Dearth of Leaders - part 1

IHT recently interviewed LKY. Excerpts from that interview can be found here.

I think the beauty of what an illusionist does is that ...well, you know it's impossible.

Some minor cynical observations follow...[* BTW == Behind the words]

LKY: First, to understand Singapore, you've got to start off with an improbable story. It should not exist

BTW: The classic illusionist opening act...look... no rabbit in the hat


LKY: To begin with we don't have the ingredients of a nation, the elementary factors, a homogeneous population, common language, common culture and common destiny.

BTW: Who does? Not even Burundi.


LKY: Thereafter, we knew that if we embarked on any of these romantic ideas, to revive a mythical past of greatness and culture, we'd be damned.

BTW: Instead we embarked on a mythical future of becoming Caucasian


LKY: ...populating at fast speed (laughs)

BTW: Laughing at the dirty physics? or is he slyly encouraging Singaporeans to procreate faster than the neighbors?


LKY: ...We'll go back to the fishing village we once were.

BTW: Which would be just fine if the entire world turned to fishing?


LKY: I'm giving you the answer of a pragmatist.

BTW: The classic illusionist act 2.... I'm doing it right before your eyes


LKY: I do not see any tribal leader, any democratic leader, any dictator telling his people, "We are going to forgo growth. We are going to consume less. Travel less. Live a more spartan life and we'll save the earth."

BTW: Might not the principal reason for that be that societies based on consumption, like Singapore, do not encourage such leaders?


LKY: For the top 20 percent of the population,
there are no constraints there.

BTW: Um... makes one wonder about the other 80%... whom he does not talk about. I know...they are the ghosts in blue uniforms who clean the streets on Monday morning. lets stuff them with Durian and Kuay teo; then there wont be
any place left for thoughts. Heartlanders. what an endearing term.

LKY: Well, I cannot say that we will not lose it. If we lose it, then we're done in. We go back to where we started, right?

BTW: Is he asking the interviewer from IHT? Nah...he's asking his real audience. The Singaporean people. He might as
well say, "If you buggers start spitting on the streets, I can guarantee that you wont get that shiny new iphone and similar such stuff that I've made you hanker for"


LKY: Let the historians and the Ph.D. students work out their doctrines. I'm not interested in theories per se.

BTW: I wonder why they are encouraging Singaporeans to work out doctrines and get their Ph.Ds. Oh wait... that's a "Doctor of Phalsehood"


LKY: But I see a need to mitigate wherever we can through green technologies. Less CO2 and try to prolong the period of adjustment.

BTW: The word 'adjustment' coming from the clinically precise LKY spells doom for Singaporeans


LKY: ...You can be the greatest leader in the world...

BTW: Ahem...


LKY: It's meritocratic. And it works.

BTW: All merit is relative to my own. And that's really why it works...


LKY: So please do it and do it well. We are ideology-free. What would make the place work, let's do it.

BTW: The closing message from the messiah.. for consumption by all Singaporeans who value their paychecks and don't want to get caned.