Excerpts from an International Herald Tribune interview with Lee Kuan Yew

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

The following are excerpts from an interview with Lee Kuan Yew, who served as prime minister of Singapore from 1959, when it gained partial independence from Britain, until he stepped down in 1990. He is currently minister mentor.

The interview took place at the Istana, where the Singapore president and prime minister work, on Aug. 24, 2007. Lee was questioned by Leonard M. Apcar, deputy managing editor of the International Herald Tribune, Wayne Arnold, a Singapore correspondent, and Seth Mydans, Southeast Asia bureau chief.

On Social Changes

IHT: You and others have also talked about the need to open Singapore up a little bit more in the modern world of fast moving technology and information and communications.

Lee Kuan Yew: No other way.

IHT: No other way. But this is going slowly. Former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong talked about thinking and acting like revolutionaries. It was very hard to decree looseness and boldness. But is this a direction that you would like to go in?

Lee Kuan Yew: No, I think we have to go in whatever direction world conditions dictate if we are to survive and to be part of this modern world. If we are not connected to this modern world, we are dead. We'll go back to the fishing village we once were.

IHT: The marketplace of ideas is so often discussed outside of Singapore. You have said it is a beneficial notion so that there will be a ferment and growth. But . . .

Lee Kuan Yew: If we don't have that stimulus, if we are not connected to the world and know what's going on, how could we keep abreast of it? How can we know where the action is? Where are the expanding sectors we should be in?

IHT: But won't that require a greater opening up of society here? A loosening of the press, of free speech, of political competition?

Lee Kuan Yew: You're giving me the classical . . .

IHT: I am, I want to . . .

Lee Kuan Yew: No, the classical, Western, liberal approach.

IHT: It's not my practice . . .

Lee Kuan Yew: No, no. It's the Western, classical, liberal approach.

IHT: Right.

Lee Kuan Yew: I'm giving you the answer of a pragmatist.

IHT: That's what I want to hear.

Lee Kuan Yew: For the top 20 percent of the population, there are no constraints there. I would say . . . top 20 percent, the educated population. They're educated abroad, at university.

So, they know the wide world and they are on the Internet and they've got friends, they e-mail them. They travel. Every year, about 50 percent of Singaporeans travel by air.

So, this is not a closed society. But at the same time, we try to maintain a certain balance with the people who are not finding it so comfortable to suddenly find the world changed, their world, their sense of place, their sense of position in society.

We call them the heartlanders in the HDB estates [government housing developments], the people who live in three- and four-room flats. Three and four rooms are the lowest end. Five rooms and the executives are the upper end.

And so we have this dichotomy. You can read the analysis by our academics who wrote that we are using the heartlanders to keep progress in check.

But they have not governed the place. (laughs) The academics, they write these things from abstract analysis. Like gays, we take an ambiguous position. We say, O.K., leave them alone but let's leave the law as it is for the time being and let's have no gay parades.

IHT: Don't ask, don't tell?

Lee Kuan Yew: Yes, we've got to go the way the world is going. China has already allowed and recognized gays, so have Hong Kong and Taiwan.

It's a matter of time. But we have a part Muslim population, another part conservative older Chinese and Indians. So, let's go slowly. It's a pragmatic approach to maintain social cohesion.

On Global Warming

IHT: What about the risks to Singapore, what are the risks to Singapore in those scenarios?

Lee Kuan Yew: Oh! We are already in consultations with Delft in Holland to learn how we can build dikes!

IHT: Is that right?

Lee Kuan Yew: Oh, yes! Let's start thinking about it now.

IHT: Are you serious?

Lee Kuan Yew: We are. We are in consultations with them.

It scares me because many world leaders have not woken up to the peril that their populations are in.

This melting ice cap. I expected great consternation! What would happen to this earth? But, no. Has it triggered off emergency meetings to do something about this?

