Racial harmony

"It only takes one crazy man to throw a stone into a well - it takes a thousand to pull it out."
- an Arab proverb

MM Lee on grades of candidates

Mah Bow Tan, age 16, took his O levels -- six distinctions, two credits. Mr Chiam (See Tong), age 18 -- 1953, I think -- six credits, one pass. He passed his English language, not bad. The next year, in 1954, he worked harder, he got a credit for English. So you see, it's not because he doesn't know English that he found difficulty expressing himself. It's what's inside here [tapping his head]. And you better search your inside before you cast your votes.

-- Then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, at a PAP rally in Fullerton Square in the 1984 General Election. Chiam See Tong beat Mah Bow Tan with a 60.3% share of the vote to win the Potong Pasir seat.

Quoted by T.S. Selvan, Singapore: The Ultimate Island: Lee Kuan Yew's Untold Story

On Chinese "chauvinism"

"Year by year, the Chinese tide rises. So too the desire of the Chinese-educated [in Singapore] to assert their stronger position because they share a reflected strength. We go that way, we will be destroyed. We stay where we are -- bilingual, working language English, everybody level playing field. Or be prepared for big trouble. We are not anti-China but we are Southeast Asian and we remain a Southeast Asian nation. We cannot be otherwise."

- Lee Kuan Yew, "Why Chinese chauvinism will destroy S'pore: SM", Straits Times, 31 December 1996.

This was an important reaffirmation of Singapore's multiracial credentials, something which would have been especially welcomed by the ethnic minorities.

- The Price of Victory, Derek da Cunha

Personal Attack Party

In a rally in MacPherson on the evening of 31 December, (Gandhi Ambalam) said to the crowd that the initials "PAP" stood for "Personal Attack Party".

Choo Wee Khiang

One evening, I drove to Little India and it was pitch dark, not because there was no light, but because there were too many Indians around.

PAP MP Choo Wee Khiang, speaking to Parliament in March 1992

MM Lee on the Opposition

We are not trying to block them. We are trying to force them to collect a group of people equal in competence...When we fail, they have a team that can take over. But unfortunately, they can't do it. Because the people with ability, drive, ambition and energy don't want to come into politics. If they wanted to, they will join us (the PAP).

- Lee Kuan Yew at the Economic Society of Singapore dialogue, 11 July 2008

Zimbabwe Elections

Monitors reported that voters were waiting outside many polling stations from before dawn, two hours before they opened. “We must have change, “said a 21 year-old man who was walking 12 kilometres across Harare after casting his vote as he did not have enough money for a bus fare. “Everyone is in the mood for change.”
- Financial Times, 30 March 2008