VZCZCXRO4041
PP RUEHDT RUEHPB
DE RUEHGP #0773/01 2290947
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 170947Z AUG 09
FM AMEMBASSY SINGAPORE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7066
INFO RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0345
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 SINGAPORE 000773 
 
SIPDIS 
 
H PLEASE PASS TO SENATOR BILL NELSON 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/16/2019 
TAGS: PREL PINR SN IN CN MN
SUBJECT: SENATOR BILL NELSON'S MEETING WITH MINISTER MENTOR 
LEE KUAN YEW 
 
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires (CDA) Daniel Shields for Reasons 1.4 ( 
b/b) 
 
¶1.  (C) Summary: In a meeting with Minister Mentor (MM) Lee 
Kuan Yew, Senator Bill Nelson stressed the importance of 
cooperation between Singapore's Internal Security Department 
(ISD) and U.S. counterpart organizations to address common 
threats in areas such as terrorism and proliferation.  MM Lee 
responded that the United States keeps the world safe; if 
not, everyone else including Singapore will be in trouble. 
MM Lee noted that he has met the U.S. Vice President and the 
Secretary of State, but he has not yet had the opportunity to 
meet the President.  He said the Indonesians are making 
important progress under President Yudhoyono, a decent man 
leading a nation that is always difficult to govern.  Even 
two terms may not be long enough for Yudhoyono to ensure that 
Indonesia stays on the right path in the long run.  MM Lee 
said Beijing knows that Singapore is the "undeclared ally" of 
the United States, with longstanding bilateral cooperation 
and the Strategic Framework Agreement.  China has not yet 
fully learned the lesson about the need to provide a 
predictable environment for foreign investors, Lee noted. 
End Summary. 
 
Health of Lee's Wife 
-------------------- 
 
¶2.  (C) Senator Bill Nelson (D-Florida), accompanied by Mrs. 
Grace Nelson, the CDA (notetaker), and Legislative Assistant 
Greta Lundeberg, met at the Istana on August 13 with Minister 
Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, who was joined by Principal Private 
Secretary Chee Hong Tat and MFA Americas Assistant Director 
Jasmine Tan (notetaker).  Mrs. Nelson extended her best 
wishes for improvement in the health of MM Lee's wife Kwa 
Geok Choo.  MM Lee expressed appreciation for the good 
wishes.  He said his wife's medical condition remains poor 
after three strokes.  The fact that her cognitive facilities 
remain intact in some ways makes things more difficult, he 
said. 
 
H1N1 
---- 
 
¶3.  (C) Visitors to MM Lee are currently asked to apply hand 
sanitizer before shaking hand with him and Lee expressed 
concern about H1N1, which he noted is not particularly lethal 
but keeps mutating.  He said dealing with challenges like 
H1N1 is inevitable in the globalizing world in which we live, 
in which diseases can spread around the world at the speed of 
a fast aircraft. 
 
U.S.-Singapore Relations 
------------------------ 
 
¶4.  (C) Senator Nelson noted that he had met with Ambassador 
to Washington Chan Heng Chee (who extended her visit to 
Singapore so she could see the Senator) and with Internal 
Security Department (ISD) Director Pang Kin Keong.  The 
Senator highlighted the importance of cooperation between ISD 
and U.S. counterpart organizations to address common threats 
in areas such as terrorism and proliferation.  MM Lee 
responded that the United States keeps the world safe; if 
not, everyone else including Singapore will be in trouble. 
 
¶5.  (C) Senator Nelson expressed appreciation for Lee's and 
Singapore's leadership in the region, support for the United 
States, and contributions in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The 
Senator noted that the President, the Vice President, and the 
Secretary of State are working hard to strengthen the 
U.S.-Singapore partnership.  Lee said Ambassador Chan has 
briefed him on the Obama Administration's leadership.  He 
noted that he has met the Vice President and the Secretary, 
but he has not yet had the opportunity to meet the President, 
although Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong did meet the 
President (before his election) in the United States. 
 