Earth warming, the glaciers melting away? Never mind the Swiss Alps and skiing resorts having to manufacture snow. When the glaciers in the Himalayas and Tibet melt away, the Ganges, the Yangtze, the Irrawaddy, the Mekong, may dry up, except for rainy seasons. What will happen to the hundreds of millions? Where do they go? Where can they go? This will be a very serious problem.

IHT: Why don't you think the world isn't focusing on this?

Lee Kuan Yew: Because it's not an election issue. You know maybe 50 years, a 100 years, most of us would be dead. Leave it to the next president.

IHT: That's human nature isn't it? But it doesn't seem to be the way Singapore operates. You're taking a lot of pains . . .

Lee Kuan Yew: Because we are too vulnerable. If the water goes up by one meter, we can have dikes and save ourselves. If the water goes up by three, four, five meters, (laughs) what will happen to us? Half of Singapore will disappear! The valuable half - the seafronts!

Well, let us say, it has gone up to one meter and we have protected ourselves. But our neighboring islands have disappeared! And then Indonesia may not have 30,000 islands - many will be under water.

IHT: Yeah, so what's the answer to that, cap and trade [referring to a program to cap emissions and trade pollution allowances] or can you somehow tax industry a carbon tax of some sort?

Lee Kuan Yew: If you ask me, I think you can ameliorate this problem. But you cannot solve it. Because our dependency on energy will only grow - can only grow. 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."

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

IHT: Can I come back to something that I just want to close the loop so I understand exactly what you're saying. We talked about openness and whatnot. And you said, "Oh for the top 20 percent or so of Singaporean society, it's open. Fifty percent travel, the rest are educated. They know the West. They're connected. Openness for them is a matter of . . .

Lee Kuan Yew: It's a fact!

On Cultural Assimilation and Value Attrition

IHT: It's a fact. But what I don't quite follow is that are you saying that over time this will permeate Singaporean society as well? I'm not sure I understand that . . .

Lee Kuan Yew: I'm not sure how it will develop. Let me explain why I say I'm not sure. We are placed in a very unusual environment. And you cannot divorce yourself from your environment. Right?

If we were Malta, we would have joined the European Union, we would have a different backdrop. But we are Asean. And you've got to live with your neighbors, neighbors at a different level of societal development. What they think and do has to be factored into consideration to decide what we can do.

IHT: Let me connect one more thought here that I am not clear about. In this more open, interconnected world where the educated and the elites are traveling and easily moving all over the world, what does this do to Asian values? Does it inevitably dilute them?

Lee Kuan Yew: It's already diluted and we can see it in the difference between the generations. It's inevitable. One of the things we did which we knew would call for a big price was to switch from our own languages into English.

We had Chinese, Malay, Indian schools - separate language medium schools. The British ran a small English school sector to produce clerks, storekeepers, teachers for the British. Had we chosen Chinese, which was our majority language, we would have perished, economically and politically.

Riots - we've seen Sri Lanka, when they switched from English to Sinhalese and disenfranchised the Tamils and so strife ever after.

We chose - we didn't say it was our national language - we said it was our working language, that everybody learns English whatever language medium school you go to. Which means nobody needs interpretation to read English.

So, our sources of culture, literature, ideas are now more from the English text than from the Chinese or the Malay or the Tamil.

So, there's a clear difference between the grandfathers and the grandchildren. Look, my grandchildren, never mind the grandfather, their Chinese is not equal to their parents' Chinese.

My children were educated in what were then Chinese schools and they learned English as a subject. But they made up when they went to English-language universities. So they didn't lose out. They had a basic set of traditional Confucian values. Not my grandchildren.

I've got one grandson gone to MIT. Another grandson had been in the American school here. Because he was dyslexic and we then didn't have the teachers to teach him how to overcome or cope with his dyslexia, so he was given exemption to go to the American school. He speaks like an American. He's going to Wharton.

Between him and his father, there's a clear breach in cultural continuity - never mind between him and me.

But that's the top 20 percent, right?

For the majority in the heartlands, they don't go to American schools or have that exposure. But from 20, it will become 30 percent going to tertiary institutions, universities.

You asked me to predict what it will be in 50 years or even 20 years. I cannot, because we have left our moorings.


