Folks, this is my 50th post.

Lee Kuan Yew, former Prime Minister of Singapore had this to say of India in the 1980's. "It was sad to see the gradual rundown of the country," he once wrote.

I found this quote amusing, because here is a tinpot little dictator, telling one of the world's largest democracies, a democracy which has withstood four wars, a democracy that truly believes in the separation of powers and a system of checks and balances, a country with a thriving free press, a country with consitutionally enshrined rights to freedom of speech, expression and political opinion that it's running down.

Singapore's population: 4.2 million.
Number of members in Parliament: 84
Size of country: 600sqkm

India's population: 1 billion.
Number of members in Parliament 545.
Size of Country: 3,287,600sqkm (In relative terms, Singapore's area is a rounding error in India's landscape)

And somehow LKY felt confident enough to comment that "India was gradually running down".

This is the same man who threatened a merger with Malaysia on Malaysia's terms in case Singapore "fails". And he is telling the world that a country of 1 billion people with an established government that is run by the people is "running down". You don't see a roadside food vendor giving advice to Bill Gates, do you? Exactly.

This is the same man who gets a minor stroke everytime someone dares to suggest that his government made a mistake. A leader who is that paranoid has no right commenting on things he knows little about.
If he ran Singapore so well, why is it that unless he or his party is in power, parts of Singapore will become slums, as he alleges?

India has had a history of over 10,000 years. Singapore on the other hand has only a measurable history of about 200 years (and of that only 40 as an independent nation), and yet this man thinks that a country that is 10,000 years old is gradually unwinding into chaos. He goes on to start singing his own praises on how prescient he was when he talked to some Indian think-tanks in the 70's. Let me clue him in.

Dear MM: Dude, stick to what you know. You are good at micromanaging tiny island states. Stop trying to predict global trends. Stick to your day job. For the record, Singapore's past is a mere blip in the time scale of Indian history. What it has achieved in 30 years is indeed commendable but stick to what you know and stop commenting on things you haven't a clue about. You sound like a kid, who having passed his Primary 1 Examination sees it fit to comment on his uncle who is having some problems with his PhD thesis on writing strategies.

I am sorry if I sound Indo-chauvinistic but I found that quote highly misguided, even in the 80's Indian experiment with socialism (which incidentally enabled India to develop a welfare system before implementing the Free Market policies of the 90's). Listening to Lee the Father today, one is tempted to think he has always been a prescient, forward looking leader but shows himself up time and again to be a hindsight laden, pseudo-intellectual simplistic little bully.

But those who follow history would know that this is just one example of how Lee the Father has always been going around giving advice to people who don't care if he lives or dies.
His advice German workers: If your workers were rational they would say, yes, this is going to happen anyway (jobs going to China), let's do the necessary things in one go. Instead of one month at the spa, take one week at the spa, work harder and longer for the same pay, compete with the East Europeans, invent in new technology, put more money into your R&D, keep ahead of the Chinese and the Indians (the stance on India seems to have taken an about face).

In other words, quit bitching and demanding rights you lazy layabout! You have the right to work and nothing else. Shut up.

Not content, he starts speaking about the US President Idiot George W Bush. For someone who is supposed to be a brilliant thinker and politician LKY sure does admire some of the weirdest people. President Dubya's plan for social security was such an absolute disaster that even a republican Congress didn't dare tamper with it. Guess who is one of the biggest cheerleaders for that idea?

President George W. Bush is trying to have a privatized segment of the Social Security so it's yours; you can direct how it is invested. We've had that much longer than what you're trying to do.

Dude, not only are you giving Singapore's ridiculous CPF system unnecessary publicity you are also really oversimplifying the issue there. What does Bubba the Truck driver know about investing? It is simply a way to get billions of dollars into the hands of the corporate rich.

He can't stop singing Dubya's praises. Another quote from Time Magazine:
Look at the President when he announced that he had ordered an attack on Baghdad. I never saw a man more composed—[he] spoke briefly into the microphone and walked away straight-backed, not a doubt in his mind. I thought to myself, that's not a bad commander.

All together now... HAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Imagine that, a "political genius" falling for the posturing pseudo-machismo of a draft dodging coke-snorter who blew up frogs as a kid. Did he catch a glimpse of the My Pet Goat Fiasco of September 11? Or did he catch the part where his top lieutenants were advising him on how bad Katrina would be and he didn't do jack apart from looking like he just shit himself?

The interviewer then asks him about turmoil and contention. His reply: You must have contention, a clash of ideas. If Galileo had not challenged the Pope, we would still believe the world is flat, right? And Christopher Columbus might never have discovered America.

1> We would still have eventually discovered the roundness of the world. Galileo did not challenge the pope on the roundness of the world. He challenged the Ptolemaic idea that the earth was the stationary centre of the universe. Get your facts right.

2> Christopher columbus' discovery of the West Indies (NOT continental United States, which was discovered later by Amerigo Vespucci, giving America its name) didn't quite vindicate the earth's roundness. Columbus was supposed to have sailed round the world and then reached India but he only managed to get as far as the West Indies. It was Magellan who circumnavigated the globe.

So MM Lee, why is it then that you incarcerate those who disagree with you, behave like a schoolyard bully every election in the name of preserving whatever integrity you seem to possess? you can talk tough (lot like George Bush's immortal "Bring 'em on!" Statement), but when confronted you hide behind your teams of legal protectors and your kangaroo courts. Is this what you mean by "clash of ideas"? It sounds like Henry Ford's "any colour as long as it's black" argument. Any idea as long as it's yours?