Age, Biography and Wiki
- Full Name: Lee Kuan Yew (Harry Lee Kuan Yew)
- Born: September 16, 1923, Singapore
- Died: March 23, 2015, Singapore
- Age (at death): 91 years
- Wiki Page: Lee Kuan Yew - Wikipedia
Lee Kuan Yew was the first Prime Minister of Singapore (1959–1990), widely regarded as the nation’s founding father. He led Singapore from a post-colonial outpost to a global financial center, implementing policies that championed stability, meritocracy, and economic growth. His leadership style, described as benevolent and pragmatic, was instrumental in establishing Singapore’s reputation for efficiency and clean governance.
| Occupation | Prime Ministers |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 16 September 1923 |
| Age | 101 Years |
| Birth Place | Singapore, Straits Settlements |
| Horoscope | Virgo |
| Country | Singapore |
| Date of death | 23 March, 2015 |
| Died Place | Singapore |
Height, Weight & Measurements
There are no publicly available official records regarding Lee Kuan Yew’s height, weight, or body measurements, as his legacy is defined by his political achievements rather than physical attributes.
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Dating & Relationship Status
- Marital Status: Married
- Spouse: Kwa Geok Choo (1949–2010)
- Children: Lee Hsien Loong (current Prime Minister of Singapore), Lee Hsien Yang, Lee Wei Ling
Lee was married to Kwa Geok Choo for over 60 years until her death in 2010. Their relationship was noted for its longevity and partnership, both personally and professionally.
Lee Kuan Yew (born Harry Lee Kuan Yew; 16 September 1923 – 23 March 2015), often referred to by his initials LKY, was a Singaporean politician who ruled as the first Prime Minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1990. He is widely recognised as the founding father of the modern Singaporean state. His leadership, often categorised by academics as being dictatorial but benevolent, helped transform post-independence Singapore into a highly developed country during his tenure.
Both of Lee's parents were English-educated third-generation Straits Chinese, with his paternal side being of Hakka descent from Dabu County. He was named 'Kuan Yew', meaning 'light and brightness', alternately meaning 'bringing great glory to one's ancestors'.
Lee was not close to his father, who worked as a storekeeper within the Shell Oil Company and had a gambling addiction. His mother Chua often stood up against her husband for his poor financial management and parenting skills. The family was considered prosperous with a high social standing compared to recent immigrants, and had the means to hire servants. During the Great Depression the family fortunes declined considerably, though Lee's father retained his job at Shell. Later in life, Lee described his father as a man with a nasty temper, and he credited his mother with holding the family together amidst her husband's gambling addiction.
In 1930, Lee enrolled at Telok Kurau English School where he spent six years of his primary education. Attending Raffles Institution in 1935, Lee did poorly in his first two years but later topped the Junior Cambridge examinations. He also joined the Scouts and partook in several physical activities such as cricket, tennis, swimming as well as debates. Lee was the top scorer in the Senior Cambridge examinations in 1940 across the Straits Settlements and Malaya, earning the John Anderson scholarship to attend Raffles College. During the prize-awarding ceremony, Lee met his future wife Kwa Geok Choo; she was the only girl at the school.
Prior to his departure from Singapore, Lee had begun a relationship with Kwa, whom he had kept in contact during the war. They married in secret at Stratford-upon-Avon in December. Lee achieved a first class result in both the Prelims and Part I of the Tripos, and graduated with a Starred First for Part II Law in 1949. As the top student of his cohort, he was awarded the Fitzwilliam's Whitlock Prize; Lee was called to the Bar from the Middle Temple in 1950.
Lee and his wife returned to Singapore in August 1950 on board the MS Willem Ruys. He joined the Laycock and Ong law firm founded by British lawyer John Laycock. Laycock was a co-founder of the pro-British Progressive Party and Lee represented the party during the 1951 legislative council election as an election agent. Lee was called to the Singapore bar on 7 August 1951.
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| Husband | Kwa Geok Choo (m. 1950-2010) |
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Net Worth and Salary
- Net Worth: Not publicly disclosed. As a political leader and statesman, Lee Kuan Yew’s income was derived from government salaries and advisory roles.
- Estimated Salary (as PM): Officially, the Prime Minister’s salary in Singapore is one of the highest globally, but historically, it has been adjusted and not always in line with market rates. During Lee’s tenure, such figures were not as publicly scrutinized.
- Investment Positions: Chairman of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) from 1981 to 2011, after which he became a senior advisor to the GIC board. These roles are not associated with personal net worth accumulation but with public service.
Given his legacy and influence, any speculation about his personal net worth is overshadowed by his contributions to Singapore’s development.
Career, Business and Investments
- Political Career: Co-founded the People’s Action Party (PAP) in 1954, led Singapore’s first government after independence in 1965, and remained Prime Minister until 1990.
