When great men die, great changes follow. Lee Kuan Yew, who has died aged 91, will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century. Will Singapore outlive him?
Some may challenge his greatness. He ran only a tiny city-state. Many dismissed him as an authoritarian ruler. Yet, despite the withering criticism he garnered in the western media, he was received with great respect in foreign capitals.
World leaders respected Mr Lee because he was a geopolitical genius. In his brutally candid manner, he would dissect the key global trends of the day and suggest wise courses of action. Vernon Walters, an American ambassador, once quipped: “Thank God that Lee Kuan Yew is the leader of a small state; otherwise, [Richard] Nixon and [Leonid] Brezhnev would hug each other for comfort.”