He next turned his attention to the Chinese-speaking majority and was introduced to Lim Chin Siong and Fong Swee Suan, leaders of the influential bus and factories unions. While the unions had been infiltrated by communists, Lee consciously sought their support as he wanted a popular front. With elections approaching in 1955, Lee and his associates debated the name, ideology, and policies of the party they wanted to create
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Kuan_Yew
In a rally speech, Lee said he chose the Tanjong Pagar division as it was a "working class area" and that he did not want to represent "wealthy merchants or landlords".
During the campaigning period, the British press labelled Lee as a "commissar" and accused the PAP ( Peoples Action Party ) of being a "communist-backed party"
Seeking to exert greater pressure, Lee, Fong and Lim Chin Siong addressed the strikers on 1 May (May Day), where Lee called the government a "half-past six democracy". The strike subsequently escalated into a riot on 12 May
On 23 November 1958, the party constitution was amended to implement a cadre system. The right to vote in party elections and run for office were revoked from ordinary party members, whom now had to seek approval from the CEC to be a cadre and regain these privileges. Lee credited the Vatican system where the pope pre-selects its cardinals for the idea.
Lee reversed anti-colonial policies and launched a five-year plan to build new industries, seeking to attract foreign investors
Lee also introduced the People's Association, a government-linked organisation to run community centres and youth clubs, with its leaders trained to spread the PAP's ideology. Youth unemployment was alleviated by the establishment of work brigades.
Ong filed "16 resolutions" against the leadership, accusing Lee of failing to seek party consensus when deciding policy, not adhering to anti-colonialism and suspending left-wing unions. Lee regarded it as a move to split the party and together with his allies expelled Ong from the party
Beginning on 13 September 1961, Lee gave twelve multilingual radio speeches outlining the benefits of merger in what he called the 'Battle for Merger'. The speeches proved to be a massive success for Lee's campaign, while Barisan's demands for equal airtime were rejected. Lee employed full use of state resources to suppress his opponents by revoking the Barisan's printing permits, banning or relocating its rallies, and purging its supporters from the government, while the judiciary and police engaged to "obstruct, provoke and isolate" the party.
As the Malayans increased pressure on the Internal Security Council (ISC) to take action, Lee began supporting the idea of a purge in March 1962. The Malayan and Singapore special branches collaborated on an arrest list of major opposition members
On 2 February, Operation Coldstore commenced across Singapore, with 113 detained including Lim and 23 others from Barisan Sosialis. Lee offered Lim a path into exile which Lim rejected. The Malayans and British later pressured Lee to retract his comment when he said he "disapproved" of the operation.
In his memoirs, Lee portrayed himself as reluctant in supporting the operation, though declassified British documents revealed that Lee was "somewhat more enthusiastic" than he eventually admitted
future prime minister Mahathir Mohamad called the PAP "pro-Chinese, communist-oriented and positively anti-Malay", while others called for Lee's arrest under the Internal Security Act for trying to split the federation.[182] Mathathir in his speech stated the huaren (ethnic Chinese) of Singapore were of "the insular, selfish and arrogant type of which Mr. Lee is a good example...They are in fact Chinese first, seeing China as the center of the world and Malaysia as a very poor second".
In 1967, Nixon, who was running for president in 1968, visited Singapore and met with Lee, who advised that the United States had much to gain by engaging with China, culminating in Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China
This culminated in the exchange of Trade Offices between the two nations in September 1981.[277] In 1985, commercial air services between mainland China and Singapore commenced[278] and China appointed Goh Keng Swee, Singapore's finance minister in the post-independence years, as advisor on the development of Special Economic Zones.[279]
On 3 October 1990, Singapore revised diplomatic relations from the Republic of China to the People's Republic of China.
Lee also advised Thatcher while Britain was negotiating with China on the handover of Hong Kong
urged Fraser to reform the Australian economy, prompting the famous remark from Lee that Australia was in danger of becoming the "poor white trash of Asia"
The Singapore government organised an international campaign to condemn Vietnam and provided aid to the Khmer Rouge, which was fighting against Vietnamese occupation during the Cambodian–Vietnamese War from 1978 to 1989. In his memoirs, Lee recounted that in 1982, "Singapore gave the first few hundreds of several batches of AK-47 rifles, hand grenades, ammunition, and communication equipment" to the Khmer Rouge resistance forces.
Various world leaders have praised Lee's governance and political achievements. British Foreign Secretary George Brown called Lee "the best bloody Englishman east of Suez".[356] Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once wrote of Lee: "One of the asymmetries of history is the lack of correspondence between the abilities of some leaders and the power of their countries." Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher praised "his way of penetrating the fog of propaganda and expressing with unique clarity the issues of our time and the way to tackle them".[357] Former president of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev stated in his memoirs that after the independence of Kazakhstan from the Soviet Union in 1991, he met Lee and stated Lee's "observations and advice became for us [Kazakhstan] guidelines in the development of long-term state strategies."[358]
Lee's achievements in Singapore were a major source of inspiration on Communist leadership in China, who made a major effort, especially under Deng Xiaoping, to emulate his policies of economic growth, entrepreneurship and suppression of dissent
