Mr.Lee's Self-Aggrandising Fairy Tale

Mr.Lee Kuan Yew has a favourite fairy tale that he is often fond of repeating.

The fairy tale goes something like this :

"In 1965, 'we had nothing'. We were surrounded by unfriendly neighbours, a security threat. Yet Singapore, under my leadership prospered and became the nation it is today."

Singapore, apparently, was a damsel in distress, which Mr.Lee, on his white charger, rode to rescue. While simultaneously fighting off the dragons of Indonesia and Malaysia.

It is a lie. Concocted by Mr.Lee, for the self-aggrandisement of Mr.Lee.

In fact Singapore did not have 'nothing'. Singapore was the thriving, bustling business centre of Malaysia.
Kuala Lumpur was the sleepy Administrative centre.
Singapore had the most strategic  and only viable port in the region, thus attracting all shipping here. And in the process turning it into the most convenient regional hub for businesses.
British troops were in Singapore until 1975, providing in plenty, the security that Mr.Lee claimed not to have.

And why would Malaysia threaten Singapore? They had expelled Singapore, we believe, because they were afraid  that the Chinese population would become too big in terms of ratio in their country. More than they were willing to handle.
Why would they then try to take it back? 
They would not.
And they will not.

It was, and is, a bogeyman of Mr.Lee's creation.
It was also a way for him to justify stripping Singaporeans of their freedoms.
Freedoms which he continues to deprive them of, to this day.

In his new book, he as good as admits that having no critical voices made for easier management of Singapore.
A Gaddafian philosophy indeed.
While fear of criticism is often the mark of  insecure poltroons.

In 2011, there is no need to continue to believe Mr.Lee's ancient, creaking fairy tales.
Yet, we have not seen even critical thinkers debunking this too-big lie.
Could it be that this lie has been repeated so many times, that everybody just bovinely accepts it?
Well, we can't have that. For we are unflagging inquirers after the truth.
And Mr.Lee's constant stream of half-truths and outright lies make, for us, an irresistible foil.

Could someone have done better than Mr.Lee?
We will never know, for anybody who was a threat to him then, he imprisoned.
In some cases, for decades.

Now, he still imprisons his new opponents.

And he has added bankrupting them to his ugly arsenal.