On Political Dominance and Kamikaze

IHT: Well, what about your opponents? Do you ever feel that, looking back now, maybe I didn't have to go that far?

Lee Kuan Yew: My political opponents, you mean?

IHT: Uhm-hmm.

Lee Kuan Yew: No, I don't think so. I never killed them. I never destroyed them. Politically, they destroyed themselves.

IHT: To what extent can you replicate the Singapore model in other countries? Does it work?

Lee Kuan Yew: Supposing we had oil and gas, do you think I could get the people to do this? No. If I had oil and gas I'd have a different people, with different motivations and expectations. It's because we don't have oil and gas and they know that we don't have, and they know that this progress comes from their efforts. So please do it and do it well.

We are ideology-free. What would make the place work, let's do it.

IHT: Thank you.

Looks are deceiving

I thought there were two lesbians on the train on the NE Line testing out Singapore's "ambiguous" anti-gay laws.

The two of them were hugging and almost kissing.

Then I found out that the less butch, or more feminine if you wish, of the two was a guy.

Random Thoughts

A running tune in my head:
The strain in Spain stays mainly in the sprain.
{The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plains.
The rain in Spain sprays mainly in the plains causing sprains...)

I'll sooner go nuts than later.

I intend to sign the Advanced Medical Directive eventually so that when I am a vegetable, doctors need not go to extreme lenghts to keep me alive. They can halt all treatments when I become kale. When I'm still a cabbage, they should not pull the plug or throw in the towel.

Some kids are meant for academia; others are macadamia.

Update on 5 Sep: wondering to delete this or publish this. What the heck. I'm human after all. Let it be a pistachio moment!

First Timer at Overworked Anonymous

Good day everyone. My name is...

Gimme a minute. I think that's my boss on the line. Probably something urgent. Excuse me while I take the call.

(15 minutes later.)

Oh, sorry. You mean you've finished introducing everyone and are waiting for me? Oh, I'm so sorry.

Damn beep. Must be an urgent text message. I'm going to ign...

Damn! Again? Sorry. 15 seconds, ok? 15 seconds.

(Reads text messages.)

Oh, I'm so sorry. I urgently need to reply to these messages. They simply can't do without me. He he... I so sorry.

Ok, back to you all.

My name is...

Damn phone call! It's my boss' boss. I thought I already... tsk tsk tsk.

I'm really sorry. Look, I know I should not be doing this. I think I really have to take this call. I really need this job you know. I'll keep it to 10 minutes.

Don't stare at me like that. I said I'm sorry.

Ok, 5 minutes. 5 minutes and I'll be back.

(50 minutes later.)

Eh? Where is everybody?

The Lost Dr Seuss Poem: I Love My Job

I love my job, I love the pay!
I love it more and more each day.
I love my boss he is the best!
I love his boss and all the rest.

I love my office and its location, I hate to have to go on vacation
I love my furniture, drab and gray, and piles of paper that grow each day
I think my job is really swell, there's nothing else I love so well
I love to work among my peers, I love their leers and jeers and sneers
I love my computer and its software;
I hug it often though it won't care. I love each program and every file
I'd love them more if they worked a while.

I am happy to be here. I am. I am.
I'm the happiest slave of the firm, I am.
I love this work, I love these chores.
I love the meetings with deadly bores.
I love my job - I'll say it again -I even love those friendly men
Those friendly men who've come today,
In clean white coats to take me away!!!!

Dreamland Deja Vu

I had a dream two nights ago. Amazingly, I was in the same setting as a dream many weeks before.

It was about me either jumping over some hurdle and across a ditch (in the same leap) or in reverse fashion.

I made a mental note to write it down when I woke up in the morning but alas, when I woke up, I could not remember a thing.

But the setting in the dream was the same.

Sometimes I wish I can awaken my subconscious or even remember my past. How wonderful it would be. I wonder if I'm getting there.

