"Dr Winsemius wasn’t just one of the brains behind Singapore’s industrialisation and economic development, he was the chief architect and planner. The scale of the plans was such that no one person could possibly have executed them all by himself or herself. That would be most unfair to Dr Goh Keng Swee and others who more than Mr Lee deserve that recognition. There can be no doubt that in the economic arena, it was Dr Winsemius and Dr Goh who mattered, not Mr Lee. Mr Lee has always been a shrewd politician and the political risk of the Land Acquisition Act was clearly not very high because the number of people who would benefit from it would outweigh the number who would suffer from it. The act was in essence the expropriation of land from land owners much like the collectivisation of farms by the communists. It was nothing to be proud of and we should consider the suffering and loss of pig farmers who lost their livelihood overnight. While it did contribute to nation building, the land acquired on the cheap then is today leased out for 99 years at such a high price that a discount is considered a subsidy by the government. Where is the justice to those people whose gift of land to the nation has become a subsidy by the government today? It wasn’t Mr Lee who defeated the Barisan Socialis but the British instead. Whether it was Lim Yew Hock or Mr Lee, both depended on British might to destroy the Leftists."
Posted on: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 07:28:52 +0000
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