Kishore Mahbubani in his memoir: the rebel undergraduate who took on Lee Kuan Yew

In his book ‘Living the Asian Century’, the veteran diplomat recalls how an article criticising Singapore’s founding father changed his life

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Kishore Mahbubani, founding dean of the LKY School of Public Policy, Singapore. Photo: LKY School of Public Policy, Singapore

Published: 11:00am, 10 Aug 2024Updated: 4:11pm, 11 Aug 2024

Veteran Singapore diplomat Kishore Mahbubani has published his memoirs, Living the Asian Century, recounting his life as one of the city state’s well-known envoys and public intellectuals on the global conference circuit. He sums up his life as one that progressed “from poverty to plenty”. From an underweight child whose initial ambition was to be a textile salesman to becoming the founding dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, 75-year-old Mahbubani sketches a compelling story of the myriad opportunities he had growing up in a developing Singapore. In this first of a three-part excerpt from the memoir, he recalls his university days and how he criticised the late founding Prime Minister Lee. Read the second and third parts.

“My most visible contribution to university life as a whole came when I was appointed as the editor of the student newspaper, the Singapore Undergrad. As editor, I discovered that I had a provocative streak. The politically apathetic students of my time had no interest in student newspapers. Hence, I tried to increase interest in the paper and to encourage greater debate and reflection by choosing provocative headlines. The most memorable editorial decision I made was to leave the entire front page of the paper blank and print in the middle of the white page a headline in small print: “Are we really this blank?”

That was perhaps the boldest headline, but the article that many years later I came to believe changed the course of my life appeared after PM Lee Kuan Yew was invited to visit the campus and deliver a lecture in June 1969. During the Q&A session, one of the philosophy professors declaimed at length against the government’s pro-abortion policy. When the student moderator of the lecture refused Lee’s request that he move things along, Lee pushed him aside and took charge. I wrote an article protesting this indecorous act and suggested that Lee could well be heading down a path towards dictatorship.

Singapore’s then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew speaks at a press conference after his arrival at Heathrow Airport in London on January 13, 1968. Photo: AP

Initially, I floated this article as an editorial representing the views of the paper. While the other editors liked the piece, they suggested that I publish it in my own name instead. I agreed. It was an act of folly.

My fellow editors were obviously smarter than I. They knew well that the PAP government of that time was not tolerant of dissent or criticism and that there could be serious consequences for writing such strong and direct criticism of the PM. If I had been squashed, in one way or another, after publishing this article in my name, my fellow students would not have been surprised.

Indeed, some time after I published this article, I was told that Vice-Chancellor Toh Chin Chye – who had been the founding chairman of the PAP and had only recently stepped down as deputy prime minister (DPM) – had said, “Tell Kishore not to take me on. If he does, I will crush him.”

Instead of being squashed, I became a celebrity after publishing the article. The New York Times (NYT) correspondent in Singapore, Anthony Polsky, came to interview me on campus. The BBC followed suit. Equally importantly, my fellow students began to treat me with greater respect. I was no longer an obscure philosophy student, as everyone knew who I was.