Lee Kuan Yew - Do Asians Lack Initiative? (Excellent Response to a Racially Biased Question)

INSEAD Leadership Summit in Asia, 19 Oct 2007
INSEAD Asia Campus

[@MsOpineminded]

For his faults, miss this guy, sharp as a tack and a great leader who did not believe in dogma

[@marvin19966]

what was his biggest fault

[@RealRick0408]

@@marvin19966he don’t believe dogma. He impose dogmatic culture & restrictive law. As a result, he kill native Singaporean from within.

[@ysw8291]

@@marvin19966 No idea, he didn't say. What's your biggest fault, would you know?

[@marvin19966]

@@ysw8291 my biggest fault so far is not finishing projects that could have been commercial successes - but i've learnt of my mistakes and am following through now. how about you?

[@sandponics]

@@ysw8291 He was too modest.

[@surajdip3621]

Journalists forget that he is a highly qualified lawyer and highly knowledgeable person who transformed Singapore from nothing.

[@freaker126]

that's what i was thinking. lol

[@tommarriott1223]

That’s an incredible achievement. He doesn’t do anything to answer the question asked of him though… Infact all he does is repeat that Singapore has a great education system as if the question asker didn’t already mention this in his question. Interestingly this sort of “how dare he question LKY, didn’t you know he is a successful man” is exactly the sort of thinking the questioner is alluding to I think. Commenters here seem to almost take offence that a negative question could dare be posed to LKY. The question never gets answered, we are just told “hey you, who do you think you are to question LKY, didn’t you know he’s a successful lawyer. Some of you are literally proving the point.

[@lewtx2283]

@@tommarriott1223 Because the interviewer is asking a question based off his own assumptions which is an very atypical and stereotypical one at that from the usual western correspondents and LKY answer is perfect fit for this particular context. basically if singaporeans can't think out of the box, we won't be as successful and thriving as we are.

[@pesky2119]

Maybe don't ask bad questions then lol

[@pendragonluver]

It was one of the busiest and most successful entreport in Asian by the time the Brits left...

[@CrosbyStill]

"Speaking up" doesnt mean a good thing all the time in the workplace...there are those who speak up to create division, tension or trying to show off his eloquence to bosses presence there or to intimidate others,etc...there are "power" in silent people who just sits there n listen quietly, analysing what is going on...n they only speaks at the right time...n not some noisy gongs which the western world seems to like...

[@VanaeCavae]

Jews speak out all the time and are known to be argumentative. They are also the most brilliant people in the world. As you mentioned, there is power in being quiet most of the time and speaking when needed. The Japanese are known for that. But the free exchange of ideas is also important. You need to ask questions in order to know more and you need to counter lies with the truth. That means you also need to speak. Being quiet does not help anyone. Words are both weapons and tools. You need to be both well armed and well equipped with them. And btw, LKY was an eloquent speaker. He knew the importance of words.

[@jbrkjferkjbekjb]

Building rapport is important - you don’t have to say something “important” every time you speak.

[@SamuelChuaSamuel]

Amazing man of wisdom and understanding knowing what is going on around the world. Worth listening to and humble enough to be taught with an open minded attitude. Thank God for such marketable man for such a timely hour like these. We are Singaporean. 🇸🇬

[@cnaizhen]

As a Singaporean, i do think that this is a good question in the context of Singapore (something rare as they were mostly bashing our system, and proven wrong over time). The question is never about Singaporeans not being smart (which LKY had addressed), but rather, our ability to think out of the box. Dont get me wrong, Singaporeans excel in optimizing and developing small scale innovations, but we have yet to land on the next big thing (e.g. local startup equivalent to Samsung in Korea or a groundbreaking research). Our research, for example, focus on quick hit items (e.g. Wolbachia Mosquito project). The only one huge project that i can think of is the Newater project, which boosted our water supply security, but has its own limitations (not a game changer imo). IMO, LKY recognize that this is a great question, and answered it seriously, though he skirted around the "think out of the box" part. The one silly mistake the journalist made is the attempt to extrapolate the observation to the rest of asia.

