With the possible exception of Fidel Castro’s Cuba, there are few nations that so closely reflect one man’s legacy as Singapore. Lee Kuan Yew, now 91 and in hospital with severe pneumonia, can claim to have built the nation that today has a higher material standard of living than the UK, the US or Norway. His punchily written memoir, From Third World to First, shows an acute awareness of his achievement in conjuring a prosperous city state from an unpromising history and geography. But how will Singapore fare when its founding father is gone?
很可能除了斐代爾•卡斯楚(Fidel Castro)領導的古巴之外，沒有幾個國家像新加坡這樣，如此鮮明地反映出一個人的遺產。李光耀(Lee Kuan Yew)可謂這個國家的建立者，新加坡今日的物質生活水準已經超過了英國、美國和挪威。91歲高齡的李光耀目前因嚴重肺炎在住院。他的重磅回憶錄《從第三世界到第一世界》(From Third World to First)，展現了他對自己成就的敏銳認識，他像魔術師一樣，將沒有輝煌歷史、地理條件一般的新加坡，變成了一個繁榮的城市國家。但是當國父離去，新加坡將如何發展呢？