Singapore: Mr. Lee Kuan Yew exhibits no detachment, but rather he possesses a deep serenity that is fully attached and fully aware. It is as if the Oxford Oriental of generations ago has acquired, standing invisibly on either side of him, the wise ghosts of the West’s Marcus Aurelius and the East’s Confucius

The Greatest Conservative Statesman

 of the Age

by Stephen Masty

Imagine a modern free country in which aspiring politicians, before the most prominent political party lets them run for office as its nominees, must pass interviews and psychometric tests evaluating their knowledge and skill, commitment to public service, humility, honestyand morality. Will America’s Republicans or Democrats dare to try it? As the actor and philosopher Mister T might say, “In yo’ dreams, fool!”

Imagine a nation where a low-tax free-market is the default position; where senior statesmen explain, say, the harmful effects of a minimum wage with the succinct clarity of a Walter Williams or a Milton Friedman. Imagine a nation where immigration is welcome but controlled carefully; where government has gently integrated a potentially incendiary melting-pot, not to enforce sameness but to ensure mutual understanding, tolerance and the shared responsibilities of nationhood. Imagine a fast-growing country that is among the richest, with neither private nor public debt problems. Imagine a government dedicated to strengthening civic and personal morality as best it can; where public and private corruption remain freak occurrences.

That place is Singapore, which within living memory went from being as poor as the worst nations in Africa to surpassing American per capita income. There virtue and economic growth still thrive thanks overwhelmingly to its founder and still-revered senior statesman, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew. He is the greatest and most successful leader of the 20th Century, and the wisest senior statesman in the 21st. In conventional terms of politics and policy he has been traditional without being hidebound, and innovative without ideology; meanwhile he remains, above all else, the most Imaginative Conservative to head any nation within a century.

These pages recently cited management guru Peter Drucker claiming the title for Winston Churchill. Churchill may well be the greatest wartime leader of the past century, and our debt to him is vast, but we focus almost exclusively on Westerners, ignore other cultures, and often associate greatness with massive invasions, fleets of tanks, and squadrons of bombers. Asian cultures reserve special admiration for leaders who made war unnecessary and let prosperity flourish.

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