Indonesia 
--------- 
 
¶6.  (C) Regarding Indonesia, MM Lee said the country is 
making important progress under President Yudhoyono, a decent 
man leading a nation that is always difficult to govern.  He 
is trying his best, but even two terms may not be long enough 
for him to ensure that Indonesia stays on the right path in 
 
SINGAPORE 00000773  002 OF 005 
 
 
the long run.  The challenge may pass to his successor. 
Extreme Islamists remain influential in Indonesia and can 
persuade politicians to make electoral promises that then 
limit the scope of action the politicians can take once they 
are in office.  One extremist group is eliminated in 
Indonesia, but another springs up, he commented. 
 
China 
----- 
 
¶7.  (C) China has not yet fully learned the lesson about the 
need to provide a predictable environment for foreign 
investors, Lee noted.  (Comment: This seemed to refer to 
problems that foreign investors in China have faced including 
the current Rio Tinto controversy. End Comment.)  Senator 
Nelson noted that dealing with China can be difficult.  It 
was even difficult to ensure that China met the Secret 
Service's security requirements for former President Bush 
during the Beijing Olympics, he stated.  MM Lee said at the 
end of the day China will do what is necessary to ensure good 
relations with the United States.  Other countries, however, 
may not get what they need from China. China took a hardline 
approach with France over the Olympic Flame issue, with 
Chinese citizens boycotting Carrefour stores.  Beijing 
basically ignored President Sarkozy's threat not to attend 
the Olympics, with Chinese officials simply observing "you 
are here" when he showed up for the Games. 
 
¶8.  (C) Senator Nelson asked how China treats Singapore.  MM 
Lee said Beijing knows that Singapore is the "undeclared 
ally" of the United States, with longstanding bilateral 
cooperation and the Strategic Framework Agreement.  China 
knows that Singapore continues to send troops for training in 
Taiwan.  Beijing has asked Singapore to stop this and offered 
training areas in Hainan.  Lee told Chinese counterparts that 
if Singapore forces go to Hainan for training, the Americans 
will stop selling Singapore arms.  He intended for the 
Chinese to get the message that their arms are not equal to 
American arms, he said.  He added that he has told Beijing 
that if Beijing is in charge of Taiwan, he will ask Beijing 
for permission to train there. 
 
¶9.  (C) Lee said Deng Xiaoping visited Singapore in November, 
¶1978.  Vietnam had just invaded Cambodia.  The Chinese 
message was that the Russian bear was trying to use Vietnam 
to establish a Cuba in the region.  Lee told Deng that he and 
his neighbors did not fear the Russian bear.  Russia is far 
away from Singapore.  Meanwhile, China was supporting 
insurgencies in Southeast Asia, providing arms and supporting 
propaganda broadcasts.  China needed to stop.  Lee expected 
push-back, but Deng considered the message and asked what Lee 
wanted him to do.  Lee said just stop.  Deng said he needed 
time and, in about a year, he had basically stopped the arms 
flows and the broadcasts, Lee stated. 
 
¶10.  (C) According to Lee, on the economic side, Deng saw 
that Singapore was running a fair and egalitarian society, 
but one in which capitalist multinational corporations were 
playing a major role in job creation.  Under the British, 
Singapore had been a nation of traders rather than engineers 
or manufacturers.  Singapore had learned how to develop these 
skills and attract American, Japanese and European 
investment.  Singapore's Small and Medium Enterprises were 
supplying them.  Under Deng, China shifted from calling 
Singaporeans "lackeys" and "running dogs" to calling 
Singapore a "garden city" and urging Chinese to learn from 
Singapore.  After Deng's Singapore trip, China began opening 
Special Economic Zones.  Some Chinese leftists like Chen Yun 
opposed this, saying the shift was a retreat from Communism 
and Socialism and the Party would lose control.  In 1992, 
when Deng's policies again came under attack from leftists, 
Deng made his famous trip to South China and again urged 
Chinese to learn from Singapore. 
 
