Power and organisation
Lee Kuan Yew
Survival first
Lee Kuan Yew (Singapore · 1923–2015) — Survival first.
What actually happened?
At the press conference on the day of separation he broke down and stopped for twenty minutes. He explained later that this was not weakness but arithmetic: roughly three quarters of Singapore's fresh water came through pipes from Malaysia, and a single decision at the other end could end the country. Among the first things he started was one that looked in no way urgent, and took decades: desalination and water recycling, until supply was close to self-sufficient. Asked why that came before the emergencies, he said that the place where somebody else can decide whether you live is your only real strategic problem.
Deal with the hand around your throat first
A weak party does not sort its priorities by urgency but by who can end it with one decision. Water, defence and recognition got money when there was no money, rather than waiting until there was.
Does your income come from one client, one platform, one boss? That is not efficiency. Somebody else is holding your water pipe.
A small fish needs more than one big fish
Friendly with the United States without alliance, engaged with China without leaning, actively inviting several powers to be present in the region. The logic: while two or more great powers compete, a small state has room to manoeuvre. The worst outcome is a region with only one.
Between two strong parties, staying useful to both beats picking early. Once you have one option, your price is whatever they say.
Do not build systems that need people to be noble
Ministers were paid against top private salaries, and corruption was prosecuted without exception, including his own old friend the minister for national development. Two faces of one rule: make honesty the rational choice rather than the virtuous one.
His own line: if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
Cohesion is designed, not hoped for
In a city of Chinese, Malay and Indian residents that had just had race riots, he did not wait for integration to happen. Public housing was allocated by ethnic quota so blocks stayed mixed, English became the common working language because it favoured nobody, and mother tongues were kept in school.
Unity in his hands was never a mood. It was a set of policies somebody had to enforce.
How do I use it today?
The first lesson for the weaker party is not how to get strong. It is to count the pipes somebody else is holding: one client, one platform, one income, one person who signs. Take the thickest of them and spend three years turning it into two, even though two costs more and runs slower. The second lesson is not to pledge loyalty early. The moment you have only one option, your bargaining power is zero.
Deep read
Read alongside
Further
Lines to keep
If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
Between being loved and being feared, I have always believed Machiavelli was right.
The pipe somebody else can close is the only strategic problem you have.