Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas

by Han Fook Kwang

  My theme to you today is simply this: You and I have a vested interest in the survival of the democratic state. We the elected ministers have to work through you and with you to translate our plan and policies into reality. You should give of your best in the service of our people. Whatever your views on socialism, capitalism, liberalism, communism, whether they be progressive or conservative, your task and mine for the next five years are exactly the same: that is, to demonstrate that the democratic system can produce results. It is in our interest to show that under the system of “one-man-one-vote” there can be an honest and efficient government which works through an efficient administration in the interests of the people.

  If we do not do our best, then we have only ourselves to blame when the people lose faith, not just in you, the public service, and in us, the democratic political leadership, but also in the democratic system of which you and I are working parts. And when they lose faith, then they will look for alternative forms of government. And let us never forget that the communists are only too ready to offer the people more drastic alternatives in social revolution than the democratic system of government. It is our duty to see that the people are never confronted with such an alternative of despair.

  I am confident that if only we can convey to you the tremendous challenge to the existing system that is posed by the expansion of the communist bloc and the communist revolution in China, and in particular the MCP [Malayan Communist Party] in Malaya, you will respond to the urgency of the task. The mass of the people are not concerned with legal and constitutional forms and niceties. They are not interested in the theory of the separation of powers and the purpose and function of a politically neutral public service under such a constitution. As far as they are concerned, in May 1959 they had a form of government under which if they exercised their vote, they would be able to elect their own government. And so they did elect their own government in order that there might be a better world for them and their children. If the future is not better, either because of the stupidities of elected ministers or the inadequacies of the civil servants, then at the end of the five-year term the people are hardly likely to believe either in the political party that they have elected or the political system that they have inherited.

  Let us never forget that the communists are only too ready to offer the people more drastic alternatives in social revolution than the democratic system of government.

  The social revolution did not begin nor does it end with Malayanisation of the public service. For civil servants this was the most significant aspect of the social revolution that took place in Malaya: the expulsion of the expatriate European from positions of executive control in the civil service and your subsequent elevation to such positions. Some of you, like Dr Goh and Mr Byrne, played your part in the fight to remove an unjust system, but all benefited from the work and sacrifice of those who did, and the fight for fairness and equality to the English-educated elite in the civil service is over. But, as far as the mass of the people are concerned, their fight for fairness and equality is just beginning. Having got rid of colonial domination, and elected their own leaders to direct their own civil service, they want to see the beginning of their social revolution – more and better jobs, better houses for their families, schools for their children and the prospect of an even better future in a more just and equal society.

  If the Civil Service Study Centre achieves nothing else but the awakening of your minds to problems which you may have overlooked before, if it opens your minds to political riders which you had formerly regarded from purely administrative eyes as tiresome problems, then it would have succeeded.

  We know that the majority of civil servants are loyal and honest to the service – that you are prepared to do your share of work for what the state has promised you in return. But more than that, I am confident that if you could only see through the placid surface of constitutional change in Singapore to the revolutionary forces that are contending for supremacy beneath the constitutional façade, competing for the power to transform society after their own political philosophies and ideologies, then you will become as anxious as we are to bring about a more equal and just society within the framework of the democratic system and as quickly as possible. For there is no other way to preserve what we consider good in the past other than by exorcising all that was bad in it. To do that in a situation where the mass of the people demand rapid and immediate results means tremendous burdens have to be carried, both by the political leadership and the administrative machinery. The purpose of this Study Centre is not only to stimulate your mind but also to inform you of the acute problems which confront any popularly elected government in a revolutionary situation. Most of these are problems that face the whole region. Once the problems have been posed to you, you will be the better able to help us work out the solutions to them, by making the administration more sensitive and responsive to the needs and moods of the people.

  In formally declaring this Centre open, I ask you – having defined and analysed the problems that confront us – to join us in this task to work more effectively together in establishing a secure and healthy base for democratic institutions through which we hope to establish a liberal, just and happy society.

  Lee set very high standards for his administration and did not pull his punches whenever he encountered sloppiness and incompetence. In this speech to senior civil servants at Victoria Theatre on September 20, 1965, he related how he found some wanting.

  Make sure every button works

  Every morning the driver has instructions to take that telephone and to test-dial it. I want to make sure that when I want it and I pick it up, it is working. And that is what I want this government to do.

