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<h1 itemprop="headline">Lee Kuan Yew's Legacy For Singapore: A Language Policy For A Globalized World</h1>
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<p>As
a Singaporean attending college abroad, I often reflect about how my
upbringing has made me a product of who I am. On Monday morning at home,
friends, family and fellow citizens woke up to the news that the
founding father of modern Singapore, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, passed away.</p>
<p>He lost a battle with severe pneumonia that morning but in his
lifetime, he won many others. There was the fight for survival so
chronicled in our national history textbooks – his leadership of a
nation with no natural resources, no hinterland, almost nothing, taking a
country many doomed to failure from “Third World to First,” the title
of one of his autobiographies. There were the crackdowns on dissidents
and opposition politicians, which he believed was the necessary price
for social order and economic success.</p>
<p>It is his bilingual policy that I have been reflecting deeply about.
As a relatively successful young Singaporean who did well enough in
school to earn a spot in an American college – I see myself and my grasp
of language molded in his vision.</p>
<p>When Singapore gained independence from Malaysia in 1965, Lee knew the resource-poor country needed a unique economic model.</p>
<div id="attachment_175678166" class="" style="width:650px">
<img class="" src="http://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/175678166/640x0.jpg?fit=scale&background=000000" alt="">
<p class="">Elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew attends the
launch of his new book on international affairs, at the Istana
Presidential Palace in Singapore on August 6, 2013. Singapore’s founding
prime minister Lee Kuan Yew is widely credited with transforming
Singapore from an economic backwater to one of Asia’s fastest-growing
economies. AFP PHOTO/MOHD FYROL (Photo credit should read MOHD
FYROL/AFP/Getty Images)</p>
</div>
<p>“We knew that if we were just like our neighbors, we would die,” Mr
Lee told the New York Times in 2007. As the colonial powers gave up
their grip in the region, many turned to reinforcing their identity as
independent nations by rejecting Western influence within their
countries.</p>
<p>Lee
is widely credited for mandating in 1966 that all students learn a
“mother tongue” – a language associated with their ethnicity.</p>
<p>“If we were monolingual in our mother tongues, we would not make a
living. Becoming monolingual in English would have been a setback,” he
wrote in his memoirs. “We would have lost our cultural identity, that
quiet confidence about ourselves and our place in the world.”</p>
<p>Lee’s bilingual policy was uniquely influential because it made Singapore highly adept with the forces of globalization.</p>
<p>In a letter to Lee’s son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, <a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/more-singapore-stories/story/mr-lee-kuan-yew-was-architect-our-modern-republic-says-p">President Tony Tan said</a>:
“Singaporeans today are able to leverage on our bilingual and
bicultural edge to take advantage of the opportunities that present
themselves around the world.” A English-speaking workforce became
Singapore’s best resource, I learned in high school history classes,
because we could then woo foreign direct investment from multinationals
in the West. With China’s economic ascendency, many of Singapore’s
Mandarin-speaking population (ethnic Chinese are three-quarters of the
nation) have been able to take advantage of opportunities there. China
was Singapore’s top trading partner in 2013, with bilateral trade
amounting to $91.4 billion.</p>
<p>In the country’s early years, it was also a tool of social cohesion
for a country made up of Chinese, Malay and Indian diaspora populations.
English gave them a platform for them to socialize and also compete in
school on an equal footing, but their language kept them rooted to their
heritage. It helped put to rest ethnic tension that could have impeded
economic progress.</p>
<p>Lee has been called Singapore’s “father” in the popular press – it’s a
fair assessment for me because I see my life’s journey molded in his
views. Since leaving high school, my Mandarin has become rustier – but
what those years of language classes gave me was the intuitive sense of
what some say is one of the world’s toughest languages to learn. My
ability to read Mandarin financial documents and translate news articles
(albeit with a handy Mandarin-English dictionary by my side, nowadays)
has not just helped me at work – it has also shaped the direction I want
to go in my career – as a journalist covering Asia’s rising economies.
In school, I was always reminded when my Indian and Malay friends went
off for their “mother tongue” classes, that their different culture and
background called for understanding and respect. Bilingualism taught me
an important lesson about living among different cultures – something
that has helped me incredibly with life in the United States’ melting
pot of cultures.</p>
<p>But perhaps what’s most interesting about Lee’s bilingual policy is
that he personally struggled with Mandarin. Born to English-speaking
parents, he recounted in a book, “My Lifelong Challenge: Singapore’s
Bilingual Journey” his difficulty with mastering the language and by
extension, owning his heritage. For him, learning Mandarin was an uphill
battle to make the very difficult possible – the same struggle he
wrestled with during his political career to make a little island at the
tip of the Asian continent survive and eventually, thrive. For his
perseverance, I am deeply thankful.</p><p><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/yunitaong/2015/03/23/lee-kuan-yews-legacy-for-singapore-a-language-policy-for-a-globalized-world/">http://www.forbes.com/sites/yunitaong/2015/03/23/lee-kuan-yews-legacy-for-singapore-a-language-policy-for-a-globalized-world/</a><br></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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