Lee Kuan Yew: 70 to 80 percent of a person’s capability is ‘genetic’
July 13th, 2011 | 
Author: Though he may have ‘retired’ from the Singapore cabinet, PAP supreme leader Lee Kuan Yew is still hogging the headlines with his frequent speeches and overseas travels to remind his subjects that he remains in charge of Singapore.
During a speech made at the Future China Global forum last weekend, Lee boasted unashamedly that he was born being a leader when asked how he became a ‘visionary’ leader.
‘From my empirical observation of people and leaders, I believe 70 to 80 per cent of a person’s capability, his proclivities, his temperament, is genetic. The day you were conceived, at least 70 per cent was already fixed in the womb. If you are bound to be a capable person, you will grow into a capable person. If you are bound to be slow, you will be slow,’ he said.
Lee added that he does not think that leadership can be taught:
‘I think you are a born leader or you are not a leader. You can teach a person to be a manager. but not a leader…..So, I would put it briefly and say 70 per cent of what I am, I was born with it. Twenty to 30 per cent was what I learnt to be what I am.’
Lee was a strong advocate of eugenics and social engineering. During his tenure as Prime Minister, he introduced several controversial policies with devastating consequences for Singapore.
In the 1960s and 1970s, he implemented the ‘Stop at Two’ policy to discourage Singaporeans, especially those from the lower-income group from having more than two children.
In an interview with the state media in 1967, two years after Singapore’s expulsion from Malaysia, Lee explained the rationale for his forced sterilization programme:
“We must encourage those who earn less than $200 per month and cannot afford to nurture and educate many children never to have more than two… We will regret the time lost if we do not now take the first tentative steps towards correcting a trend which can leave our society with a large number of the physically, intellectually and culturally anaemic.”
Then in the 1980s, he introduced the hugely unpopular ‘Graduate Mother Scheme’ which is unheard of elsewhere to encourage graduate females to bear more children.
“If you don’t include your women graduates in your breeding pool and leave them on the shelf, you would end up a more stupid society…So what happens? There will be less bright people to support dumb people in the next generation. That’s a problem,” Lee said during the National Day Rally in 1983.
The scheme was eventually shelved following an electoral setback in the 1984 general election which saw the PAP suffering a drop of 14 percent in popular vote.
As a result of Lee’s earlier mistakes, Singapore is now plagued with a dire shortage of babies which Lee tried to solve by mass-importing foreigners to make up for the shortfall.
In an interview with National Geographic magazine in December 2009, he quipped:
“It is a good thing that Singapore is accepting so many Chinese immigrants from mainland China as they are ‘harder-driving’ and harder-striving’ than Singaporeans.”
At 88 years of age, Lee is the world’s oldest living autocrat.
The longest-lived Emperor in the history of dynastic China is Qian Long of the Qing dynasty who passed away at 88 years old.
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Posted in Editorial
Abraham Lincoln
Nelson Mandala
Winston Churchill
pass on they leadership to others before their time is up
Hitler
Saddam
Qaddafi
like Enron
till they found out that there is no money in the bank
it is too late.
it also ruin the country fast too
like massive stars. they burn bright and are hugh but they also die fast.
If you’re brilliant, get married earlier and have more than 3 children.
I am sure the 60.1% of intelligent Singaporean can give birth to more children. YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOUR HELP!
Did LHY “stop at two”?! NO!
Did LHL “stop at two”?! NO!
I wonder, under all these social engineering.. where do albinos come from; an unqualified housewife, hard put to even manage a normal household becomes the head of multi billion investment holding.
Thinking aloud, if genius is hereditary.. likewise stupidity and greed to cling on to power at any cost.. must by the same arguement, be inherited.
He is much admired for the simple reason, he was a voted in dictator..by fixing the people, the policies and politics under the veneer of social democracy, albeit with all fundamental contarary levers and brakes in place.Is he loved No (he himself said he does;nt want love).. fear yes… in direct proportion to the punitive measures he can impose. He forgets that everything has “a sell by date”..and what remains on the shelf is a festering, bacteria gathering gooey stuff that is more likely to pouson and skill