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We have to lock up people, without trial, whether they are communists, whether they are language chauvinists, whether they are religious extremists. If you don’t do that, the country would be in ruins.

Lee Kuan Yew

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Lee Kuan Yew
Age: 91 †
Born: 1923
Born: September 16
Died: 2015
Died: March 23
Autobiographer
Lawyer
Philosopher
Politician
Singaporean Politician
Statesperson
Republic of Singapore
LKY
Harry Lee
MM Lee
Li Guangyao
Would
Communist
People
Ruins
Trials
Extremists
Religious
Communists
Whether
Extremist
Language
Lock
Without
Locks
Country
Trial

More quotes by Lee Kuan Yew

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I make no apologies that the PAP is the Government and the Government is the PAP.
Lee Kuan Yew
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Freedom of the press, freedom of the news media, must be subordinated to the overriding needs of the integrity of Singapore, and to the primacy of purpose of an elected government.
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If Aljunied decides to go that way, well Aljunied has five years to live and repent.
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There is nothing to prevent you from pushing your propaganda, to push your programme out to the students or with the public at large…and if you can carry the ground, if you are right, you win. That’s democracy.
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I'm not saying that everything I did was right, but everything I did was for an honourable purpose.
Lee Kuan Yew
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I wouldn't call myself an atheist. I neither deny nor accept that there is a God... So I do not laugh at people who believe in God. But I do not necessarily believe in God - nor deny that there could be one.
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I have been accused of many things in my life, but not even my worst enemy has ever accused me of being afraid to speak my mind.
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I do not yet know of a man who became a leader as a result of having undergone a leadership course.
Lee Kuan Yew
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I am not given to making sense out of life - or coming up with some grand narrative on it - other than to measure it by what you think you want to do in life. As for me, I have done what I had wanted to, to the best of my ability. I am satisfied.
Lee Kuan Yew
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I am often accused of interfering in the private lives of citizens. Yes, if I did not, had I not done that, we wouldn't be here today.
Lee Kuan Yew
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Please do not assume that you can change governments. Young people don’t understand this.
Lee Kuan Yew
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Life is not just eating, drinking, television and cinema...The human mind must be creative, must be self-generating it cannot depend on just gadgets to amuse itself.
Lee Kuan Yew
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I was a product of the times, the war, the occupation, the reoccupation, my 4 years in Britain, admiring but at the same time questioning whether they are able to do a better job than we can.
Lee Kuan Yew
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With few exceptions, democracy has not brought good government to new developing countries. What Asians value may not necessarily be what Americans or Europeans value. Westerners value the freedoms and liberties of the individual. As an Asian of Chinese cultural backround, my values are for a government which is honest, effective and efficient.
Lee Kuan Yew
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It is not the practice, now will I allow subversives to get away by insisting that I’ve got to prove everything against them in a court of law or [produce] evidence that will stand up to the strict rules of evidence of a court of law.
Lee Kuan Yew
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If you can't think because you can't chew, try a banana.
Lee Kuan Yew
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Anybody who decides to take me on needs to put on knuckle-dusters. If you think you can hurt me more than I can hurt you, try. There is no way you can govern a Chinese society.
Lee Kuan Yew
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The big nest was in Afghanistan, thats not quite cleared, then there are nests in the Philippines, there are nests in Indonesia, the Malaysians are clearing up their nests.
Lee Kuan Yew
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For reasons of sentiment, I would like part of my ashes to be mixed up with Mama's, and both her ashes and mine put side by side in the columbarium. We were joined in life and I would like our ashes to be joined after this life.
Lee Kuan Yew
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Without the elected president and if there is a freak result, within two or three years, the army would have to come in and stop it.
Lee Kuan Yew