Excerpt
The union with Malaysia was successful in breaking Communist
power in Singapore, essentially by diluting the political
influence of the largely ethnic Chinese Communists into a
larger polity including many more conservative Malay Muslim
voters. This made possible the political decapitation of the
Communists, which put an end to the great momentum that the
Communists in Singapore had enjoyed before that. There was a
real fear of China, and a reluctance to stand up to
China-backed Communism, in the region at that time. China’s
economy appeared to be growing very rapidly. In retrospect,
it was all a Potemkin Village, but at the time, people did
not realize that, Lee stated.
SENATOR BILL NELSON’S MEETING WITH MINISTER
MENTOR LEE
KUAN YEW
Date: 2009 August 17, 09:47 (Monday)
Canonical ID:
09SINGAPORE773_a
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1. (C) Summary: In a meeting with Minister Mentor (MM) Lee
Kuan Yew, Senator Bill Nelson stressed the importance of
cooperation between Singapore’s Internal Security Department
(ISD) and U.S. counterpart organizations to address common
threats in areas such as terrorism and proliferation. MM Lee
responded that the United States keeps the world safe; if
not, everyone else including Singapore will be in trouble.
MM Lee noted that he has met the U.S. Vice President and the
Secretary of State, but he has not yet had the opportunity to
meet the President. He said the Indonesians are making
important progress under President Yudhoyono, a decent man
leading a nation that is always difficult to govern. Even
two terms may not be long enough for Yudhoyono to ensure that
Indonesia stays on the right path in the long run. MM Lee
said Beijing knows that Singapore is the “undeclared ally” of
the United States, with longstanding bilateral cooperation
and the Strategic Framework Agreement. China has not yet
fully learned the lesson about the need to provide a
predictable environment for foreign investors, Lee noted.
End Summary.
Health of Lee’s Wife
2. (C) Senator Bill Nelson (D-Florida), accompanied by Mrs.
Grace Nelson, the CDA (notetaker), and Legislative Assistant
Greta Lundeberg, met at the Istana on August 13 with Minister
Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, who was joined by Principal Private
Secretary Chee Hong Tat and MFA Americas Assistant Director
Jasmine Tan (notetaker). Mrs. Nelson extended her best
wishes for improvement in the health of MM Lee’s wife Kwa
Geok Choo. MM Lee expressed appreciation for the good
wishes. He said his wife’s medical condition remains poor
after three strokes. The fact that her cognitive facilities
remain intact in some ways makes things more difficult, he
said.
H1N1
3. (C) Visitors to MM Lee are currently asked to apply hand
sanitizer before shaking hand with him and Lee expressed
concern about H1N1, which he noted is not particularly lethal
but keeps mutating. He said dealing with challenges like
H1N1 is inevitable in the globalizing world in which we live,
in which diseases can spread around the world at the speed of
a fast aircraft.
U.S.-Singapore Relations
4. (C) Senator Nelson noted that he had met with Ambassador
to Washington Chan Heng Chee (who extended her visit to
Singapore so she could see the Senator) and with Internal
Security Department (ISD) Director Pang Kin Keong. The
Senator highlighted the importance of cooperation between ISD
and U.S. counterpart organizations to address common threats
in areas such as terrorism and proliferation. MM Lee
responded that the United States keeps the world safe; if
not, everyone else including Singapore will be in trouble.
5. (C) Senator Nelson expressed appreciation for Lee’s and
Singapore’s leadership in the region, support for the United
States, and contributions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The
Senator noted that the President, the Vice President, and the
Secretary of State are working hard to strengthen the
U.S.-Singapore partnership. Lee said Ambassador Chan has
briefed him on the Obama Administration’s leadership. He
noted that he has met the Vice President and the Secretary,
but he has not yet had the opportunity to meet the President,
although Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong did meet the
President (before his election) in the United States.
Indonesia
6. (C) Regarding Indonesia, MM Lee said the country is
making important progress under President Yudhoyono, a decent
man leading a nation that is always difficult to govern. He
is trying his best, but even two terms may not be long enough
for him to ensure that Indonesia stays on the right path in
SINGAPORE 00000773 002 OF 005
the long run. The challenge may pass to his successor.
Extreme Islamists remain influential in Indonesia and can
persuade politicians to make electoral promises that then
limit the scope of action the politicians can take once they
are in office. One extremist group is eliminated in
Indonesia, but another springs up, he commented.
China
7. (C) China has not yet fully learned the lesson about the
need to provide a predictable environment for foreign
investors, Lee noted. (Comment: This seemed to refer to
problems that foreign investors in China have faced including
the current Rio Tinto controversy. End Comment.) Senator
Nelson noted that dealing with China can be difficult. It
was even difficult to ensure that China met the Secret
Service’s security requirements for former President Bush
during the Beijing Olympics, he stated. MM Lee said at the
end of the day China will do what is necessary to ensure good
relations with the United States. Other countries, however,
may not get what they need from China. China took a hardline
approach with France over the Olympic Flame issue, with
Chinese citizens boycotting Carrefour stores. Beijing
basically ignored President Sarkozy’s threat not to attend
the Olympics, with Chinese officials simply observing “you
are here” when he showed up for the Games.