¶11.  (C) Lee said at that time the Chinese were sending 
people to Singapore and they were videotaping what they saw, 
but there were real limits to what could be accomplished in 
this manner, as Lee told Deng's son Deng Pufang.  Lee 
therefore pushed for establishment of the China-Singapore 
Industrial Park in Suzhou, near Shanghai.  Lee sought to work 
with Premier Zhu Rongji on the project, but President Jiang 
Zemin insisted that Singapore work instead with Vice Premier 
Li Lanqing, whom Jiang trusted more than Zhu.  Lee returned 
to Suzhou in May 2009 to mark the 15th anniversary of the 
 
SINGAPORE 00000773  003 OF 005 
 
 
industrial park. Vice Premier Wang Qishan represented the 
Chinese side.  Through projects like this, Singapore has 
built a strong reputation for urban management in China, but 
Singapore still comes under pressure from Beijing on issues 
like Taiwan, Lee said. 
 
¶12.  (C) Senator Nelson praised MM Lee's efforts to support 
China's opening up over the years.  MM Lee said President 
George H.W. Bush played a key role by supporting China's 
entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).  Many in China 
were skeptical about joining the WTO, but Zhu Rongji 
persuaded Jiang Zemin that WTO entry, and the associated 
pressure to comply with WTO rules, would be vital over the 
long term to the process of ensuring that China prospers and 
changes.  Senator Nelson noted that economic integration 
seems to have promoted improved ties between Beijing and 
Taipei.  Lee said former leaders in Taiwan, like President 
Lee Teng-hui and President Chen Shui-bian, had miscalculated 
and pushed for independence.  Instead, they should have used 
their economic leverage to build better ties with Beijing. 
President Ma Ying-jeou understands this, but Taiwan does not 
have the economic leverage it once had relative to Beijing, 
Lee stated. 
 
Lee's Experience Under Japanese Occupation 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶13.  (C) Senator Nelson asked MM Lee about his experience in 
World War II during the Japanese occupation of Singapore.  MM 
Lee said he was lucky to escape being massacred.  Ethnic 
Chinese in Singapore had been active in raising relief funds 
for China and Chiang Kai Shek, so when the Japanese occupiers 
arrived they demanded that Singapore's ethnic Chinese 
business community raise $200 million for Japan, or else. 
The Singaporeans failed to raise the money, so the Japanese 
detained 50-100 thousand ethnic Chinese men in Singapore, 
including Lee.  There was no real pattern to it; the detained 
men were just people who seemed like they might be 
anti-Japanese or guerrilla fighters.  Lee was ordered to get 
into a truck with others, but he had an intuition that 
getting into the truck would be a mistake so he got 
permission to go get clothes and used the opportunity to slip 
away for three or four days.  He was then able to blend back 
into the population.  Those who had boarded the trucks ended 
up machine gunned to death on the beach. The Japanese were 
brutal and cruel, using intimidation and collective 
punishment to terrorize the population into submission, he 
noted. 
 
¶14.  (C) MM Lee said Singapore was occupied for three and a 
half years.  Although Japan surrendered on August 6, 1954, 
the British were unable to accept the surrender in Singapore 
until September.  In the interim, the Japanese were defeated 
but in charge, beating up anyone who celebrated their defeat. 
 Some Japanese committed suicide.  They were brainwashed to 
believe they were the chosen people of the Moon Goddess.  If 
they lost, they brought shame on their country and their 
race.  During the occupation, Lee and others in Singapore had 
to bow deeply in the direction of Tokyo and the Emperor three 
times a day on Imperial Rescript Day.  It was therefore 
surreal for Lee, years later in the 1960s when he was PM of 
Singapore, to meet the Emperor over lunch.  Senator Nelson 
asked Lee if he said anything to the Emperor about the 
occupation.  Lee said he felt he could not in the context of 
the lunch meeting.  The Emperor murmured something about 
regrettable events, he stated. 
 
Lee on Singapore's Union with Malaysia 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶15.  (C) Senator Nelson asked MM Lee about his experience 
from 1963-65, first leading Singapore into union with 
Malaysia in order to break the power of the Communists in 
Singapore, then leading an independent Singapore following 
the breakup on the union with Malaysia.  Lee noted that 
during the period of British rule, Singapore had been the 
seat of empire for a broad area that included Malaysia, 
Singapore, North Borneo including Brunei, the Cocos Islands, 
and Christmas Island.  After World War II, the British knew 
they could not hold onto India and Pakistan and they soon 
realized they could not hold Peninsular Malaysia, which they 
granted independence, while keeping Singapore.  As it became 
clear that Britain could not retain Singapore either, Lee 
pushed for union with Malaysia. 
 