The Dearth of Reaffirmation

Perhaps it is the reticent Asian ways. Or maybe it is the general reluctance of Asians to openly show approval or encouragement. Maybe Asians believe stinting on praises inspire people to shore up their performance in order to earn them. Or maybe Asians just take others for granted.

I am not sure. I am Asian myself.

Asian examiners and examination scorers hold fast to the belief that there is no such thing as a perfect performance. No essay should score more than 8 out of 10. Any Asian marker would rather be caught dead than award the score that a sublime essay truly deserves.

I used to be like that. However, the world out there does not bear this perverted mentality out.

Olympic gymnasts score 10.0 - the perfect score. Divers score close to perfect scores for well-executed dives. If the panel consists of Asian adjudicators, they'll all score less than 80%.

Asians need a fundamental review of such a mindset.

Where to go for vacation?

You know, I am stumped this year. I have not taken a real vacation - those day trips across the Causeway to Malaysia don't count - and I have absolutely no idea where to go.

The only place where I had an interest to (re)visit is NYC but there are no more tickets for early December.

I admit budget is another consideration. I so am hell not going to spend on a bomb on places which I do not exactly fancy, like some southern hemisphere destinations, or for that matter, destinations within 4 flight hours of Singapore.

My longest trip so far this year is a 32-hour Beijing work trip.

Where should I go? I don't want to do a traveller's trip - they are so sterile. I want to meet real folks and visit every day places, where I can get into their lives and see how folks elsewhere live.

Either my standards are getting higher again or I am going back to the basics. I just think I have learned to appreciate life better.

Haircuts

Just had a haircut on Friday evening.

My usual barber had left just 10 minutes before I arrived; my fault for not calling him to tell him about my visit earler. I let his partner - the guy he shared the shop with - cut my hair instead.

The feeling after a haircut actually tells you if the job was done satisfactorily.

Although this guy is new to my mop of natural curls, he did a reasonably good job. Meticulous and careful. He trimmed the hair and tried to replicate what my usual barber would have done.

In the end, it was still a trifle short of my expectations. But I must say that his earnesty and dedication left me with a deep impression. I went away feeling that my hair had been given a good treatment and I felt great.

Does not mean that I would give my usual barber a miss, but there is at least one other whom I could turn to for my wilful mop of curls.

[For the record, I keep the hair short enough so the effect of the curls is merely to keep the hair in place. My hair looks permanently styled without gel. And today, a colleague said I look "cute" with my new haircut. It works, since I get the same comments after each haircut.]

A badly done haircut is a pain altogether. My sister, who had her hair cut this afternoon, was bitching about how badly the job was done. It was, since it looked worse than a mangled poodle's coat. She was evidently not happy with the works.

My point? Well, not much of a point. Just that a good haircut is probably a great mood enhancer and sure beats loads of hair styling products.

I'm not wrong to...

There are a lot of posts of morals and ethics recently, both on my blogs as well as some blogs I'm reading.

The problems arise because different people guard different goal posts for the morals and ethics that they hold close to them.

As a result, no one thinks s/he is wrong. Often, one also thinks s/he may not be right.

This dilemma is called "moral relativism", one which moderate, thinking, sensible adults face.

How do we get remove the dilemma? There is no right or wrong or quick answer. It would also be naive to believe that by becoming a "moral or ethical absolutist", such problems will go away.

They never will because even absolute morals or ethics are not universal.

So you ask, do we then wring our hands in despair?

I don't think so. We should not do that. Instead, think of universal love. Do unto others what you would do unto your loved ones, your wife/husband, your parents, your children.

For example, if you won't feed them concrete dust enhanced walnut cookies, don't expect the rest of the world to eat them.

Perhaps by appealing to love, things might take a change for the better.

Suicide

(A good blonde joke to brighten up your day.)

A blonde hurried into the hospital emergency room late one night with the tip of her index finger shot off.

"How did this happen?," the emergency room doctor asked her.

"Well, I was trying to commit suicide," the blonde replied.

"What?" sputtered the doctor? "You tried to commit suicide by shooting off the tip of your finger?"