[@DevinTey]

SG have innovate in a very big way on the governance system. That's anything but small scale.

[@cnaizhen]

@@DevinTey Fully agree with you. The focus of Journalist's point (hence my rambling above) is more centered around Singaporeans at large though. Our government and existing system is strong, no doubt about that. PAP was extremely innovative, hands down. But can Singaporeans grow out of the boundaries of this strong system and break new grounds - this is something that I personally feel we can improve on.

[@zanaros2606]

The journalist is actually not wrong when he says that Singaporeans in general can be more passive and less creative, lol. If you have worked in Taiwan or other countries, you would easily see the complete difference in individual initiative and creativity. Just look at the very machine-like variety shows and movies and tv shows made in Singapore, and compare it with the shows in many other countries, and you'll see a very distinctive difference and mental culture. Singapore is more like the people in china, very orderly, as if everyone's following rules and don't quite dare to break out of the mold.

[@wenning252]

@@zanaros2606 China, with all their rules, is far from orderly. It’s always incredulous to me how wild things can be in the rural areas. Like villagers from neighbouring villages just coming to grab valuables left in tents by concertgoers while attending a music festival.

[@zanaros2606]

@@wenning252 The bad people and higher elites in china can be very disorderly and arrogant. But the majority of more average and law-abiding people there, can be extremely passive and lacking in initiative/creativity too. They seem to have this fear of speaking their genuine thoughts too...which is why their variety shows and movies also feel very machine-like and artificial. Like everyone just following scripts and orders. People in china fluctuate between extreme inferiority or extreme superiority. But it's a clear sign of a very imbalanced self-esteem inside their hearts.

[@realbigbear]

A brilliant man.

[@kushuaishuai318]

Mr Lee has spoken a very key point which the west has failed to comprehend time and time again, we studied from all over the world, understand it and adapt it so that it fits singapore. We do not take wholesale without understanding it. The west has contiunuously try to force their way on the rest of the world. The results speak for themselves.

[@Michael-dx8qz]

What do you mean by ‘the west’? As if the west is a monolithic entity.

[@TaeNyFan]

@@Michael-dx8qz The West, aka US+UK+Western Europe.

[@Michael-dx8qz]

@@TaeNyFan that’s the thing, the West isn’t a monolithic entity, they have independent ideas, what a weird generalisation

[@cnaizhen]

@@Michael-dx8qz The reason why we tend to generalize "the west" is because it is very common for the west to push their agenda on our country through international organizations such as the UN. For example, western countries in the UN have been pushing to ban death penalties, with "the west" voting yes to the notion, and many Asian Pacific countries voting against the resolution. And this is not an isolated example. You can't fault us for generalizing and grouping "the west" as an entity.

[@Michael-dx8qz]

@@cnaizhen your example is flawed - the most frequently-cited ‘Western’ country, i.e., the USA is against abolition of death penalty.

[@charliethesupebeagle]

Thinking outside the box and speaking up. I think Singapore has proven that this may not actually be necessary anymore to achieve an impressive level of success. There's nothing wrong with copying and optimizing. Maybe you'll never breed the Huaweis and Apples of the world but your population will still be incredibly wealthy. Not everyone or every nation needs to be a disruptive innovator. Most nations don't even have peace and order.

[@AKK5I]

common *ngloid L take

[@willv88]

The journalist asked several questions (including conformity and assertiveness), but LKY responded by talking about education. I think the question of "speaking up" wasn't fully addressed. However, most Singaporeans that I've worked with have no issues speaking up - sometimes speaking too much 😅

[@liebasolar9828]

Why are boxes bad things? Restraint (when appropriately used) of one thing can serve as a liberating force for other things, thoughts, concepts ie...... Perhaps one should think outside of the box as it concerns the box itself.

