25 September 2008 : Straits Times
By Lee Siew Hua, Senior Political Correspondent
IN 1966, Oxford professor Neville Brown interviewed Mr Lee Kuan Yew when he was the young prime minister of a young Singapore.
Yesterday, hearing Mr Lee speak at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Prof Brown, 76, was profoundly struck that Mr Lee's views on issues such as Western media bias and Singapore's vulnerability were in essence unchanged.
He was a journalist for the New Statesman, a British current affairs magazine, when he first met Mr Lee on a South-east Asia assignment.
'What struck me very forcefully was that his conversation this evening was totally recognisable,' said the specialist in modern history and applied geophysics.
Over the decades, Mr Lee's philosophy about Western media and its pressure had been 'consistent'. In 1966, and yesterday, he questioned why Singapore should change for the Western media.
Prof Brown also found that Mr Lee remains the realist.
In 1966, Mr Lee had remarked that, personally, he would not have minded if the Americans had not heard of Vietnam.
'But since the Americans were already there, he did not want them to be humiliated,' he recalled Mr Lee telling him.
Being consistent did not mean the Minister Mentor was frozen in time. 'He's impressive,' he said. 'He's in a dynamic mode.'
Freelance editor Randal Gray was delighted to hear Mr Lee, as he was curious about the 'founder of the Venice of the East'.
Introducing Mr Lee, IISS director-general and chief executive John Chipman had hailed him as 'Asia's leading strategic thinker'.
Professor Francois Heisbourg, chairman of the IISS and Geneva Centre for Security Policy, also alluded to his stature. At a time of financial meltdown, it was good to know there are 'rocks' like Mr Lee with rare wisdom to show the way.