"No, silly!" the blonde said. "First, I put the gun to my chest, and I thought, 'I just paid $6,000 for these; I'm not shooting myself in the chest."

"So then?" asked the doctor.

"Then I put the gun in my mouth, and I thought, 'I just paid $3,000 to get my teeth straightened; I'm not shooting myself in the mouth."

"So, then?"

"Then I put the gun to my ear, and I thought 'This is going to make a loud noise, so I put my finger in the other ear before I pulled the trigger."

Made in China

Was famished during the latter part of the day yesterday. No surprise that I actually digested my noodles lunch much faster than I did.

Went for dinner at the food centre near the former Housing & Development Board at Bukit Merah and after that, walked around a bit.

Stopped outside the NTUC supermarket. They had an entire range of biscuits on sale. Normally, you could never hold me back from buying nicely packed biscuits. Even if I buy them and eventually have to give them away, I'd gladly do it. It's just a bad habit, if you might. These biscuits looked especially tempting for afternoon tea time, especially if my hunger pangs attack.

I picked up a purple pack which screamed "Walnut Cookies" in cute cartoon Chinese letters.

Then I placed it back, took a second glance and walked off shaking my head.

No way am I feeding myself "Made in China" cookies. Who knows what flour they used. Perhaps they are fortified with ground concrete from the buildings they had torn down. Or termite digested wood dust?

Commonsense is NOT common

I am not here to pass a judgement or criticise anyone or his/her beliefs. I hope to appeal to commonsense.

Suppose, I say suppose, all "albino lepers with life threatening diseases" are gay and vice versa. Suppose that these gay albino lepers with life threatening diseases are offsprings of "seemingly perfectly normal" parents.

Would you raise a moral ruckus about them being gay?

Would you even moralise that being gay was going to condemn them to burn in the eternal flames of hell?

Would you deny them the rights of at least domestic partnership or civil union to help them live out their lives meaningfully?

In good sense, I would agree that the State criminalises their performing gross acts or attempting solicitation in public. However, would you require the legislation to be extended to their consensual actions in their private sancta, away from public eyes?

This post was written some time ago and edited for currency today. I held it back because of several reasons, one of which was to see if any Singaporean shared my thoughts. Today, in the Singapore broadsheet, "The Straits Times", I noticed an article where 4 out of 5 graduates, some pursuing post-graduate degrees, supported a re-think of gay rights and laws. This is in stark contrast to the earlier claim that "6 out of 10 heartlanders" opposed to homosexualism in a survey, which was criticised for poor question phrasing.

Before you start calling me names, this post is not meant to be controversial or to add to the fire that the writers started. It is to be educational - at least for me.

Shade, one of my readers, mentioned that the repeal of the gay laws was difficult because of a "vocal minority" who happens to be of certain religious affiliation. I tried recalling from my readings of the religious texts of three different religions if there were anything said about this topic.

I am unsuccessful, given my shallow knowledge.

I'm just very curious where is it explicitly written in any religious scriptures or teachings that gays ought to burn in hell or words to express eternal condemnation of such people.

As far as I know, religions teach us to love one another regardless. However, Man has imposed personal values, personal morals and personal judgements on religion, which was meant to be bias-free.

For example, for couples with the ability to bring the love to the next levels and eventually either end in marriage or child bearing, it seemed normal and logical. However, the goal-posts for the sanctity of the institution of marriage have moved with the times. Society is seeing more divorces, more desertions, more domestic maid-raised kids and more unwanted pregnancies. Society has also kept silent on extra-marital affairs and pre-marital sex. Yet, homosexual acts, which can also be monogamous, are "immoral".

Recently, Minister-Mentor Lee spoke in public that being gay was "genetic", i.e. it was not by choice. His words did not go down well with the masses. However, if a person would think logically, all living things have been designed to facilitate the survival of the fittest. Think mimicry, ageing, sickness, asexual reproduction, androgyny. Homosexuality is also one form of natural selection.