- Post-PM Roles: After stepping down as Prime Minister, Lee served as Senior Minister (1990–2004) and Minister Mentor (2004–2011). He remained a Member of Parliament for Tanjong Pagar until his death.
- Business and Investments: Chairman of GIC (Government of Singapore Investment Corporation) from 1981 to 2011. He did not have private business interests or investments in the traditional sense but was instrumental in shaping Singapore’s investment policies.
- Legacy: Oversaw Singapore’s transformation from a per capita income of about $400 to over $50,000 within two generations, focusing on education, meritocracy, and innovation.
Lee stepped down as Prime Minister in 1990 but continued to serve in the Cabinet as Senior Minister until 2004 and subsequently as Minister Mentor until his retirement in 2011. Throughout his political career, he remained an influential figure in shaping Singapore's domestic and foreign policies. Lee died of pneumonia on 23 March 2015 at the age of 91. His death prompted a week of national mourning, during which approximately 1.7 million people paid their respects at Parliament House and various tribute sites. Lee left a legacy marked by both significant achievements and controversy. He is widely credited with transforming Singapore into a prosperous and well-governed state through policies emphasising meritocracy, efficiency and long-term planning. However, his leadership was also characterised by strict political control and limitations on civil liberties. Despite such criticisms, he remains highly regarded by Singaporeans for ensuring stability and sustained national development, and his values are now studied at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
Lee's subsequent university studies at Raffles College were disrupted by the onset of World War II in Asia, with the school being converted into a medical facility in 1941. The war arrived in December of that year and following the British surrender in February 1942, the Japanese occupation of Singapore began.
Lee obtained a Japanese language proficiency certificate in August 1942 and worked in a friend's company and then the Kumiai, which controlled essential items. He got a job with the Japanese propaganda department (Hōdōbu) in late 1943 and worked for the Japanese occupation force as an English specialist. Working at the top of the Cathay Building, he was assigned to listen to Allied radio stations for Morse code signals. By late 1944, Lee knew Japan had suffered major setbacks and planned to move to the Cameron Highlands with his family to avoid a possible British invasion. He was tipped off that he was being followed and abandoned the plan. He engaged in private enterprises and black market sales for the rest of the war. During this time, Lee helped develop a glue based on tapioca, which he sold under the name Stikfas. The Stikfas logo later appeared on the base of his wedding cake.
Lee chose not to return to Raffles College after the war and pursued higher education in the United Kingdom. He sailed from Singapore on his 23rd birthday on the MV Britannic, arriving in the UK on 3 October. He initially enrolled at the London School of Economics, but found himself disliking life in the British capital. He visited Cambridge in November and was introduced to W. S. Thatcher, Censor of Fitzwilliam House. He was admitted into the following year's Lent term and matriculated in January 1947, reading law at Fitzwilliam College.
During the postal union strike in May 1952, Lee negotiated a settlement marking his first step into the labour movement. In due course, Lee represented nearly fifty trade unions and associations against the British authorities on a pro bono basis. The disputes often centered around wages and Laycock eventually requested Lee to cease taking on such cases as it was hurting the firm.
On 23 April 1955, workers from the Hock Lee Amalgamated Bus Company began a strike under the direction of Fong Swee Suan, leader of the Singapore Buses Workers' Union (SBWU). As SBWU's legal advisor, Lee worked with Marshall's government to negotiate a resolution, which was initially agreed by the SBWU but then reneged on by the company. Seeking to exert greater pressure, Lee, Fong and Lim Chin Siong addressed the strikers on 1 May (May Day), where Lee called the government a "half-past six democracy". The strike subsequently escalated into a riot on 12 May.
Lee, Marshall and the company agreed on a further resolution on 14 May, which conceded to several of the strikers' demands. In an emergency legislative assembly sitting on 16 May, Chief Secretary William Goode accused Lee of losing control of the PAP to Lim. Lee was constrained between defending the actions of his colleagues and denouncing them, instead reiterating the PAP's committal to non-violence. Marshall defended him and the PAP as "decent men" against Goode's accusations and called upon the party to "purge themselves of communists".
Social Network
During his lifetime, Lee Kuan Yew was not active on major social media platforms. However, he remains a prominent figure online, with numerous profiles, memorials, and pages dedicated to his legacy on platforms such as Wikipedia, official government sites, and LinkedIn (in memoriam).
