Lee's Lieutenants: Singapore's Old Guard

Synopsis

Most books exploring the political and socioeconomic landscape of modern Singapore focus on the role played by longtime Prime Minister and now Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew. But by Lee's own admission, Singapore would not be what it is without his gifted and capable team of loyal lieutenants. These talented men were brought together in the most extraordinary of circumstances, and were no mere functionaries of Lee. Indeed, each was a leader in his own right but they were prepared to accept Lee's captaincy in the shaping and moulding of Singapore. Lee's Lieutenants addresses the imbalance of scholarship, arguing that Singapore's unusual political and economic trajectory resulted from this impressive array of men and the political choices they made.Contributors examine the roles played by the key architects of modern Singapore: the organisational utility men, the ideologues, the economic and social architect, the Chinese politico-cultural vanguards, the Malay mobilisers, the legalists and even those who were vanquished in the struggle for power.;Taking new lines of historical inquiry and including hitherto unpublished material gathered from interviews and documents, along with many lively and evocative photographs, Lee's Lieutenants offers a new understanding of postcolonial Singapore's origins and development. The contributors, who represent the very best of Singaporean scholarship today, break new intellectual ground with their interpretations of Singapore's political dynamics.Dr Lam Peng Er is Assistant Professor (Department of Political Science) and Dr Kevin Tan is Associate Professor (Faculty of Law), National University of Singapore. Their last collaborative project was Managing Political Change in Singapore: The Elected Presidency (1997)