8. (C) Senator Nelson asked how China treats Singapore. MM
Lee said Beijing knows that Singapore is the “undeclared
ally” of the United States, with longstanding bilateral
cooperation and the Strategic Framework Agreement. China
knows that Singapore continues to send troops for training in
Taiwan. Beijing has asked Singapore to stop this and offered
training areas in Hainan. Lee told Chinese counterparts that
if Singapore forces go to Hainan for training, the Americans
will stop selling Singapore arms. He intended for the
Chinese to get the message that their arms are not equal to
American arms, he said. He added that he has told Beijing
that if Beijing is in charge of Taiwan, he will ask Beijing
for permission to train there.
9. (C) Lee said Deng Xiaoping visited Singapore in November,
1978. Vietnam had just invaded Cambodia. The Chinese
message was that the Russian bear was trying to use Vietnam
to establish a Cuba in the region. Lee told Deng that he and
his neighbors did not fear the Russian bear. Russia is far
away from Singapore. Meanwhile, China was supporting
insurgencies in Southeast Asia, providing arms and supporting
propaganda broadcasts. China needed to stop. Lee expected
push-back, but Deng considered the message and asked what Lee
wanted him to do. Lee said just stop. Deng said he needed
time and, in about a year, he had basically stopped the arms
flows and the broadcasts, Lee stated.
10. (C) According to Lee, on the economic side, Deng saw
that Singapore was running a fair and egalitarian society,
but one in which capitalist multinational corporations were
playing a major role in job creation. Under the British,
Singapore had been a nation of traders rather than engineers
or manufacturers. Singapore had learned how to develop these
skills and attract American, Japanese and European
investment. Singapore’s Small and Medium Enterprises were
supplying them. Under Deng, China shifted from calling
Singaporeans “lackeys” and “running dogs” to calling
Singapore a “garden city” and urging Chinese to learn from
Singapore. After Deng’s Singapore trip, China began opening
Special Economic Zones. Some Chinese leftists like Chen Yun
opposed this, saying the shift was a retreat from Communism
and Socialism and the Party would lose control. In 1992,
when Deng’s policies again came under attack from leftists,
Deng made his famous trip to South China and again urged
Chinese to learn from Singapore.
11. (C) Lee said at that time the Chinese were sending
people to Singapore and they were videotaping what they saw,
but there were real limits to what could be accomplished in
this manner, as Lee told Deng’s son Deng Pufang. Lee
therefore pushed for establishment of the China-Singapore
Industrial Park in Suzhou, near Shanghai. Lee sought to work
with Premier Zhu Rongji on the project, but President Jiang
Zemin insisted that Singapore work instead with Vice Premier
Li Lanqing, whom Jiang trusted more than Zhu. Lee returned
to Suzhou in May 2009 to mark the 15th anniversary of the
SINGAPORE 00000773 003 OF 005
industrial park. Vice Premier Wang Qishan represented the
Chinese side. Through projects like this, Singapore has
built a strong reputation for urban management in China, but
Singapore still comes under pressure from Beijing on issues
like Taiwan, Lee said.
12. (C) Senator Nelson praised MM Lee’s efforts to support
China’s opening up over the years. MM Lee said President
George H.W. Bush played a key role by supporting China’s
entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). Many in China
were skeptical about joining the WTO, but Zhu Rongji
persuaded Jiang Zemin that WTO entry, and the associated
pressure to comply with WTO rules, would be vital over the
long term to the process of ensuring that China prospers and
changes. Senator Nelson noted that economic integration
seems to have promoted improved ties between Beijing and
Taipei. Lee said former leaders in Taiwan, like President
Lee Teng-hui and President Chen Shui-bian, had miscalculated
and pushed for independence. Instead, they should have used
their economic leverage to build better ties with Beijing.
President Ma Ying-jeou understands this, but Taiwan does not
have the economic leverage it once had relative to Beijing,
Lee stated.
Lee’s Experience Under Japanese Occupation
13. (C) Senator Nelson asked MM Lee about his experience in
World War II during the Japanese occupation of Singapore. MM
Lee said he was lucky to escape being massacred. Ethnic
Chinese in Singapore had been active in raising relief funds
for China and Chiang Kai Shek, so when the Japanese occupiers
arrived they demanded that Singapore’s ethnic Chinese
business community raise $200 million for Japan, or else.
The Singaporeans failed to raise the money, so the Japanese
detained 50-100 thousand ethnic Chinese men in Singapore,
including Lee. There was no real pattern to it; the detained
men were just people who seemed like they might be
anti-Japanese or guerrilla fighters. Lee was ordered to get
into a truck with others, but he had an intuition that
getting into the truck would be a mistake so he got
permission to go get clothes and used the opportunity to slip
away for three or four days. He was then able to blend back
into the population. Those who had boarded the trucks ended
up machine gunned to death on the beach. The Japanese were
brutal and cruel, using intimidation and collective
punishment to terrorize the population into submission, he
noted.
14. (C) MM Lee said Singapore was occupied for three and a
half years. Although Japan surrendered on August 6, 1954,
the British were unable to accept the surrender in Singapore
until September. In the interim, the Japanese were defeated
but in charge, beating up anyone who celebrated their defeat.
