MOSCOW - WHILE the dialogue a day earlier had focused on the big picture and global policies, 10 students handpicked to attend a tea session with Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew in Moscow on Monday had very different sort of questions on their minds.
They were more interested in his personal experiences.
And MM Lee obliged, speaking frankly about the challenges he faced in his early years, his regrets in life and his approach to politics.
He also responded to a question on whether he had anything to do with his son, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, becoming prime minister. But he could not resist taking a jab at the student asking it.
MM Lee said: 'That question has been thrown at me a 1,001 times. I did not appoint my son. I appointed somebody else prime minister, who was my successor, and he stayed in the job for 14 years. And he chose my son to be his deputy. I did not arrange that.
'After five years, nobody doubts that he is able to do his job better than anybody else, so the question has stopped being asked.'
On Sunday, MM Lee was at a dialogue with students from the Skolkovo Moscow School of Management as he attended the opening of its new campus. One of the first questions posed was about his secret to motivating people. His answer: Speak their language.
He spoke of his attempt to learn all the major languages in Singapore during the early days of the PAP: 'I learnt to speak the languages of the common man, which was Malay and basic English - not BBC English. In other words, disjointed grammar, Malay sentences with English words.'
It was the same with Chinese. But he told students on Monday that the need to campaign in all three languages during the elections was exhausting, and it took its toll on him.
He recalled an occasion when he did a multilingual broadcast at a radio station. He was so tired at one point that the staff thought he had disappeared from the studio: 'I was missing. They came to look for me. I was lying on the floor to recover my breath. It was really an effort,' he said.
By Jeremy Au Yong
" He also responded to a question on whether he had anything to do with his son, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, becoming prime minister....
...MM
Lee said: 'That question has been thrown at me a 1,001 times.... 'After
five years, nobody doubts that he is able to do his job better than
anybody else, so the question has stopped being asked."
5 years
is about 1800+ days. If the question has really been asked to him a
thousand of times, people must have been asking him the question about
once every 2 days, how then can he say the question has stopped being
asked? If people had asked him more times (e.g. 5-6 times a day) last
time, then it can account for the questions having stopped - but then,
it would also show that he never satisfactorily answered the question,
resulting in people re-asking it.
Nonetheless, how can he try to
justify himself by saying, "the question has stopped being asked", when
someone just asked the question? It's quite apparent that people are
still not convinced that things had been the way he said, and that's
why young people still ask the question. The older ones probably
refrain from doing so since we're under the impression that we won't
get a truthful answer anyway.
Originally posted by ChangeCanHappen:Nonetheless, how can he try to justify himself by saying, "the question has stopped being asked", when someone just asked the question?
Yup, and how can he say that Junior "is able to do the job better than anybody else" when none of Junior's contemporaries have done that job for comparison?
The old boy's losing it.
of course, old opppressor will never wanna admit it is his influence that his useless son become PM.
'After five years, nobody doubts that he is able to do his job better than anybody else, so the question has stopped being asked.' ==> This is not up to the old man to comment. It is up to us the people of singapore who are feeding the old man and his son to give the performance appraisal to the hopeless, no calibre, heartless pinkyloon.
So far the Pm is the most hopeless, useless, no PM no politician calibre piece of shit made to "serve" the nation to suck us all dry. A very bloody heartless person is lhl! cnn!