[@anchored555]

Geography doesn’t explain everything. If it does, why didn’t our nearby neighbours eg Johore/Batam become another Singapore? You can have the best geographical location in the world, but if your country is run by a bunch of incompetent clowns or corrupt politicians, it will not still magically rise to the top. If SG had not had exceptional political leaders, we would probably still be a third world backwater today like our neighbours. We need to give credit where it’s due.

[@WilliamDoyle-rb6lt]

LKY corrected this arrogant reporter from his condescending paper and he was too arrogant to realize he was just made a fool of.

[@ysw8291]

The ability to be an arrogant preek is somehow regarded as a good thing in so many ways in the West.

[@kimchiba4570]

This didn't age well for the west . Singapore is vastly better now than most western countries ..and we didn't proper through colonialism

[@98zing]

Kinda wrong to equate creativity with speaking up. Speaking up a lot is not necessarily creative or productive if it is just a bunch of hot air. Likewise, being the quiet one who listens, analyze and give a well thought answer is probably more creative than the full of hot air empty vessel. Quantity /= Quality. If there is one thing, I do wish Singaporeans ask questions and do so because of an innate intellectual curiosity.

[@Pulaco.Dimantag]

Now china and asia is rising while west is fast declining.. this has ahe very quite well

[@greentea8852]

Exactly even after 17 years, this will still valid in the next decade. The west has never changed and learned combined with their superiority complex hence they are in decline.

[@Kpop_stole_foids_fromcurrycell]

east asia is rising, not southeast lol. that would take centuries.

[@Pulaco.Dimantag]

@@Kpop_stole_foids_fromcurrycell you don't know the concept of emerging markets... Just look at the statistics of growth in southeast asia... Clearly you don't have any idea

[@Kpop_stole_foids_fromcurrycell]

@@Pulaco.Dimantag ok ok sub 5k gdp per capita 😂

[@Kpop_stole_foids_fromcurrycell]

@@Pulaco.Dimantag imagine thinking you have the ability to rise to the same development of EU when u went from the richest to the almost poorest 😂

[@antonfinenko6238]

He did not answer the question.

[@wongyatmun3604]

LKY IS ON A DIFFERENT LEVEL. CHEERS😊😅😂

[@StuartS-qe7yp]

Singapore has an excellent education system and has done amazing things to raise the standard of living for its people. I think the question that has gone unanswered, would a non conformist entrepreneur like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, etc succeed in a conformist society like Singapore.

[@DaveSmith-pm2yq]

Legend.

[@smdc76]

He did not answer the Financial Times reporter who asked if Singaporeans could speak up, challenge authority and think out of the box, all of which, as a Singaporean, we are certainly lacking. Don't take my word for this. In spite of all our high ranking universities and it's graduates, we still need to bring in lots of foreign talents with qualifications from lesser ranked universities. He may be a Legend, but he instilled many unchallenged dogma that has literally turned almost every citizen into a blissfully oblivious power source, like the Matrix. But maybe, that was the goal all along.

[@gkinmotion]

Only the government is allowed to think outside of the box.

[@tommarriott1223]

Perhaps the lack of critical thinking alluded to is on show here. OP puts (excellent response) in his title. Let’s learn to ignore the title and listen to the content. The question asker himself says Singaporeans are very highly educated, his question asks whether Singapore is a conformist society where people are not guided to think out of the box. LKY then just repeats the question askers point that education is very good and throws in some jokes. The question is never answered.

[@JohnSmith62253]

Nah I think the question was sufficiently answered. The person asking the question asked whether despite their good education, do Singaporeans lack initiative. Basically implying that there may be something wrong with how Singaporeans are due this, lack of initiative would imply a lack of ability of Singaporeans to be able to make their own decisions and take charge of things, only following along other people’s decisions. LKY answers to this by basically saying that if Singapore was able to get so far, there must have been people actually thinking outside the box (taking initiative). He’s saying that their progress so far is the evidence for the people’s ability to think for themselves and go forward.