Appealing to Darwinian theory on the survival of the fittest, would one consider the argument that gay gene being latent in all humans but it is activated for people who need to be genetically pre-disposed towards extinction? That is, they become gay when their genes are no longer strong enough or desirable enough to re-enter the gene pool for the next generation.

If nature has dealt these people a bad hand, is nurture going to make it worse?

Are these people not entitled to a companion to live out their lives with a companion equally afflicted in both genetics and orientation? Imagine the initial feeling when one discovers s/he is only attracted to other people with the same equipment as he/she has when "everyone else" sought out complementary equipments.

It may seem trivial but would any person choose to marginalise himself or herself VOLUNTARILY? If underneath the normal looking gay guy/gal is really an "albino leper with life threatening diseases", would heterosexual holy matrimony bring about marital bliss? Would there be real love? Or would we see a never-ending run of Brokeback Mountain (gay guys in straight marriages seeking out private trysts)?

What happened to all the teachings about love REGARDLESS?


This blogger supports the repeal of Section 377 and repeal/amendments to Section 377A of the Singapore Penal Code.

New Terrorism?

18 million toys recalled because of lead paint fears. Those numbers really made my eyes pop out. Imagine if each toy cost $1. It'll be $18 million!

And that on the back of recalls involving faulty tyres, toxic toothpaste, toxic petfood and seafood.

Smacks of a new kind of terrorism where you pay to have yourself killed.

While the producers of such products can be sued for whatever ill-motives you can trump against them, consumers also need to ask themselves if they really, indeed, need another one of those "Murder Me" Elmos sitting on the product shelf looking at you with inviting eyes.

An Unexpected Award

Fraser nominated me for the "Nice Matters Award". He describes me as one of the "folks who should be considered for the 'Nice Matters Award', or the 'Okay Sort of Person Award'."

It's amazing how a simple act like this makes you perk up. It is especially touching when it comes from a cyber-friend whom you've never met - except through writing and stills.

Thank you so much, Mr Stern! Thank you for being so nice a fellow friend as well.

Best to carry a prescription list

Went for my usual check-up at SGH yesterday.

It was a new doctor attending to me; the last went on a secondment to earn more moolah at one of Singapore's leading private hospitals.

To cut the very long story short, the new doctor first missed one regular medicine. It was only when I recalled the name of the medicine that he managed to find it on the drop down list. *GASP!*

Then he prescribed the wrong dosages. It took me nearly 2 hours (over an hour waiting and a good period waiting for the pharmacist to contact the doctor to get the prescription changed) before I managed to get my medicine.

As a highly educated young guy, I have the frame of mind and ability to remember the medicines I take. Even if I could not remember the exact dosages, I remember the colour of the pills.

Imagine an old folk or a less meticulous person taking back the under-strengthed medicine. I hate to think of the consequences.

Moral of the story: Carry your prescription list with you at all times. Or else, summarise it into a credit card sized card and slot in your wallet. Show it to the doctor! Maybe that's why Medic Awas is such a great idea for folks in general.

An Example of A Selfless Mentor

Kai Tak and my rodeo kid
How I nearly took away his chance to do that last dance

Elmo Jayawardena

11 August 2007
TODAY (Singapore)

A FEW months back, I was in Hong Kong visiting a charity organisation to seek assistance for a project. They had an enormous warehouse filled to the brim with anything and everything - ready to be sent to places where people in need pleaded.

The store surroundings looked familiar. Then I realised I was standing where the old Kai Tak airport was - now pastured and replaced by the glamour of the new Hong Kong International Airport.

Yes, I have been there before; many times at that, bringing jet aeroplanes in to land on runway 13, turning at the famous chequered board at 600 feet and pointing at the short runway besieged by the sea.

The final turn and approach was made between skyscrapers that stood on either side like sentinels and one could spot the laundry hanging outside the windows of flats (picture).

The chequered board was fixed to the mountainside; a big board with orange and yellow squares, clearly to say "turn now, beyond this is damnation".

That was Kai Tak, surrounded by hills, minimum length to stop and the weather gods playing their fancy games so often that we, mere mortals who flew the machines, were nothing but puppets on a string.

