Post-independence administration

In his biography, Lee Kuan Yew stated that he did not sleep well, and fell sick days after Singapore's independence. As the British prime-minister at the time, Harold Wilson expressed concern upon learning of Lee's condition from the British High Commissioner, John Robb. In response to their concern, Lee replied:
"Do not worry about Singapore. My colleagues and I are sane, rational people even in our moments of anguish. We will weigh all possible consequences before we make any move on the political chessboard..."

Lee began to seek international recognition of the Singapore's Independence. Singapore joined the United Nations (UN) on 21 September 1965, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on 8 August 1967. Lee made his first official visit to Indonesia in 25 May, 1973, just a few years after the Konfrontasi under Sukarno's regime. Relations between Singapore and Indonesia substantially improved as subsequent visits were made between Singapore and Indonesia.

As Singapore has never had a dominant culture to which immigrants could assimilate, nor a common language, together with efforts from the government and ruling party, Lee tried to create a common Singaporean identity in the 1970s and 1980s.

Lee and his government stressed the importance of maintaining religious tolerance and racial harmony, and they were ready to use the law to counter any threat that might incite ethnic and religious violence. For example, Lee warned against "insensitive evangelisation", by which he referred to instances of Christian proselytising directed at Malays. In 1974, the government advised the Bible Society of Singapore to stop publishing religious materials in Malay. [3]

Decisions and policies

Lee had three main concerns – national security, the economy, and social issues – during his post-independence administration.

National security

The vulnerability of Singapore was deeply felt with threats from multiple sources including the communists, Indonesia (with its Confrontation stance), and UMNO extremists who wanted to force Singapore back into Malaysia. As Singapore gained admission to the United Nations, Lee quickly sought international recognition of Singapore's independence. He declared a policy of neutrality and non-alignment, following Switzerland's model. At the same time, he assigned Goh Keng Swee with the task of building the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and requested help from other countries for advice, training and facilities.

With the British announcement of having the intentions to pull out or cut down the troops from Singapore and Malaysia, In 1967, he and Goh introduced National Service, a conscription program that developed a large reserve force that can be mobilized in a short notice. In January 1968, Lee bought some AMX-13 French-made tanks and a total of 72 refurbished tanks in 1972.

Later, Singapore was able to establish strong military relations with other nations of ASEAN, the Five-Powers Defense Agreement (FPDA) and other noncommunist states. This partially restored the security of the country following the withdrawal of British troops in 31 October 1971.

Economic issues

The separation from Malaysia signified a permanent loss of a common market and an economic hinterland. The economic woes were further exacerbated by the British withdrawal that would eliminate over 50,000 jobs. Although the British were backing out from their earlier commitment to keep their bases till 1975, Lee decided not to strain the relationship with London. He convinced Harold Wilson to allow the substantial military infrastructure (including a dockyard) to be converted for civilian use, instead of destroying them in accordance with British law. With advice from Dr Albert Winsemius, Lee set Singapore on the path of industrialization. In 1961, the Economic Development Board was established to attract foreign investment, offering attractive tax incentives and providing access to the highly skilled, disciplined and relatively low paid work force. At the same time, the government maintained tight control of the economy, regulating the allocation of land, labour and capital resources. Modern infrastructure of airport, port, roads, and communications networks were built. The Singapore Tourist Promotion Board was set up to promote tourism that would create many jobs in the service industry. In building the economy, Lee was assisted by his ablest ministers, especially Goh Keng Swee and Hon Sui Sen. They managed to reduce the unemployment rate from 14 percent in 1965 to 4.5 percent in 1973.

Designating official languages

Lee designated English as the language of the workplace and the common language among the different races, while recognizing Malay, Chinese, and Tamil as the other three official languages. Most schools use English as the medium of instruction, although there are also lessons for the mother tongues.

Lee discouraged the usage of Chinese dialects by promoting Mandarin to be supplanted as the "Mother Tongue" of ethnic Chinese, in view of having a common language of communication within the Chinese community. In 1979, Lee officially launched the first Speak Mandarin Campaign. Lee also cancelled the broadcasting of all television programmes in dialects, with the exception of news and operas, for the benefit of the older audience. However, the policy worked at the expense of Chinese dialects; it was recently observed that most of the younger Chinese Singaporeans are no longer able to speak Chinese dialects fluently, thus encountering some difficulty when communicating with their dialect-speaking grandparents.

In the 1970s, graduates of the Chinese-language Nanyang University were facing huge problems finding jobs because of their lack of command in the English language, which was often required in the workforce, especially the public sector. Lee had to take drastic measures, and had Nanyang University absorbed by the English-language University of Singapore; the combined institution was renamed the National University of Singapore. This move greatly affected the Chinese-speaking professors who would now have to teach in English. It was also opposed by some Chinese groups who had contributed significantly to the building of Nanyang University and therefore had strong emotional attachments to the school.

Government policies

Like many Asian countries, Singapore was not immune to the disease of corruption. Lee was well aware how corruption had led to the downfall of the Nationalist Chinese government in mainland China. Fighting against the communists himself, he knew he had to "clean house". Lee introduced legislation that give the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) greater power to conduct arrests, search, call up witnesses, and investigate bank accounts and income tax returns of suspected persons and their family. With Lee’s support, CPIB was given the authority to investigate any officer or minister. Indeed, several ministers were later charged with corruption.

Lee believed that ministers should be well paid in order to maintain a clean and honest government. In 1994, he proposed to link the salaries of ministers, judges, and top civil servants to the salaries of top professionals in the private sector, arguing that this would help recruit and retain talents to serve in the public sector.

In 1983, Lee sparked the "Great Marriage Debate" when he encouraged Singapore men to choose women with high education as wives. He was concerned that a large number of graduate women were unmarried. Some sections of the population, including graduate women, were upset by his views. Nonetheless, a match-making agency Social Development Unit (SDU) was set up to promote socializing among men and women graduates. Lee also introduced incentives for graduate mothers to have third and fourth children, in a reversal of the over-successful “Stop-at-Two” family planning campaign in the 1960s and 1970s.