Review: Spy thriller exposes Israel-Singapore ties

Times Of Israel, 19 Dec 2013
Israel established diplomatic relations with the island country in Southeast Asia in 1969 and the two nations enjoy a reportedly “extensive security relationship”. In his book, From Third World to First: The Singapore Story 1965-2000, published in 2000, Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s controversial founding father, disclosed the fact that the Israel Defense Forces helped established the Singaporean army. Singapore has purportedly made major purchases of surplus IDF tanks, as well as aircraft, anti-aircraft missiles, and surveillance technologies. Full story

OPINION: An overflowing cup of praise for Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew - Jonathan Manthorpe

The Vancouver Sun, 11 Feb 2013
The title of this book – Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master’s Insights on China, the United States, and the World – gives a warning that we are entering a realm not of context, analysis and assessment but of hagiography.
If the introduction creates an unreal world of flamboyant ego-stroking, once the reader finally gets to the words of the Grand Master himself things get seriously weird.
The chapters are presented as Lee’s responses to interview questions, and Allison and Blackwill did have some interviews with the Minister Mentor for the preparation of this book.
But Lee’s responses have been cobbled together from numerous published interviews with several journalists as well as extracts from his own speeches and writings. Full story

Book Review: Lee Kuan Yew's Taming of the Press - Paul Ananth Tambyah

Asia Sentinel, 2 Jan 2013
From the very first chapter of this book to the last, it is full of detailed and astonishing revelations about the mainstream media in Singapore. It is an incredible resource for those trying to understand the control of the media and Singapore's brand of self-censorship. Indirectly, Cheong Yip Seng's My Straits Times Story is invaluable in helping to explain the dominance of one political party through its "symbiotic" relationship to all the mainstream print media in our country.
The book begins with an account of how Cheong was appointed to his job as editor-in-chief of the Straits Times in 1986. This was not a private dinner with a publisher or a board meeting or even the result of a secret ballot at a conference of editors.
Instead, Cheong describes how he was summoned by Chandra Das, a prominent Singapore politician, on a plane to Burma with the words "The boss wants to see you". Cheong was given a seat in the first-class cabin next to the then-Deputy Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong. Goh wanted him to take over the editorial leadership of the Straits Times from the previous editor, Peter Lim, who had been found wanting. Full story

Related:
Frightening details of press interference: Review of 'My Straits Times Story' - Singapore Democrats

WINDS OF CHANGE knock at LKY's door: Book on crackdown triggers comparison with Dr M

Malaysia Chronicle, 22 Nov 2012
Comparison and analysis about the styles and qualities of two notorious Southeast Asian autocrats - Lee Kuan Yew and Mahathir Mohamad - are bound to be reignited with the release of two books published this year to coincide with the 25th anniversary of Singapore's infamous Operation Spectrum that saw 22 social activists, lawyers, journalists and church workers detained without trial in May 1987.
One of the books 'Prelude to the Post-Lee Kuan Yew era' written by political exile Tan Wah Piow, who was thrown into jail for allegedly "masterminding a Marxist plot", will be launched on Saturday 24 November at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall in Kuala Lumpur.
According to Wah Piow, "Many Malaysians do not see "the other side of the moon", and, especially the Chinese Malaysians such as those in the DAP thinks Lee Kuan Yew is the alternative". Full story

Review: Repression inspires queer suite of sex tales - Cameron Woodhead

The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 Jul 2012
MKA started two years ago with the brief of bringing us the best new writing for the stage. Sex.violence.blood.gore is certainly that. Singaporean playwright Alfian bin Sa'at takes his country's turbulent history of repression and weaves a poetic, hilarious, deeply affecting and decidedly queer suite of scenarios from it. It's a terrific play, and compulsory viewing for anyone serious about theatre.
Singapore has gone from malaria-infested swamp to economic powerhouse in a matter of generations, but the cost to personal liberties has been high. Lee Kuan Yew's authoritarian legacy haunts the action, as does the terror of Japanese occupation, the yoke of British colonisation, and contemporary ethnic and racial conflict in south-east Asia. Full review