SINGAPORE 00000773  004 OF 005 
 
 
 
¶16.  (C) Lee said that the Tunku, then the leader of 
Malaysia, did not want Singapore, which would bring with it 
all the complications of a largely ethnic Chinese city, but 
the Tunku was persuaded when the British added East Malaysia 
as a kind of dowry to the Tunku for taking Singapore.  The 
union with Malaysia was successful in breaking Communist 
power in Singapore, essentially by diluting the political 
influence of the largely ethnic Chinese Communists into a 
larger polity including many more conservative Malay Muslim 
voters.  This made possible the political decapitation of the 
Communists, which put an end to the great momentum that the 
Communists in Singapore had enjoyed before that.  There was a 
real fear of China, and a reluctance to stand up to 
China-backed Communism, in the region at that time.  China's 
economy appeared to be growing very rapidly.  In retrospect, 
it was all a Potemkin Village, but at the time, people did 
not realize that, Lee stated. 
 
¶17.  (C) Lee said that the breakup of the union with Malaysia 
began when his People's Action Party (PAP) tried to get 
Malays in Malaysia to join the PAP.  Lee argued that all 
citizens have equal rights, but the Tunku took the view that 
Malays must rule Malaysia.  In 1964, there were race riots in 
Singapore, which were engineered by the Malaysians to 
intimidate the Singaporeans, as similar riots had intimidated 
the people in Penang.  Lee responded by organizing a 
solidarity conference.  If there were going to be riots in 
Singapore, there would be riots in Malaysia.  At that point, 
the Tunku told Lee to "get out," Lee stated. 
 
Lee on Building an Independent Singapore 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶18.  (C) Lee said building up an independent Singapore 
outside Malaysia was a huge challenge, but he had one 
critical advantage: he had won the trust of the people of 
Singapore.  In earlier years, the Communists had taunted Lee 
as a soft, English-speaking, UK-educated lawyer who slept in 
air-conditioned rooms.  Lee and his colleagues had shown 
their character by fighting the Communists, then by standing 
up to the Malaysians, even though the Malaysians controlled 
the police and the army.  After 1965, they needed to ensure 
that Singapore was more productive and better organized than 
its resource-rich neighbors.  Singapore had a strategic 
location and an infrastructure inherited from the British. 
To make use of these advantages, it needed to rebuild 
relations between labor and management.  It needed to provide 
jobs, food and shelter for a population, at the time, of two 
million, he commented. 
 
¶19.  (C) According to Lee, the critical thing was to create 
stability and confidence for investors, who want their people 
in Singapore and their families to enjoy security, health 
care, and educational opportunities.  There can be no 
changing of the rules in the middle of the game.  Even during 
the 1973 oil crisis, Singapore honored its commitments. 
Jumping ahead to the current day, Exxon Mobile is proceeding 
with a USD 4.5 billion cracker plant on Singapore's Jurong 
Island, despite all the uncertainties in the global economy. 
This is because they anticipate expanded demand in China and 
India and they have confidence in Singapore's investment 
climate. 
 
Lee on Norman Rockwell's "The Golden Rule" Painting 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶20.  (C) As the meeting concluded, Senator Nelson presented 
PM Lee with a copy of a Norman Rockwell "The Golden Rule" 
painting, representing the unity of the people of the world. 
The Senator noted that when he had the opportunity to go into 
space on the Space Shuttle 23 years ago he had developed a 
new appreciation for the oneness of the people of the planet. 
 Lee said that is not the way the Russians see it.  Senator 
Nelson noted that, despite U.S.-Russia disagreements, the two 
countries have been cooperating in space since 1975.  Lee 
said perhaps President Medvedev sees things that way, but not 
PM Putin, who is still calling the shots.  Lee added that 
many extremists in the Islamic world also reject the idea of 
the essential oneness of the world's people. 
 
¶21.  (U) Senator Nelson cleared this message. 
 
Visit Embassy Singapore's Classified website: 
 
SINGAPORE 00000773  005 OF 005 
 
 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eap/singapore/ind ex.cfm 
SHIELDS