In Memoriam Mr Lee Kuan Yew: 1923 - 2015

In Memoriam
Mr Lee Kuan Yew
1923 - 2015
In remembrance of the life and achievements
of Singapore’s founding Prime Minister.
NTU Logo: Flat artwork (Black background)

In 1959, when Mr Lee Kuan Yew
became the first Prime Minister of
Singapore at the age of 36, his first
priority was the welfare and survival
of the nation.
Over three decades, he transformed Singapore from
a Third World entrepôt into a First World nation. The
miraculous transformation of the city-state made him
one of the most influential and legendary political
leaders in the world.
Mr Lee saw education as a great equaliser and the
key to the nation’s survival. Together with his team,
he laid the foundations of a first-class education
system, amongst his many lifelong achievements
for Singapore.
Generations of NTU students are beneficiaries of his
vision, and countless more will reap the fruits of it.
Mr Lee would spend time getting to know students
and was particularly interested in understanding
their motivations and concerns, and would strike up
conversations with them on a wide range of topics.
In each student he saw the hope of the nation. Mr
Lee’s parents named him “Kuan Yew”, which means
“The light that shines far and wide”. His light will
guide us as we nurture the next generation who will
strengthen and sustain Singapore’s success.

Mr Lee took a personal interest in the development of NTU from its
early days. Then the Prime Minister of Singapore, he often visited the
campus unannounced, typically on Sundays, to observe how the
initial academic buildings were shaping up and even suggested
various improvements to benefit students.
For example, after one such visit, he suggested that a covered walkway be built as it could
get very hot walking from one building to another.
His personal touch on campus
This covered walkway was Mr Lee’s idea.
The same area which was originally exposed to the elements.

Wise words and a warm touch
Compact… sufficient to meet the needs of students.
3 February 1995, visit to NTU to learn more about its development
and efforts to support Singapore’s regionalisation drive
3 February 1995, visit to NTU

There are no limits to human ingenuity and
the capabilities of technology. The ultimate
limit is the capacity of this earth to sustain
the increasing number of human beings who
will consume more and more of the earth’s
resources in order to have all the comforts
which modern technology in high-income
societies have given the people.
On sustaining Singapore’s economic growth
We can overcome our basic disadvantage
of lack of natural resources by having our
people well-educated and trained to use
top-class infrastructure and state-of-the-art
technology in industries and services.
14 March 1996, 2nd Ministerial Forum at NTU

To succeed, Singapore must be a cosmopolitan centre, able to attract, retain and absorb talent from all over the world.
We cannot keep the big companies out of the local league. Whether we like it or not, they are entering the region.
The choice is simple. Either we have a first-class airline, a first-class shipping line, and a first-class bank or we will
be declining.
One of the things we did in the early years was to buck the Third World trend by inviting the MNCs and we succeeded.
Now we must buck the Third World trend to be nationalistic. We must be international in our outlook and practices.
When we started 30 years ago, we were competing in the small league and doing well. We have now moved upwards
into the bigger league. And technology has enabled the big players to enter our market. Now in a globalised economy,
we are in competition against other cities in the First World. Hence we have to become a cosmopolitan city that attracts
and welcomes talent in business, academia, or in the performing arts. They will add to Singapore’s vibrancy and secure
our place in a global network of cities of excellence.
15 February 2000, 6th Ministerial Forum at NTU.
On Competing In The Global EconomyOn competing in the global economy

You live once, you die once. For my colleagues
and me, we went through a traumatic
experience, of seeing the world that we were
brought up in crash at a very impressionable
age. In 1942, I was just reaching 19 and the
world that I knew just blacked out. We were
under Japanese Occupation and I can tell you
it’s an unnerving experience…
You have been able to get into a university,
you’ve been able to live this kind of life because
this society gave it to you… At the end of the
day, the test is whether you feel, having been
educated, you should take your chances and
get the best job in the safest place in the world
On his conviction to lead Singapore
and opt out, or that this is your people, this
is your society, they sustain you and it is
your job to make sure that they have a future
Somewhere along the way, we decided that
we owe it to ourselves that we live up to this
obligation and my friends and I have never
regretted it.
18 February 2003, 9th Ministerial Forum at NTU

When we became independent, it was not easy to inculcate
a sense of nationhood to bind together peoples of different
races, languages, religions and cultures, each with strong
emotional ties to their roots. Over the forty-five years since
self-government, Singapore has made much progress to
develop a strong sense of nationhood. And Singapore
continues to receive skilled and talented people.
On nationhood
23 June 2004, at the International Conference on National Boundaries & Cultural Configurations
held to celebrate the 10th anniversary of NTU’s Centre for Chinese Language & Culture.

A great university becomes great when the graduates of
that university establish their pre-eminence in the fields
that they work in.
8 January 2007, visit to NTU
On what makes a university great

On the dangers of complacency
We risk being overtaken by surprise. Because the prospects for the next five, probably 10 years, are
favourable to Singapore; we are confident of riding the high growth of East Asia and South Asia, China,
Korea, Japan, India, the Gulf States, so we tend to be complacent, and ignore warning signs that things
could go wrong. Setbacks could come suddenly…
When my colleagues and I started, I did not know what branding meant. All my colleagues and I knew was
that we were and had to be very different from the way our neighbours were run. They have the natural
resources – forests, rivers, coal and iron, tin mines, oil, gas, plantations, etc. We have only a location –
a strategic position on the sea routes between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific…
Our future depends on Singaporeans realising that we always have to be different, cleaner, more transparent,
more efficient, always better. Then we’ll survive the competition against those with bigger girth, oil, gas,
forest, rivers... And the next 40 years, if we heed those principles, we should do as well
as the last 40 years, provided we change each time the world changes.
4 October 2007, 12th Ministerial Forum at NTU

It doesn’t matter what level [students] reach, they will
like the language [if the lessons are engaging], it’s fun
and later on in life they’ll use it.
17 November 2009, at the opening of the Singapore Centre for Chinese Language, NTU
On bilingualism

So my worry about the future is whether we’ll have the same national solidarity, the same desire
to increase educational levels and increase performance, and having the best people in the
best jobs or holding the most important jobs. Once we veer away from that eritocratic system,
our performance will drop.
5 September 2011, 15th Ministerial Forum at NTU
On what singapore can do to stay ahead

On his philantrophic works
The proceeds from the sale of special editions of Mr Lee’s memoirs, The Singapore Story:
Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew, raised $110,500 for the NTU Endowment Fund for the award of Lee
Kuan Yew Gold Medals to NTU’s top graduating students. Here, Mr Lee presents the cheque to
the first President of NTU, Prof Cham Tao Soon.
A cheque-presentation ceremony to mark his donation to the NTU Endowment Fund on 21 November 1998
The Lee Kuan Yew Gold Medal
Lee Kuan Yew Gold Medals are awarded from the interest generated
from net proceeds from the sale of a CD-ROM on the then-Senior
Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew. The prestigious gold medals are awarded
to the most outstanding students who are first in general proficiency
throughout their studies and who have obtained a First Class Honours
in each Bachelor’s degree programme.

Thousands paying their respect to the late PM

Honors the great, former Prime Minister

Tailing the history of Prime Minsiter’s life events

In Memoriam Mr Lee Kuan Yew: 1923 - 2015

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