  I caught a whole Works Brigade group. There was a slight drizzle and they all went into a house and disappeared. One hour after the drizzle, I looked around; I couldn’t find them. I summoned them. Commander came out. Commander called the chaps out. They were all angry with the commander, not knowing what it was all about. Why were they disturbed in this way? Probably they were having a quiet game of cards. Finally, they took a count after a very leisurely line-up; six more missing. So chaps went around looking for them. The next day, the Director of the Works Brigade and that camp commandant turned up. And I put one big douche of cold water. So they woke up …

  You know, I will not tolerate this. I went to a government bungalow the other day and I pressed the button and nothing happened. And I went to the kitchen and I told my son, “Press the button now” and he pressed and nothing happened. And I wondered how it was. Succeeding families had been living there – prominent government ministers and officers – without that being put right. I just don’t understand. And the following day, all buttons worked.

  Now, if I may explain that to you in a graphic way. When you have a button, there must be a purpose. When you click it, the light goes off. So that is what it is for. When you want the light on, you make sure you click it and it is on.

  I have now, perforce – because I am travelling from place to place, looking after more than just my own ministry – to have a telephone in my car, which is something I dislike intensely. In my office, there is only one telephone, and I don’t like three telephones to be buzzing around. And I don’t allow them to buzz because it drives you crackers to have four, five telephones buzzing. And my telephones only show one light and a dull thud, and at any one time, I talk to only one person, and I flick on and off at will, which chap is priority, which chap waits. But you know, every morning the driver has instructions to take that telephone and to test-dial it. I want to make sure that when I want it and I pick it up, it is working. And that is what I want this government to do.

  I have been to other places. I have visited about 50 different countries and been a guest of about 50 different governments. And you form impressions of these places. Some of them you leave with an abiding impression that this place is going to hum and spin like a top. I have been to such places, and I
say “Well, this works!” Now, I can’t tell you the places where it hasn’t worked because I want to be friends with all countries. But I’ll tell you about what happened in Jakarta since, anyway, they are not my friends at the moment. But I wish them well and I hope one day, all will be well.

  I was put in a VIP bungalow which had just been put right for another prime minister who had just visited the place. And that night, it rained. And you know, I heard tong, tong, tong. The servants, of which there was an abundance, knew exactly where the pails should be put. And there were five pails. And I felt very sad, because it occurred to me that perhaps there were no more people who found it worthwhile – with the rupiah soaring like that – to learn how to climb roofs and put tiles in place. It is not worth the while. The best thing is to buy this and sell that and do this and cut that and do something else; probably to steal the wire off the telephone and sell it.

  And I wanted to close the door and I did not know it was hinged … You know these old Dutch doors; they have a hinge so that they stay in place even if the wind blows. And the hinge came off and with it plaster from the wall. So I was gravely embarrassed and I said, “I am very sorry.” The man said, “No, no, no trouble at all. We will put it right.” So we went out that morning and I came back that evening. And I went to look at it, to see whether it was all right. From a distance I thought “Oh, it seems all right.” But there was no knob for the hinge any more. It was just wall. I went closer … They had put a piece of white paper, pasted it and whitewashed the white paper. No, no. Those who accompanied me on that mission will remember that that was true. And we sat down and we said, “My God, this is trouble.”

  We sat down and we said, “My God, this is trouble.”

  Now, this place will never be like that if for no other reason than because the people have got a habit of working. But I tell you: “I don’t want just that. I want to make sure that every button works. And even if you are using it only once in a while, please make sure every morning that it works. And if it doesn’t when I happen to be around, then somebody is going to be in for a rough time because I do not want sloppiness.

  I do not ask of you more than I am prepared to give myself. And I say, it does you no harm whatsoever just to make sure that the thing works. And don’t be too kind. If you want to be kind to your people, to our people, then you have got to be firm; and at times, stern to those who have a duty to perform, to see that the duty is performed.

  I have not the slightest doubt that this Civil Service, having gone through what it has in the last seven years, will be more than equal to the task. And what is more, every year, we are going to take the best in.

  I am tired of having first class honours graduates coming out, doing a bit of dabbling in the Attorney-General’s chambers … They get a bit of money, then they learn a bit of the law and learn how to practise and after three years, they go out into private practice, leaving the second class honours man … The second class honours man goes to court to prosecute a case and the man defending is a first class honours man. Now if the law of evidence is loaded against the prosecution plus brains of the defendant being loaded against the prosecution, then thieves, rogues and vagabonds get away. That is not my idea of good government.

  I don’t want second-raters and the third-raters in and first-class men out-fighting us, because that is a stupid way of running the country.

  You know, the British ran this place with their men. But then they ran a different system. They recruited from Britain and they offered rich rewards when they retired. A fellow retires at the early age of 50 – and some of them live till 85 and we are still paying them pensions, big pensions.

