | | By: Lee, Kuan Yew; Yew, Lee Kuan | | Published By HARPERCOLL | | Format: Hardcover | | Pages: xix, 729 p. : | Description
In this memoir, the man most responsible for Singapores astonishing transformation from colonial backwater to economic powerhouse describes how he did it over the last four decades. Its a dramatic story, and Lee Kuan Yew has much to brag about. To take a single example: Singapore had a per-capita GDP of just $400 when he became prime minister in 1959. When he left office in 1990, it was $12,200 and rising. (At the time of this books writing, it was $22,000.) Much of this was accomplished through a unique mix of economic freedom and social control. Lee encouraged entrepreneurship, but also cracked down on liberties that most people in the West take for granted--chewing gum, for instance. Its banned in Singapore because of "the problems caused by spent chewing gum inserted into keyholes and mailboxes and on elevator buttons." If American politicians were to propose such a thing, theyd undoubtedly be run out of office. Lee, however, defends this and similar moves, such as strong antismoking laws and antispitting campaigns: "We would have been a grosser, ruder, cruder society had we not made these efforts to persuade people to change their ways.... It has made Singapore a more pleasant place to live in. If this is a
anny state, I am proud to have fostered one." | |
|
Categories