Review: Tampines GreenTerrace BTO

H88.com.sg, 13 Jan 2012

Tampines GreenTerrace is a tiny BTO with only 295 units in the form of 3- and 4-room Standard flats. There are three blocks here - two 16-storeys high and one 14-storey high. The most interesting aspect of this BTO is the terraced MSCP with green roof and the close proximity to Bedok Reservoir. Full review

Review: Fusion Garage Grid10 - K. T. Bradford

GottaBeMobile, 7 Oct 2011
Fusion Garage’s $299 Grid10 is an interesting entrant into the tablet milieu. In a market dominated by Apple and, to a lesser extent, Android, it takes a lot of chutzpah to introduce a product that runs on neither. Especially if you’re a small company like Fusion Garage. Larger companies have tried and failed. Full story

Book Review: Searching for Singapore's Porn Star - Hamish McKenzie

Asia Sentinel, 1 Aug 2011
In the book, Lim, a Singaporean by birth himself who for years worked as a rock critic and adult entertainment industry journalist in Los Angeles, explores the mythology of Quek’s Annabel Chong character. While the book isn’t authorized by Quek, who long ago retired her infamous character, it is based on Lim’s previous interviews and discussions with the one-time porn star, who he counts as a personal friend.
One of the key themes Lim explores is the tension between Quek’s upbringing in a conservative Asian society and her later extreme acts for the camera. After an education at the exclusive Raffles Girls’ School and Hwa Chong Junior College, and then as a scholarship student at King’s College London, Quek was on course for a career at a prestigious Singaporean law firm. Full story

Review: 7 steps to becoming a successful despot - Mark Van Vugt and Anjana Ahuja

The Globe and Mail, 4 Mar 2011
2. Curry favour by providing public goods efficiently and generously.
Benevolent dictatorship was practised by Lee Kuan Yew, prime minister of Singapore for 31 years. Lee believed that ordinary people could not be entrusted with power because it would corrupt them, and that economics was the major stabilizing force in society. To this end, he effectively eliminated all opposition by using his constitutional powers to detain suspects without trial for two years without the right of appeal. To implement his economic policies, Lee allowed only one political party, one newspaper, one trade union movement and one language. He encouraged people to uphold the family system, discipline their children, be more courteous and avoid pornography. As well as setting up a government dating service for single graduates, he urged people to take better aim in public toilets and handed out hefty fines for littering. Singaporeans tolerated these restrictions on their freedom because they valued their economic security more. Full story

Book Review: The Analects of Lee Kuan Yew

Malaysia Star, 20 Feb 2011
THE founder of modern Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, is a man who tends to elicit extreme reactions. While some praise his city state as an efficient modern metropolis with cosmopolitan aspirations, other decry the more authoritarian aspects of its political structure.
Former solicitor-general Francis Seow is one of the few dissidents who challenged Lee’s invincible People’s Action Party – and he paid for his beliefs, having spent more than two decades in exile, following a period of detention in Singapore.
This book attempts to portray the development of Lee’s Singapore not through a narrative or historical exposition, but, rather, through a series of quotes from the man himself. Full story

Book Review: Kuan Yew's Grim Vision - Asia Sentinel

Asia Sentinel, 14 Feb 2011
While Lee's pride in Singapore's economic and geopolitical success – flourishing despite what he describes as the envy and mortal enmity of its two larger neighbors – is overbearing, he calls the achievement as permanent as "an 80-storey building on marshland."
To the citizens who've grown up reciting the idealistic, multiracial pledge of the government now headed by his son, one of Lee's hard truths is that 45 years of nation-building haven't succeeded and increased religiosity prevents the country's 13 percent of Muslims from becoming fully part of the community. Full story