  We meet a different situation now. I am working out with my colleagues – the Minister for Finance and the other officers – a scheme which will keep good men in the service. I don’t want second-raters and the third-raters in and first-class men out-fighting us, because that is a stupid way of running the country. I want first-class men prosecuting. I don’t mind a first-class man defending because if you have got a first-class man prosecuting and a good officer who has prepared his IPs, Investigation Papers, you will get a conviction. Particularly if you also have a good magistrate on the bench …

  I have watched all this, and this will not do. I watched specialists leave the hospital until finally my wife had to go to Mount Alvernia Hospital to get a former government surgeon to do an operation. It is stupid. I want them inside – better than those outside. That way, this place will hum. And I want those who believe that joining the government service means automatically you are going up the ladder, to forget it. Not with this government.

  Those who have got the vitality and the grit and the drive and can climb up that rope, well, he goes up. Those who are sluggish and worse, those who have got ability but think that they have done their life’s work by just passing an examination and getting a good degree and now they have got in through the PSC and they are sitting back and not blotting their copy book and so by affluxion of time they will become head of the ministry – I say, forget it.

  This speech is included here to show the extent to which Lee went to improve the civil service – in this case, its standard of writing. He had gathered the top brass of the administration to lecture them on the finer points of writing plain, simple English and to impress on them the importance of doing so. The speech was made at the Regional Language Centre on February 27, 1979.

  Clean, clear prose

  Ladies and gentlemen,

  You may wonder why I have taken the trouble of getting you all together this afternoon. I have asked ministers, ministers of state, permanent secretaries, deputy secretaries and everybody who has to do with the drafting of minutes, memoranda, Cabinet papers and other documents that go up to ministers, to be present. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. The problem is much graver lower down.

  This is only the tip of the iceberg. The problem is much graver lower down.

  First, the genesis of our problem. From about 1955, language became a sensitive, emotional, political issue. You remember the Chinese middle school student riots and strikes of 1954–55. We have allowed the education system to develop in accordance with the choice of parents. We offered them four streams. I was on the Commission of members of the Legislative Assembly. We recommended this. It was a politically wise recommendation.

  When the PAP took office in 1959, we decided to select students for university scholarships and for jobs on the basis of their ability. We tried to eliminate the advantage of language skills because of better home environment and to diminish the disadvantages of a poor command of the English language for those from the Chinese stream or the Malay stream. We therefore awarded higher weightage to subject performance and ignored linguistic skills – how did you do in your mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology? How much intelligence does a boy or girl have? It was the right decision. As a result, we did not have bright students stuck in lowly jobs, and gradually the move into the English language grew into a swell.

  Now we have removed language and education as political issues. Now we can openly discuss language as an important instrument of communication. We have decided that English shall be our working language. The price we have paid for identifying talent in the way we did, was a lowering in the standards of both spoken and written English. It will take 10 to 20 years to make up for the omissions of the last 20 years.

  I could have put into a five-page note what I am going to tell you. But it will not have the same impact. The spoken word is always stronger, more emotive, and commands attention. The written word requires a practised, educated mind to extract nuances of meaning.

  What I want to discuss is the importance of simple, clear, written English. This is not simple. Dr Goh gives every officer whom he thinks is promising and whose minutes or papers are deficient in clarity, a paperback edition of Gowers’ Complete Plain Words. It presupposes that the man who attempts to read the book has reached a certain level of literary competence. Th
e book, written words – just as my memo if I had attempted one – cannot convey to you the emphasis, the importance, the urgency, unless the receiver is a trained reader. And in any case, human beings are never moved by written words. It is the spoken word that arouses them to action. Arthur Koestler rightly pointed out that if Hitler’s speeches had been written, not spoken, the Germans would never have gone to war. Similarly, Sukarno in print did not make great sense. According to language specialists, in face-to-face communication, 40 per cent of meaning is conveyed by words; 60 per cent is conveyed through intonation, gestures, the facial expressions.

  Arthur Koestler rightly pointed out that if Hitler’s speeches had been written, not spoken, the Germans would never have gone to war.

  The spoken language is better learned early; then you will have fluency. However, my thesis is that the written language can be learned and mastered at any age in life without much disadvantage. It is learned fastest when your written mistakes are pointed out to you by a teacher, friend, or senior officer who corrects you. That was the way I learned. When I was at school my compositions were marked. When my children were in school they simply got grades for their written work. Their teachers had so many essays that they never attempted to correct the compositions. This has contributed to our present deplorable situation.

  I want to convince you, first, of the importance of clear, written communication; second, that you can master it, if you apply yourself. The use of words, the choice and arrangement of words in accordance with generally accepted rules of grammar, syntax and usage can accurately convey ideas from one mind to another. It can be mastered, even though you are not an Englishman. Then we will spend the rest of this afternoon discussing how we can help each other to master it. If I persuade you to want to master the skills in written English, then this meeting will have been successful.