[@JohnSmith62253]

When LKY mentions education, he also mentioned it in the context of how it was the initiative that they took that was able to get the education system so far. (3:56), basically implying that if Singapore was really such a conformist society, they couldn’t have made such quick progress

[@alvinsunassee4282]

Are you related to the questioner? Or just another stupid woke?

[@shawnkristoferu8303]

Since 2,000 the Singapore students in 3rd. 06th, 09th, 12th grades are number 1 in the world on the most challenging tests, the PISA. Korean is generally number 2, followed by Japan. In the top 10, only Finland from the Western world has a showing but they are in 05-10 place. So the Asians overtook them since for most of the years before 2,000 Finland was number 1. USA is generally in 30-40 rankings. Now you know who is ascending in the world & who is descending. 21st century is the century of brain power not military power.

[@ysw8291]

But at what cost, they would say. Westerners never run out of ways to console themselves for their shortcomings.

[@hoochygucci9432]

Yes, but that wasn't the question. Singapore is highly conformist and is successful mostly due to geographic reasons and it's willingness to do any trade including arms. That trade underpins its social policies, such as HDB housing, which are very good and do lead to stability in society.

[@razjackson5825]

"Mostly due to geographic reasons"... Jesus. Absolutely disgusting view. Can you name another nation on Earth that did something similar as going from having the same average per person income level as Tanzania, where the average adult had only two years of formal education, where 60% of the population lived in bonafide slums, to what Singapore is today within just a single generation? You gotta stop thinking in stereotypes friend, and give people credit where it's due, the same way I bet you probably automatically do when givinv credit to white societies. These peeps didn't just sleep their way through it and "geography" magically did all the the work. No matter what the circumstances, no matter what the situation, some minds have developed a way of quickly latching on to just one aspect basing their whole understanding on that. If I gave you an example of a man who was homeless but then worked his butt off and did all the right things and paid attention and timely chased all the opportunities that came his way and became a huge financial success, you'd probably say "big deal, he's in New York, it's a great location, bound to happen to anybody in that sort of geography". Go and comprehensively improve the lives of the poor in your town or city, then say something. 3mins rant over. Until we meet again muahahaha

[@TaeNyFan]

Singaporeans lack initiative -i.e. they cant think for themselves and get things done for themselves. They need someone to tell them what to do. LKY responded that Singaporeans built Singapore because we took a lot of initiatives and did not listen to the British.

[@Kpop_stole_foids_fromcurrycell]

how does a conformist society make 2 top 10 universities, which requires a lot of innovation?

[@sheldoncooper0]

As opposed to the USA that never supplied arms and money to South Korea, Israel, the Taliban etc for the purposes of allowing them to wage war, right? Oh no. Only Singapore would make money by any means including weapons trading. But never the west….

[@michaellee3314]

I always remember what LKY said to a foreign journalist that don't always think that Asians interviewee is dumb. This guy is barking up the wrong tree.

[@davidw5761]

He came to the white race for his education 🙄

[@Gemini73883]

It comes back down to Asians cannot innovate, think etc. It seems in occidental eyes thinking and innovation is a western propensity. Us Asians can only look on in envy! And yet, let me introduce y'all to DuJiangYan in Sichuan, China. This is the world's first large scale irrigation, flood control works. It was completed 2400 years ago. The only question I have is what was Li Bing's intention at the time. He was governor of Sichuan then. Did he do it as flood control and reaped irrigation as a side benefit or was it an irrigation project that tamed a river (Min Jiang). Said project is still working fine today 2400 years later! If that doesn't answer the question "Can Asians think/innovate" I don't know what will!

[@tommarriott1223]

having to go back 2400 years for an example of Asian innovation isn’t making the point you think it’s making

[@andynichols5625]

@@tommarriott1223 “as early as 2400 years ago” erases your point though.

[@steventay5834]

Not sure if LKY knows what is happening now in Singapore. Sad that he has left us

[@anthonyprice434]

Schools run the exams, so when everyone gets a good grade the MOE brag about a great educational system. But what they don't mention is that most kids in Singapore go to enrichment classes. So really it is the enrichment schools that are actually doing good teaching.!

