Australians may no longer be the white trash of Asia, but their style of governance would run Singapore into the ground, the city-state's outspoken former prime minister said on Wednesday.
Lee Kuan Yew made the remark after receiving an honorary doctorate of law from Australian National University (ANU), partly for his friendship to Australia.
About 50 students held up banners with wording like "no doctorates for dictators" and chanted slogans outside the venue at the ANU's Canberra campus where Mr Lee received the award.
The 83-year-old, Singapore's first prime minister and now a minister mentor in its government, said he was no stranger to hostile receptions.
Having praised Australia's "exceptional growth" of the past 15 years during his acceptance speech, Mr Lee later told reporters that Australian-style governance would not work in the city-state.
"It's not going to change me and I'm not going to change you," he said of Australian criticism of his autocratic style.
"We're going to prosper, you're going to prosper.
"But if I allowed you to run my country it will spiral downwards and hit rock bottom," he said.
Asked about a remark he made in the 1980s that Australians were destined to become the "poor white trash of Asia", Mr Lee said it was apt for that era.
"There are some words sometime said in the heat of an argument which perhaps at that time was warranted."
The award citation said ANU conferred the doctorate on the grounds of Mr Lee's service to developing Singapore, international statesmanship and friendship to Australia.
Mr Lee led Singapore for more than 30 years until 1990 under a regime which placed prosperity and racial harmony ahead of human rights and Western-style democracy.
He has since served as a senior adviser to his successors.
ANU arts-law student Ben Lyons said it was deeply offensive that the university was giving a doctorate of law to someone who used the justice system to repress dissent.
"There are a lot of students as well as academics who are quite angry about both the fact that we're giving Lee Kuan Yew a doctorate and the way it was conducted," Mr Lyons said.
"It seems to have been done with a great deal of secrecy."
He thought the honour had been conferred for ANU's financial benefit through strengthened ties with the National University of Singapore.
Some law students argue the award may be invalid because it was not discussed by the honorary degree committee before approval by the ANU Council.
Defending the move, ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Chubb said: "Ultimately, whatever process you follow, it's a decision of the council anyway."
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said earlier in the week that while there had been international concern about human rights issues in Singapore, Mr Lee was a "great regional leader".
"The fact is in the overall sense, Singapore has been a spectacular success," Mr Downer said.
Australian Greens leader Bob Brown on Wednesday said ANU had crassly used its degree system to honour an undeserving figure.
"(Mr Lee's someone) who's not a democrat, who's a traitor to democratic ideals and who has eliminated opposition effectively, including having people jailed and held in jail without sentence," Senator Brown told reporters.
"He eliminated opposition as effectively as he eliminated chewing gum."
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