Lee Kuan Yew was born in 1923 as the eldest child of Lee Chin Koon. He studied in the top schools in Singapore and went to the London school of Economics briefly for his university education before moving over to Cambridge where he obtained his Law degree.
He started his political career under a Pro-British Progressive Party as an election agent. However, he began to realize that the British would not gain the support of the Chinese. He would grow the connections which would help his future political career later on when he was engaged as a lawyer to the Student and Trade Unions.
Soon, he started his own opposition party People’s Action Party against the then Labour Front.
On 5 June 1959, Lee became the first Prime Minister of Singapore when PAP won the most seats in the legislative assembly.
He pushed for a merger with Malaysia but the integration proved to be too much for both sides and the then Malaysia Prime Minister decided that Singapore should be separated from the Union.
This became the lowest point of Lee’s life and also the turning point for Singapore’s success. Although Lee was in anguish at that point, he never gave up the vision for Singapore and he brought it all the way from a 3rd world country to a first world metropolitan city today.
Singapore is one of the world’s success stories and Lee is the man behind this success. Although a lot of critics question his style of leadership, often being seen as autocratic and dictatorial, but no one will question the success of Singapore that he has brought.