Lee Kuan Yew: Race Realist of Singapore

Lee Kuan Yew: Race Realist of Singapore

Author: Tim Heydon At the Green Arrow & Freinds

No 4 in the series ‘Liberal Optimism and the Reality of  Multicultural, Multiracial ‘Societies’ World- Wide.
‘Three women were brought into the Singapore General Hospital, each in the same condition and each needing a blood transfusion. The first, a southeast asian was given the transfusion but died a hours later. The second, a south asian was also given a transfusion but died a few days later. The third, an east asian, was given a transfusion and survived. That is the X factor in development.’ - Lee Kuan Yew, ‘Minister Mentor’ of Singapore.
 ‘Singapore is the meeting place of many races. The Malays, though natives of the soil, dwell uneasily in towns, and are few; and it is the Chinese, supple alert and industrious, who throng the streets; the dark-skinned Tamils walk on their silent, naked feet, as though they were brief sojourners in a strange land, but the Bengalis, sleek and prosperous, are easy in their surroundings, and self-assured; the sly and obsequious Japanese seem busy with pressing and secret affairs; and the English in their topees and white ducks, speeding past in motor –cars or at leisure in their rickshaws, wear a nonchalant and careless air. The rulers of these teeming peoples take their authority with a smiling unconcern.’
 - Somerset Maugham (‘P & O’ - 1926)
 The Success of Singapore

It might seem strange that Singapore should feature as No 4 in this series. It is after all law abiding, seemingly politically stable and economically an astounding success.  In the space of a single generation since its independence from Britain it has on the basis of its now legendary efficiency and social control achieved an annual economic growth rate of some 9%. It now has the highest gross per capita income of any Asian country outside Japan and a standard of living higher than many European countries.
‘Authoritarianism’ is Necessary for the Survival of Multicultural, Multiracial ‘Societies’

