Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to acknowledge the passing of Singapore's first Prime Minister and founding father, Lee Kuan Yew. Lee Kuan Yew was one of the great nation builders of the 21st century. He took Singapore from a port city with significant ethnic tensions, poor standards of living and little industry and turned it into an astonishingly affluent society. Singapore's people are now some of the most prosperous in the world, due in no small part to his leadership. In 2010, Henry Kissinger said of Lee Kuan Yew:

The mark of a great leader is to take his society from where it is to where it has never been.

Kissinger went on to say that 'there is no better strategic thinker in the world today' than Lee Kuan Yew. By all measures, we should say that that was true for the better part of his life.

Lee Kuan Yew oversaw his country's independence from British rule and merger with the Malaysian Federation, only to see the relationship between these countries fracture. Lee Kuan Yew envisioned a meritocratic society, and, fearing that ethnic tensions between the Chinese, Malay and Indian groups within his society would cause division and violence, he chose to make English Singapore's main language—to ensure equality between the ethnicities but also so that Singapore would be able to tap into business and structure the Singaporean economy to provide international services.

Under his leadership, Singapore moved from a Third World country devoid of natural resources to one of the world's wealthiest nations. The scale of its rise is unparalleled anywhere else in the world. Within the first 20 years of his prime ministership, Singapore's gross national income increased by 1,500 per cent. Lee also realised that Singapore could only have, at best, moderate success without opening up to the world through trade and investment. Singapore is now the world's 14th largest exporter and 15th largest importer. Singapore's gross GDP per capita has increased from under $500 in 1959 to $46,000 in 2014. Singapore is one of the safest and least corrupt places to do business, and it is the major banking and trade centre of the region.

All of Singapore's achievements are intrinsically linked to Lee Kuan Yew and his leadership. However, Lee's influence has been felt well beyond his country's boundaries. As Australians, we appreciate Lee Kuan Yew's achievements because Singapore's strategic interests are so similar to our own. As a smaller nation, with an interest in a stable, rules based international order with liberal cross-border trade and investment arrangements, we see his achievements and greatly admire them.

In this regard, Lee's role as a principal architect of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is a particularly astonishing achievement. ASEAN was formed in 1967, at the height of Cold War tensions in the region and in the shadows of two earlier failed attempt to establish a similar regional body. ASEAN fostered economic cooperation and integration between its members, lowering trade and investment barriers in the region. It also gave South-East Asia a collective voice that ensured that the strategic interests of the region were more clearly heard by the world's great powers. While Australia is not a member of ASEAN, we have benefited greatly from these achievements. Similarly, Lee Kuan Yew played a crucial role in helping the Five Power Defence Arrangements between Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand and the UK endure and evolve through a dramatically changing strategic environment and play a major role in contributing to the stability of South-East Asia that we enjoy today.

Lee Kuan Yew was a pragmatist and took little interest in political ideology. Explaining his guiding ideals, Lee said:

I always tried to be correct, not politically correct.

Australians have benefited directly from this direct approach. Thanks to Lee Kuan Yew, the Australian-Singapore relationship is not only strong; it is substantial. Generations of Australian policymakers have benefited from the wake-up call he gave our nation when he joltingly warned us that our nation was in danger of being 'the poor white trash of Asia'. The major economic reforms delivered by the Hawke-Keating government in the wake of this warning have delivered decades of prosperity for our nation. Lee Kuan Yew's passing has left a gigantic hole in Singaporean society, and we stand with them in celebrating his life today. He has been a uniquely influential figure—a titan in Singapore, in our region and in our world.

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