SINGAPORE: A video clip of the country’s founding Prime Minister showing just how fierce he is was shared online again, and it appears that he has lost none of the popularity he enjoyed in his prime.
“If you are not feared when you say something, people won’t take notice. But they know that when I say something, I mean it. If you’re gonna cross swords with me, then you must be willing to get stabbed. That’s that.
If I think this is going to be necessary to do, and you set out to thwart me, then we fight. But to avoid a fight I make quite sure that you understand that I will fight. Simple as that. I am not interested in being loved. What’s the profit in it?” Mr Lee said in an interview with a number of Straits Times journalists over a decade ago.
Seven journalists from ST spent more than four months preparing for the interviews with then-Minister Mentor Lee, who was 87 at that time. The series of interviews took place between December 2008 to October 2009, where Mr Lee was plied with questions ranging from leadership to public policy to the salaries of ministers. The 32 hours of interviews were later distilled into a book titled “Lee Kuan Yew: Hard Truths To Keep Singapore Going,” published in 2011.
A clip of the famous interview containing the quote above was shared on the Instagram account of Singapore Incidents on Friday night (Apr 14).
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Judging from the comments on the video, there are many people who still admire Mr Lee’s unapologetic, take-no-prisoners attitude.
/TISG