But it is a theme of the series that multicultural, multiracial states, politically correct Britain not excluded, almost invariably survive as functioning entities, or come about in the first place only by means of the exercise of overriding power. This includes domination of a country as a policy by a political class &/or ethnic &/or religious group, either enforced as an minority as in an Empire, limited and managed politically correct ‘Democracy’ like Britain or other form of Dictatorship of some description, or by a robustly  confident and decisive majoritarian Democracy.
 Singapore has been ruled by both Empire and by a majority ethnic group which allows minorities to coexist with itself provided they abide by the norms of the dominant group.  It is only because of the authoritarian exercise of power by its rulers both as Empire and as (formally) a Democracy, and (let us be frank) the particular racial and cultural characteristics of its rulers and majority population that it has enjoyed peace, dynamism and prosperity.
 The Force for Disintegration of Ethnicity
 Without the exercise of power which overrides the wishes of the majority and /or minority ethnic groups, all other things being equal such ‘societies’ tend to fragment along ethnic lines since it is natural and normal to wish to live among those with whom one identifies racially culturally and religiously in a group which can run its own affairs to suit itself. These natural affinities and desires will continue to be present even though other factors such as economic considerations weigh more powerfully, at least temporarily.
Authoritarian Rule by the British
The fortunes of Singapore, an island at the tip of the Malay Peninsula, has been shaped and continues to be shaped by its ruling race. The city was founded in the early 1800’s in what was pretty much a swamp by the British, a people who were confident in their superiority of their own characteristics including their religion and its civilisation and moral norms, and rightly so in the opinion of the writer. They directed its early growth, turning it into the bustling, successful port and entrepot described by Somerset Maugham. They were succeeded in control by another race at least as confident in the superiority of their characteristics and of the qualities of their ancient civilisation.
Authoritarian Rule by the Chinese
The majority Chinese of Singapore took control on independence from the British. They thought, though, that economic survival on its own would be difficult for the island, so they merged it with the Federation of Malaya to form Malaysia. But because of racial tensions, it was expelled from Malaysia in 1965. The Chinese of Singapore objected to being discriminated against by the Malaysian policies of affirmative action, including financial and economic benefits reserved for the Malays. The Malays, who are moslem, feared the racial, religious and economic dominance of  mostly Chinese, mostly non-moslem Singapore, thinking that it would shift power away from themeselves. There were many race riots in this period  in Singapore including one on the Prophet Mohammed’s birthday in 1964 which killed 23 people and injured hundreds more.
Independent Singapore’s Drive to become an Economic Powerhouse
Facing mass unemployment Singapore began energetically to modernise and to build up its manufacturing industry. It tackled its housing problems by developing large public housing estates and invested heavily in public education. Over the years it developed into the modern economic powerhouse we see today, and with none of the huge debts which now saddle the West, continues to expand economically. Its education and health systems rival anything in the West.
Singapore’s Leader: Lee Kuan Yew
The success of Singapore may be ascribed not just to the particular qualities of the ethnic Chinese, but to the views on these qualities by the Cambridge – educated  Lee Kuan Yew, who has been at the top of Singapore politics since the country’s inception. He was its Prime Minister for 26 years and senior minister for another 15. His current title, which he assumed when his son became Prime Minister in 2004,  is ‘Minister Mentor.’ There are few in Singapore who do not believe that the 86- year old, still as sharp as a tack, is not the power behind the throne. The self-perpetuating ruling party which he has dominated for so long micromanages the behaviour of the citizens right down to forcing them to save a proportion of their income and imposes the  death penalty for drug trafficking.
Lee Kuan Yew's Ethnic Preference
So how have Lee Kuan Yew’s racial views been made manifest? He strongly associates Race  with genes, culture and economic success. The government under his control has shaped Singapore accordingly. For example, he has refused to spend large sums on ‘affirmative action’ to raise up Malays and other ethnic group, thinking that these are largely a waste of money when the problem of their underperformance is fundametally genetic. (Such programmes in the USA with respect to negro underperformance have proved useless in their aim:  a huge waste of taxpayers’ money).
Maintaining Singapore's Racial Balance 
He has been instrumental in encouraging the immigration of Chinese from Hong Kong. He defended this policy on the grounds that the birth rate of Singapore’s Chinese is lower than that of its Indians and Malays. ‘The numerical superiority of the Chinese must be maintained’, he said,, ‘or there will be a shift in the economy, both the economic performance and the political backdrop which makes that performance possible.’ Lee assured the Malays that they need not fear Hong Kong immigrants  taking their jobs because the immigrants will all be high income earners.
 Lee Kuan Yew's Racial Hierarchy
These remarks and Lee’s  parable, noted at the head of this article, reflects his view that there is a racial hierarchy among Asians in which the Chinese and other East Asians (such as the Koreans and Japanese) are at the top, Malays and other South East Asians are at the bottom and Indians and other South Asians are in the middle.  It is a view largely shared by a Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad (a medical doctor and also incidentally an outspoken critic of Western style Globalisation) whose ‘The Malay Dilemma’ Lee read in 1971 or 1972. Lee said that he agreed with 75% of Mahathir’s analysis. According to Mahathir, the problem of Malay underperformance was both genetic and cultural.
 Lee  Kuan Yew and 'The Bell Curve'
Lee told his authorised biographers concerning Herrnstein and Murray’s ‘Bell Curve’ that ‘The Bell Curve is a fact of life. The blacks on average score 85% per cent on IQ and it is accurate, nothing to do with culture. The whites score an average 100. Asians score more…the ‘Bell Curve’ authors put it at least 10 points higher. These are realities that, if you do not accept, will lead to frustration because you will be spending money on wrong assumptions and the results cannot follow.’ (He is referring here to the kind of waste on affirmative actions indulged in by politically correct governments in the USA, Britain and elsewhere. His views totally contradict  the assumptions behind much of Britain’s equality legislation).
'Equality is the Most Unlikely Thing'
Lee says that ‘I started off believing all men were equal. I know now that that’s the most unlikely thing that’s ever been, because millions of years have passed over evolution, people have scattered across the face of this earth, been isolated from each other, devloped indpendently, had different intermixtures between races, peoples, climates, soils…. I didn’t start  off with that knowledge. But by observation, reading, watching, arguing, asking, that is the conclusion I’ve come to.’
Lee Kuan Yew and Toynbee
Lees racial views have been strongly influenced by the historian Arnold Toynbee (ironically a relation of Polly Toynbee of the ‘Guardian’) having come across his ideas whilst at Cambridge. In ‘A Study of History’, Toynbee argued that ‘civilisations come to birth in environments which are unusually difficult and not unusually easy. The Sinic (Chinese) Civilisation, wroteToynbee, was nurtured in north China, where the climate was severe and swamps and regular floods made agriculture  difficult, and it became a’hard’ society. Conversely, societies that were nurtured in easy environments without challenges from people or nature are inherently weak.  Such peoples are left far behind by those in ‘hard ‘ societies. With  a harsh climate go many challenges  which develop a plethora of cultural and racial  characteristics in people. This is the thinking behind Lee’s parable of the three women in hospital. In it we can trace one of the threads of thought brought into J Philippe Rushton's racial theory synthesis.
Lee Kuan Yew is forgiven his ‘Racism’ because he is not White
According to the mad, prejudiced drivel that passes for leftist thought, Racism is ‘prejudice plus power.’ This marxoid  definition  is purpose-designed to criminalise the white race and only the white race, which it assumes in typical leftist anti-white, Euro-Centric fashion has a monopoly of power.  It conveniently excludes those members of ethnic minorities in white societies who, everyday observation shows, themselves exhibit the kind of straightforward racial or ethnic preferences which are normal in humanity.
The True Intent of Western Leftist Anti-Racism 

                                                                   Shaking Hands with 'a Piece of Filth'
And it ignores those ‘societies’ such as Singapore where non-white races are in the majority. Strictly speaking, according to the Marxoid definition of ‘Racism,’ in his position of power Lee Kuan Yew would  be guilty of this ‘crime’ if one is so foolish as to accept the leftist notion that race realism is strictly prejudice.  If he were a British politician, he might very well  find himself described as a 'Fascist,' 'Racist,' or even a 'Nazi' and be called a 'piece of filth' by David Cameron.  However, and this shows clearly the true intent of the leftist stigmatisation of ‘racism,’ as an oriental, he is mostly absolved from or forgiven this ‘offence’ in the eyes of western liberals, since he is innocent of the true crime, which is of being white. Therefore, while he has indeed been criticised by western liberals for his views on racial matters and the policies he put into place as a result of these, such criticisms have been sporadic and muted.
 Nota Bene.