But we managed, day in and day out, to put our aeroplanes down and brake like crazy to make sure we didn't overrun and tip into the water.

When the skies were friendly, it was a thrill to land at Kai Tak. The runway usually was 13 and the wind rolled from the east, nice and steady. Coming past Green Island, we see the chequered board in front, telling us we have to change direction lest we, too, get pasted on the same mountain.

Then came the turn, low and precise, to make the final approach; and the laundry run, to fly between the buildings and place the wheels precisely at touchdown point to avoid going swimming.

Each time a pilot landed in Hong Kong in the olden days, there was that gleam in the eye.

I've seen it a hundred times in my co-pilots and I've felt the same whenever I made the approach; the accomplishment of doing something right where the demand was high which made the adrenalin go on over-drive.

During a typhoon, it was a different story altogether.

The winds sheared, gusted, backed and veered and the rain swept across the field, diminishing visibility. Dark grey clouds hung low, covering the mountains and the chequered board was hardly visible.

We went in by the leading lights, which were very powerful strobes that throbbed, giving us a path to follow to take us to the laundry lane - all this with the wind playing a wild symphony and the rain pattering down like machine-gun fire.

Most times, lining up on the runway for the short final run was almost impossible and that is where a pilot's skill mattered, kicking rudders and wagging wings like a mad man playing drums just so the aeroplane landed and stopped all within that little wet and slippery runway, with
the sea awaiting with open jaws for a luckless pilot's mistake.

I remember my last flight to Kai Tak, in the June of 1998. I left home determined to do the landing. Most days, I would let the co-pilot fly. I've seen a lot of this airfield and the younger pilots were always grateful for a swing at Hong Kong.

But this was my final flight to Kai Tak and I saved the last dance for me, just like the Drifters sang.

The co-pilot was young and he mentioned he'd never landed in Hong Kong. It was a hard call - I could not let this young man go and run through a flying career having never landed in Kai Tak.

Maybe years later, his first-officer would ask about the infamous Kai Tak approach and my friend would have to answer that he never did it.

All in all, the deck was stacked against me. There is something called professional courtesy and out went my last dance - "son, you take it to Hong Kong".

The weather was bad, the winds were howling, and we went in. The young man turned at 600 feet and the aircraft was bucking and jumping and he hung in there like a rodeo kid, but that wasn't enough.

Three hundred feet to go, we were pointing at mountains and the field was almost below us and then I took over and went around to the safety of the sky.

In an aeroplane, if I ever took over from a co-pilot, I never gave it back. I flew it and landed it - that was the golden rule, the safe approach.

The rodeo kid and I were now loitering in the sky to await our turn to make the next run. Then it hit me like a thunderbolt.

The same co-pilot, years later, would be a captain. And when his co-pilot asked him about Kai Tak and how it was to fly in, he would have to say: "I got one chance and I blew it. Couldn't make the field and the captain had to take over."

There was no way I could crucify this young man's soul, make him poor as gutter water in a field where professional prestige mattered most.

"Son, you take it in - go and land this aeroplane."

That's precisely what he did. He waltzed with the wind, came through the clouds, turned at the chequered board, flew down the laundry lane and lined up the big 747 on the short runway to land as smooth as Mr Neil did on the moon.

Then I saw the glitter in his eye. Last dance or no dance, I wouldn't have traded anything for that look - that's what flying was all about.

It is possible that my rodeo-kid friend would read what I write and remember. It was all between him and me and the old Kai Tak Airport.

He, I am sure, is by now a captain. I like to think that he, too, would at times give away his turn to dance just to see the gleam in a fledgling's eyes. That should be the legacy.

If not, what would we be worth as professional pilots?


The writer served SIA for 19 years as a 747 captain and instructor. He is also the founder/president of AFLAC International (www.aflacinternational.com ), a humanitarian organisation.

Happy 42nd National Day, Singapore!

It's time to leave your emotional baggage behind and go for a makeover.