Lee oversaw major economic reforms, urban development and selectively instituted policies promoting meritocracy, multiracialism, and anti-corruption. His administration was often described as harbouring authoritarian and nanny-like tendencies, noted for restrictions on press freedoms, public assembly and labour activism. Elections under him, while free from electoral fraud and maintaining democratic procedure, were seen as unfair in practice due to a range of legal and institutional mechanisms that systematically favoured his party, including stringent defamation laws used against opposition figures. His party dominated Parliament, holding all seats from 1968 to 1981 and facing no formal opposition. This allowed for swift policy implementation and long-term planning, but also drew criticism for limiting political pluralism. Lee defended such measures as essential for maintaining political stability, fostering national unity and enabling rapid socio-economic development in a newly independent and vulnerable state.
The People's Action Party (PAP) was inaugurated on 21 November 1954 at the Victoria Memorial Hall. As the party still lacked members, trade union leaders rounded up an estimated audience of 800 to 1,500 supporters. Lee had also invited Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tan Cheng Lock, presidents of the United Malays National Organisation and Malayan Chinese Association. In his inaugural speech, Lee denounced the British for the slow transition to self-rule, demanded their immediate withdrawal, and said that the PAP would pursue a Singapore-Malaya union. Lee became secretary-general of the party, a post he held until 1992, barring a brief period in 1957 when the post was taken up by T. T. Rajah.
By 1956, Lee believed that the PAP "had been captured by the communists" and privately endorsed the Labour Front government purge of suspected "leftists" in the aftermath of the 1956 Chinese middle schools riots. The arrestees included his rival Lim and several other PAP members. When other leftist members captured six seats in the PAP central executive committee (CEC) elections on 4 August 1957, Lee refused to allow his allies to assume their appointments and said that his faction had "lost their moral right" to enforce the party's founding philosophy. Overtures were made by fellow CEC member T. T. Rajah to remain in his post, to which he declined. The government arrested the leftist leaders on 22 August and Lee was restored as secretary-general on 20 October. He later blamed the attempted takeover on lax admission rules to the party and permanently distrusted the leftists thereafter. On 23 November 1958, the party constitution was amended to implement a cadre system. The right to vote in party elections and run for office were revoked from ordinary party members, whom now had to seek approval from the CEC to be a cadre and regain these privileges. Lee credited the Vatican system where the pope pre-selects its cardinals for the idea.
Education
- Early Education: Raffles Institution, Raffles College (on scholarship)
- Higher Education:
- London School of Economics (1946) (briefly attended)
- University of Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Hall (1947) — completed his education in law, graduating with top honors.
Lee’s educational journey, especially his time in Britain, was formative in shaping his worldview and leadership style.
In 1954, Lee co-founded the People's Action Party (PAP), which won significant support among the working class and trade unions. He secured a seat in the Tanjong Pagar division during the 1955 general election, becoming the de facto leader of the opposition. In 1959, Lee led to the PAP's first electoral victory, becoming Singapore's first Prime Minister. Seeking full sovereignty from Britain, Lee campaigned for a merger with Malaya along with the other former British territories, namely Sarawak and Sabah, in a national referendum to form Malaysia in 1963. Racial strife and ideological differences later led to Singapore's expulsion from Malaysia and subsequent independence in 1965, less than two years after the merger. Singapore subsequently became an independent republic, with Lee continuing as Prime Minister during its transition to sovereignty.
In May 1954, the left-wing University Socialist Club published an article 'Aggression in Asia' in the club's magazine The Fajar, and the student editors were charged with sedition. Lee became junior counsel to Denis Pritt. The court quashed the charges and the two counsel gained a reputation through the trial, with Lee thereafter becoming a "major leader" of the movement against British rule. During the same year, Lee also appealed on behalf of the students arrested during the 13 May incident. The colonial government upheld the sentences, though the case enhanced Lee's reputation as a "left-wing lawyer" and marked his first involvement with the Chinese intelligentsia.
Lee had sought to build support among the English-educated, Malay, and Indian communities by taking on cases against the British authorities. In the course of his work, Lee became acquainted with the journalist Sinnathamby Rajaratnam; Abdul Samad Ismail, a writer for the Malay newspaper Utusan Melayu; and Devan Nair. He next turned his attention to the Chinese-speaking majority and was introduced to Lim Chin Siong and Fong Swee Suan, leaders of the influential bus and factories unions. While the unions had been infiltrated by communists, Lee consciously sought their support as he wanted a popular front. With elections approaching in 1955, Lee and his associates debated the name, ideology, and policies of the party they wanted to create at 38 Oxley Road.
In July 1953, Governor John Nicoll initiated the Rendel Commission to provide for a transition to self-rule. The commission created the legislative assembly and opened 25 of 32 seats for direct contest in the upcoming 1955 election. The PAP and Labour Front, led by Lee and David Marshall respectively, both criticised the concessions as "inadequate". The PAP faced manpower constraints but decided to prioritise resources and contest four seats as a protest gesture. In a rally speech, Lee said he chose the Tanjong Pagar division as it was a "working class area" and that he did not want to represent "wealthy merchants or landlords".
