Introduction
Ceaser, Hitler, and Hussein all had two things in common. One, they were all dictators—this is obvious. But they also had something else in common. At the very start, they wanted to be good. However, as they realized that they had so much power, they forgot this and thought for themselves. All dictators were this way (Well, most of them. We’ll get to that later). The communist dictators were the ones who were this way the most. Most, if not all of them, were in the army before they were dictators, giving them a sense of nationalism. They loved their country and wanted to make it better. That’s why they became dictators. But all of them but one became ruthless. All but one ordered bloody massacres. All but one cut ties with everyone else and became psychopaths. That one was the dictator of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew, which we’ll refer to today as LKY.
His Reign
LKY was the dictator of Singapore from its founding on June 5, 1959, to his resignation on November 28, 1990. Now, don’t get me wrong; he was a dictator with absolute power, but he really wasn’t that bad.
Singapore, as a British colony, was extremely corrupt. Like, I’m talking, every politician got a yacht and a million dollars because they were “good friends” with the British viceroy. But not LKY. He immediately took action when he took power through a landslide victory because the people were tired of all the corruption. He set up a proper civil service and fired all of his ministers, and suspended the parliament. The civil service then processed hundreds of new people to be his new ministers and parliament (they were, of course, all supporting him, but shhh). With the corruption gone, everyone loved him. But there was more.
By now, the British were gone. Because there was no British nobility stamping down on human rights and silencing the press, there was crime everywhere. What to do? Well, LKY just censored the press. He tapped the phone lines. You could not not like LKY now. It was simply against the law. He had the poor-quality police force replaced with a well-paid and well-trained one. He also armed the police, which may have helped or not, but at least they got those cool cowboy revolvers instead of the Glock (sad to say that now they have the Glocks instead). Crime went down. Like, fell from a cliff. Crime was nonexistent now, and the people liked him more than ever.
Corruption and crime are now gone, so LKY can focus on the nicer things, such as hygiene, trade, and equality. For hygiene, he had the public toilets well cleaned (a rarity here in the U.S.) and the doctors well-educated. He also (wait, let me check my notes) had the sale of gum banned in Singapore. The law was later revised. You could get healthy gum but only from a doctor or pharmacist, and a tourist could bring in a small amount of gum for their own use. This was after the spread of gum smuggling. For trade and equality he and the civil service invested the economy in individuals based on talents and good education rather than wealth and power. He also enforced multiracialism and bilingualism in schools to enforce a sense of pride in the country. Finally, he made English the language for trading so Western countries could better trade with Singapore.
After LKY’s resignation in 1990, he became a minister for future prime ministers until 2011 and remained a member of parliament until his death from pneumonia in 2015. He is currently laying-in-state in Singapore’s parliament building.
What About Today?
LKY’s influence can still be felt today through the lasting effect of his policies. Despite its size, Singapore is still one of the richest countries in the world per capita. The people of Singapore, despite much censorship, are still very happy in their country, with many saying that they would never want to move. Singapore’s port is now world-famous for its large size and processes many of the products we use today. So, has the dictatorship paid off? My answer is yes. When done right, a dictatorship can be extremely beneficial for the people.
Oh, and if you’re wondering, they still have the gum ban.
