Real Estate: when is the Perfect Time to Invest?
As a result of such efforts, Singapore has achieved self-sufficiency with its water supply since the mid-2010s. Knowing that Mahathir was in line to become the next Prime Minister of Malaysia, Lee invited Mahathir to visit Singapore in 1978. The first and subsequent visits improved both personal and diplomatic relationships between them. Then UMNO’s Secretary-General Mahathir asked Lee to cut off all links with the Democratic Action Party; in exchange, Mahathir undertook not to interfere in the affairs of Malay Singaporeans. Lee looked forward to improving relationships with Mahathir Mohamad upon the latter’s promotion to Deputy Prime Minister.
In addition, Lee was focused on social policies such as improving and mandating higher public standards for education, sanitation and hygiene, whilst concurrently improving public health by expanding modern health care and greatly increasing the quantity and quality of high-rise affordable housing (through the establishment of the Housing and Development Board, HDB) for working- and middle-class families. Over 22,000 Chinese officials were sent to Singapore to study its methods. Various world leaders had also praised Lee. Lee’s achievements in Singapore had a profound effect on the Communist leadership in China, who made a major effort, especially under Deng Xiaoping, to emulate his policies of economic growth, entrepreneurship and subtle suppression of dissent.
On 24 March 2015, the National Parks Board named a Singapore Botanic Gardens orchid hybrid called the “Aranda Lee Kuan Yew” in honour of Lee’s efforts work in conservationa and environmentalism. In March 2015, a portrait of Lee by Ong Yi Teck, comprising Lee’s name written about 18,000 times, went viral on social media. Yee also posted on his blog a stick-figure cartoon depicting Lee having sex with Margaret Thatcher, a personal and political ally of Lee’s. Days after Lee died in 2015, 16-year-old blogger Amos Yee released a video, Lee Kuan Yew is Finally Dead! Lee and compared him to Jesus Christ. The portrait was made in tribute to Lee, who was then critically ill.
If a woman and her husband had no O-level passes and fewer than 3 children, the woman could receive a $10,000 grant for undergoing sterilization. Sterilized lower-class parents were also given priority primary school admission for their existing first and second children. The uproar over the proposal led to a swing of 12.9 percent against the People’s Action Party in the general election held later that year. In 1985, especially controversial portions of the policy that gave education and housing priorities to educated women were eventually abandoned or modified.
Government expenditure for public utilities, healthcare and education also increased significantly. The government promoted multiculturalism by recognizing Malay, English, Tamil and Chinese as the official languages of the new state and sought to create a new national Malayan identity. Jurong, a swampland to the island’s western coast was chosen to be the site of a new industrial estate and would house steel mills, shipyards, and oil refineries, though Finance Minister Goh Keng Swee was initially worried the venture would fail. Lee reversed anti-colonial policies and launched a five-year plan to build new industries, seeking to attract foreign investors and rival Hong Kong. By the end of the year, however, unemployment began to rise drastically as the economy slowed.
However, supporters argued in retrospect that his actions were necessary for the country’s early development, and various international political analysts note that Lee’s governance was generally pragmatic and benevolent. In April 1977, just months after a general election which saw the People’s Action Party winning all 69 seats, the Internal Security Department, under orders from Lee, detained Ho Kwon Ping, the Singapore correspondent of the Far Eastern Economic Review, as well as his predecessor Arun Senkuttavan, over their reporting. During the three decades in which Lee held office, Singapore grew from a developing country to one of the most developed nations in Asia and the world.