Some Japanese committed suicide. They were brainwashed to
believe they were the chosen people of the Moon Goddess. If
they lost, they brought shame on their country and their
race. During the occupation, Lee and others in Singapore had
to bow deeply in the direction of Tokyo and the Emperor three
times a day on Imperial Rescript Day. It was therefore
surreal for Lee, years later in the 1960s when he was PM of
Singapore, to meet the Emperor over lunch. Senator Nelson
asked Lee if he said anything to the Emperor about the
occupation. Lee said he felt he could not in the context of
the lunch meeting. The Emperor murmured something about
regrettable events, he stated.
Lee on Singapore’s Union with Malaysia
15. (C) Senator Nelson asked MM Lee about his experience
from 1963-65, first leading Singapore into union with
Malaysia in order to break the power of the Communists in
Singapore, then leading an independent Singapore following
the breakup on the union with Malaysia. Lee noted that
during the period of British rule, Singapore had been the
seat of empire for a broad area that included Malaysia,
Singapore, North Borneo including Brunei, the Cocos Islands,
and Christmas Island. After World War II, the British knew
they could not hold onto India and Pakistan and they soon
realized they could not hold Peninsular Malaysia, which they
granted independence, while keeping Singapore. As it became
clear that Britain could not retain Singapore either, Lee
pushed for union with Malaysia.
SINGAPORE 00000773 004 OF 005
16. (C) Lee said that the Tunku, then the leader of
Malaysia, did not want Singapore, which would bring with it
all the complications of a largely ethnic Chinese city, but
the Tunku was persuaded when the British added East Malaysia
as a kind of dowry to the Tunku for taking Singapore. The
union with Malaysia was successful in breaking Communist
power in Singapore, essentially by diluting the political
influence of the largely ethnic Chinese Communists into a
larger polity including many more conservative Malay Muslim
voters. This made possible the political decapitation of the
Communists, which put an end to the great momentum that the
Communists in Singapore had enjoyed before that. There was a
real fear of China, and a reluctance to stand up to
China-backed Communism, in the region at that time. China’s
economy appeared to be growing very rapidly. In retrospect,
it was all a Potemkin Village, but at the time, people did
not realize that, Lee stated.
17. (C) Lee said that the breakup of the union with Malaysia
began when his People’s Action Party (PAP) tried to get
Malays in Malaysia to join the PAP. Lee argued that all
citizens have equal rights, but the Tunku took the view that
Malays must rule Malaysia. In 1964, there were race riots in
Singapore, which were engineered by the Malaysians to
intimidate the Singaporeans, as similar riots had intimidated
the people in Penang. Lee responded by organizing a
solidarity conference. If there were going to be riots in
Singapore, there would be riots in Malaysia. At that point,
the Tunku told Lee to “get out,” Lee stated.
Lee on Building an Independent Singapore
18. (C) Lee said building up an independent Singapore
outside Malaysia was a huge challenge, but he had one
critical advantage: he had won the trust of the people of
Singapore. In earlier years, the Communists had taunted Lee
as a soft, English-speaking, UK-educated lawyer who slept in
air-conditioned rooms. Lee and his colleagues had shown
their character by fighting the Communists, then by standing
up to the Malaysians, even though the Malaysians controlled
the police and the army. After 1965, they needed to ensure
that Singapore was more productive and better organized than
its resource-rich neighbors. Singapore had a strategic
location and an infrastructure inherited from the British.
To make use of these advantages, it needed to rebuild
relations between labor and management. It needed to provide
jobs, food and shelter for a population, at the time, of two
million, he commented.
19. (C) According to Lee, the critical thing was to create
stability and confidence for investors, who want their people
in Singapore and their families to enjoy security, health
care, and educational opportunities. There can be no
changing of the rules in the middle of the game. Even during
the 1973 oil crisis, Singapore honored its commitments.
Jumping ahead to the current day, Exxon Mobile is proceeding
with a USD 4.5 billion cracker plant on Singapore’s Jurong
Island, despite all the uncertainties in the global economy.
This is because they anticipate expanded demand in China and
India and they have confidence in Singapore’s investment
climate.
Lee on Norman Rockwell’s “The Golden Rule” Painting
20. (C) As the meeting concluded, Senator Nelson presented
PM Lee with a copy of a Norman Rockwell “The Golden Rule”
painting, representing the unity of the people of the world.
The Senator noted that when he had the opportunity to go into
space on the Space Shuttle 23 years ago he had developed a
new appreciation for the oneness of the people of the planet.
Lee said that is not the way the Russians see it. Senator
Nelson noted that, despite U.S.-Russia disagreements, the two
countries have been cooperating in space since 1975. Lee
said perhaps President Medvedev sees things that way, but not
PM Putin, who is still calling the shots. Lee added that
many extremists in the Islamic world also reject the idea of
the essential oneness of the world’s people.
21. (U) Senator Nelson cleared this message.
Visit Embassy Singapore’s Classified website:
SINGAPORE 00000773 005 OF 005
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eap/singapore/ind ex.cfm