[@aikonoklas]

LOL the FT guy had no choice but to sit down n take it. He did ask a legit question tho. Unfortunately LKY could say whatever he wanted, in fact he wouldnt care at all if u doubted his methods because his results spoke for themselves.

[@dlk3904]

Whitey: Look at that Chinese guy standing up to a tank Also Whitey: Asians can't stand up for themselves

[@a.a.7416]

Reporters ask 3-4 questions at the same time under the false belief that they are going to dismantle the interviewee. Instead, they show how low they are.

[@pila1280]

The criticism is not wrong though.

[@nsebast]

Totally wrong. Only Americans are inventive. Europeans are not. It is not the race, it is the culture. And the reporter will never label the Europeans as such. It is typical standard Western arrogant bigot view.

[@BoxcarRomance]

Which criticism are you referring to? The correspondent's of Singapore society or Mr Lee's of the correspondent's comment?

[@abhishekkaushik8868]

There is no substitute of independent intelligence and wisdom which goes very straight and correct in all respects 💓

[@syedadeelhussain2691]

Asian Bismark.

[@jasondads9509]

The journalist phrased the question the best he could for the audience he is Targeting

[@hendysutarto8709]

Nice smash from Mr LKY to this stereotyping by Financial Times journalist

[@user-vj9nx9xd7n]

😂😂 AMAZING SINGAPOREAN

[@arieladelinechoo9845]

To think out of the box..do you know the type and shape of the box you are in?? Western journalist know little about Asian e.g. education and selection process.

[@chewy1709]

His authoritarian style style of governance meant that many back home protested by passive-aggresive means of being apathetic. Of course he would see it as lacking in initiative instead of wanting more freedom

[@taipangwong356]

Couldn't teach his children harmony and went about preaching other parents

[@CrosbyStill]

Its not couldn't teach his children...if you're a parent yourself you will know what it means. If your kids failed in life, its not always the parents fault. When i said failed, it means major issues such as cheating, killing. LKY whether u like him or not, has a solid record that many world leaders could only wish for. Lets face it, we wouldn't be here if not for him. Cannot imagine us under some badly run government. Yes our government isnt perfect but its better than many out there...which country in the world has a perfect government? I wont exchange my citizenship for any other countries in the world.

[@ngsoonheng9483]

Taipanwong, please don't act smart and shut your mouth.

[@anchored555]

@taipangwong356 Your statement was way below the belt, very unfair and unreasonable. Any parent can tell you that, despite doing their best as parents, they don’t have 100% control over what their children do or how they turn out.

[@blueprintsg]

Hope by now the journalist have learned to memorise the question and ask without stutter and also hold the microphone properly. 😂

[@paulr1125]

Why all this publicity about a leader who is dead , and about a country which is small and unique and whose ideas cannot apply elsewhere

[@Tl7121]

Yes, in the west, especially USA, politics is about publicity, funds secured and most certainly populist rhetoric. Eastern values looks into learning from our past, revisit them if necessary...

[@anchored555]

Singapore’s ideas/model cannot apply anywhere else? Wrong. According to Charlie Munger (Warren Buffett’s partner), the secret of China’s success is that they copied Singapore. The Singapore model has also inspired other countries around the world like Rwanda. LKY died 9 years ago, but knowledgeable people know he left a huge footprint in history that few can fill. He has been widely acclaimed by the likes of Henry Kissinger and other world leaders as a once-in-a century global statesman. There’s obviously a gap in your education since you didn’t know that.😂

[@ysw8291]

Many Asians values the lessons left by their forefathers.

[@kathri1006]

The arrogance

[@Sky-8646]

Because the white always think they are supremacy..😂

[@Gemini73883]

Of whom

[@yogi9631]

Of the West lecturing the East. The rise of the Dragon and the East has just begun. Get ready to cop it sweet for the next several hundred years.

[@meledog1357]

Of your mom

[@DinoMan_6]

@@meledog1357no u