Leave the cursed colonial legacies behind.

Update your social laws to the 21st century.

Awaken yourself to the needs of the diverse nation you want to be.

Come alive!

Singapore's 42nd National Day

Some things I hope to see in Singapore

1. Better road transportation.
Fewer cars, better and more considerate drivers, high road usage charge for congested areas, extremely high petrol taxes, affordable public transportation with extensive network and good plying frequencies.

2. Less time for the world out there, more time for me and my loved ones.
If work-life balance is to be achieved, there is a need to kill more than just the 5.5-day work week sacred cow. We are still made to appear 44.5 hours in office (at least) weekly. However, I work in the night to meet incredulous deadlines! Therefore, there should be a fundamental re-think about the hours in the office.

3. Benefits for Single Singaporeans.
For a start, allowing single Singaporeans to own government flats at an earlier age and at least ONE subsidy. Recognise domestic partnerships for gay couples. Allow single Singaporeans a lower tax rate at lower income ranges. Extend pro-rated family benefits to singles and those in domestic partnerships. Allow use of medisave in domestic partnerships.

4. Enforce and raid heinous crimes, but do not intrude into private, harmless acts.
The police has come out to say that they would stay out of bedrooms of consenting adults. Heartening news indeed.

5. Diversity means tolerance.
Manage possible provocation arising from social issues (outside of religious and racial lines). Only this way can Singapore be able to expand the citizens' scope to what the real world out there really is. Differences are to be respected and tolerated, not discriminated against or persecuted.

6. Tweak the education system.
Celebrate inabilities. Not all are cut out to be top scholars. Some school failures were great businessmen making lots of money. Some have become the pride of the country. Provide more avenues for these people to thrive. Abolish compulsory education beyond 8 years. By 14 or 15, one would know if education or further studies are suitable for the child. Do not waste another two years of his or her life. Let them progress to technical, performing, art, whatever school.

If we can get these, it would be a start.

So easy yet so difficult

Why?

Why is it so easy for two people who have committed to stay together to as naturally decide that it is time to go their own ways?

Is the institution called Marriage so fragile, so unaccommodating, so ephemeral? Is it not possible to keep the love in the marriage? Does marriage always have to be the graveyard of love?

Rodney Atkins thinks not. See how easy it is, so long as one has the faith and the other has the love.

Honesty (Write Me A List)

By Rodney Atkins

He said: "Just think it over, and write me a list,
"So we can figure out what we both deserve."
She hardly could believe it, that their love had come to this:
Dividing an' deciding his and hers.
But she grabbed a paper napkin, an' asked the waitress for a pen.
An' one by one, she wrote down what she wanted most from him.

"Honesty, sincerity, tenderness and trust.
"A little less time for the rest of the world,
"And more for the two of us.
"Kisses each mornin', 'I love you's' at night,
"Just like it used to be.
"The way life was when you were in love with me."

She reached across the table an' placed it in his hand,
An' said: "You know this isn't easy for me."
As he thought about the new car, the house an' the land,
An' wondered what that bottom line would be.
An' a thousand other things that she'd want him to leave behind,
But he never dreamed he'd open up that napkin and find:

"Honesty, sincerity, tenderness and trust.
"A little less time for the rest of the world,
"And more for the two of us.
"Kisses each mornin', 'I love you's' at night,
"Just like it used to be.
"The way life was when you were in love with me."

Well, he fought back the tears, as he looked in her eyes,
An' said: "I don't know where to start."
An' she said: "Everything on that list in your hand,
"Is hidden somewhere in your heart.

"Honesty, sincerity, just like it used to be.
"The way life was when you were in love with me."

Goodbye July 2007

An entire month
Sick - tonsilitis, sinusitis
Stuck with endless work

Have no time to rest
On receiving end of scolding for fault not mine
Living day-by-day, no second-by-second
Every day is living torture

Makes me want to puke
One bout of cought after another
No medicine seemed strong enough
The early month recurring fevers
Hacking cough ripping apart my lugs

Let's hope August brings better tidings.