In the recent newspaper reports that Singapore Minister Mentor (a rather strange position - yes), Lee Kuan Yew, received an honorary degree in law from the prestigious Australian National University. Some Australians aren’t too pleased with that.
Kuan Yew unfazed by protest in Australia
LEE Kuan Yew sparked angry protest in Canberra yesterday when he received an honorary degree which critics said ignored his opposition to democracy.
Lee, Singapore’s founding father and prime minister from independence until 1990, was awarded an honorary doctorate in laws amid high security at the prestigious Australian National University.
More than 50 protesters, including law academics and students, demonstrated at the campus but 83-year-old Lee said he was unfazed.
“If they didn’t protest nobody would know that I was given an honorary degree at ANU,” he said. “Despite their protest, ANU proceeded and I was not deterred from coming.”
Lee is someone “who’s a traitor to democratic ideals and who has eliminated opposition effectively, including having people jailed and held in jail without sentence,” Brown said.
“He eliminated opposition as effectively as he eliminated chewing gum.”
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on Monday said despite concerns about Singapore’s human rights record, Lee was “a great regional leader.”
Source: The Star
I guess he is not that popular in Australia.
Aussies Will Make S’pore Fail, Says Lee Kuan Yew
MELBOURNE, March 28 (Bernama) — Singapore would hit rock bottom if it was run by Australians, former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said on Wednesday.
“We’re going to prosper, you’re going to prosper, if I allow you to run my country, it will spiral downwards and hit rock bottom,” he told reporters.
Lee also defended the comments he made years ago in which he described Australians as “the poor white trash of Asia.”
He said he made the comments in the heat of an argument but said at that time they were probably warranted.
“Perhaps, at that time it was warranted,” he added.
Source: Bernama.com
Uh oh.