Tonight is a special occasion which my old friend and colleague, Lim Kim San, has arranged. He has invited for a reunion all those who served with me as PAP MPs and cabinet ministers. Unfortunately, not all are able to be present. I thank all of you who are present tonight to mark this occasion for old friends and comrades to exchange reminiscences of past battles which we fought together against sometimes frightening odds. I am grateful for the important parts you played, for without your strength in the constituencies, the PAP government would not have been able to take Singapore to where it is today. Kim San has also invited the senior civil servants who served during those years when I was the Prime Minister. To all of them I give my sincere thanks for their unstinting efforts in making my policies bear fruit.

Finally, a special word of thanks to all those on the organising committee who have spent much time and effort to organise this dinner.

As ever the shrewd businessman, Kim San has not arranged this splendid occasion simply to indulge in nostalgia. He had encouraged me to write my memoirs, which SPH/Times Pub (English edition) and Zaobao (Chinese edition) are publishing. Zaobao was able to sell over 70,000 copies of a selection of the speeches I made over the last 40 years, and translated into Chinese. It sold so well that they put out a pictorial biography of me which sold equally well. That led to a CD ROM. After these three successes, Kim San was convinced that the young would read what I write and he persuaded me that they should hear my story of Singapore since I was the principal player from 1959 to 1990.

The first volume of my memoirs is being launched tonight to raise $2 million for charity, and to kick off the publicity for a brisk start to sales. He has invited over 1,200 guests, a Singapore’s Who’s Who in politics, and business, and the professions, and the media and, for good measure, some members of the diplomatic corps. I thank you all for doing me the honour by your presence tonight.

My two old friends, Othman Wok and S R Nathan, have done me proud with their tributes. I have known Othman since 1952 as he explained and I remember that I saw him because I acted for the postmen in their strike and had to get publicity for their cause through Othman, who was then a journalist in Utusan Melayu. I later persuaded him to stand for election in September 1963 and he became a minister soon after that, and remained one until 1981. Othman, I remember your staunch support and loyalty during those troubled days when we were in Malaysia and the tensions were most severe immediately before and following the bloody riots in July 1964. At that time, the greatest pressures were mounted by UMNO Malay extremists who denounced you and Malay PAP leaders, especially you, as infidels (kafirs) and traitors (khianats) not to Singapore but to the Malay race. I heard it, the crowd said it, bunches of them, they were designed to intimidate him and the other Malay leaders in PAP. Because of the courage and the leadership you showed, not one PAP Malay leader wavered and that made the difference to Singapore.

Let me also express my warm appreciation for S R Nathan who from the early 1960s had worked closely with me on many matters. We have been through many battles together and know that we can depend on each other and never let each other down. Nathan was always calm and unflappable in a crisis.

My old comrades and friends would not wish tonight to be simply an occasion for us to wallow in mutual felicitations and congratulations. We have shared significant moments together and played our part in the making of modern Singapore. Only when I sat down some three years ago to write my memoirs did I recall the many exciting episodes we went through together.

When I started I did know how much work it needed. It was not simply sitting down to say "Once upon a time" and then spin a story off the top of my head. A whole team of researchers went through thirty years of correspondence, my own and others, notes of meetings, cabinet papers and other documents in the archives, to gather and marshal the data for me to work on. I did not write an official history of Singapore. It is my account of what I did, why I did it, and the people who worked for me and against me. I did not write to justify what I have done or to prove I was right. That would have been a waste of time. And I was not always right. But it was good fortune that on some critical issues, things turned out well, otherwise I would have come to grief and the Singapore story would have had a different ending.

Referring to Cambodia then in the throes of Vietnam’s occupation, I said 15 years ago on my 60^th birthday: "I realise how very fragile a civilised society is especially in Southeast Asia, in this historic period of rapid change and revolutions". Recent events in Indonesia have reminded us once more of the fragility of civilised society in Southeast Asia.

I have not been able to write about the important roles played by so many of you who helped me. It would have made my story too long and detailed. Those who took part in those tumultuous years from 1955 to 1965 - we are a special fraternity. We went through fire together and helped each other survive. Re-reading the records of our fights against the communists and then the Malay ultras, I recalled vividly the parts you played in pulling off victory from the jaws of defeat. I was fortunate to have had such stout-hearted comrades in those battles.

But let me add, however, that all we the founder generation achieved would have come to naught if we had not actively prepared a younger generation of leaders to take over and to govern Singapore, by having them work with us and learn with us while we were still vigorous. I did not know in 1983 whether we would succeed in self-renewal. I expressed my hope thus: "I would like to be able to sit back if only for the day I become a grand senior (which is the Japanese term for a man who has reached 70) to survey a thriving Singapore, with a younger prime minister and his cabinet well established, in a relationship of trust and confidence with the people of Singapore, and on top of the many problems, on top of the many problems that come with high growth and rapid change." The final achievement of my generation is the successful preparation and handing over to an able, committed and resourceful team. Over the last eight years they have gained in confidence and stature as they met and overcame new problems. That Singapore has been able to weather this financial storm, battered, but seaworthy, reflects both the soundness of the ship they took over from the old guard, and the ability of the Prime Minister and his team to handle this financial crisis.

Singapore is facing its most serious economic crisis since the withdrawal of British armed forces in 1968. The damage to the Indonesian economy and the problems in Malaysia have made for more concerns. Their difficulties will affect us through our many trade and investment links. Also the large depreciations of Asian currencies, including the rupiah, ringgit and others have made Singapore’s costs less competitive against these countries, especially our labour costs. For example, the Japanese are making disk drives in the Philippines to compete against those made in Singapore, paying wages and rents in pesos at a fraction of ours.

To restore our competitiveness against these countries and lessen the increase in unemployment, we have to cut costs significantly. This cannot be done simply by depreciating the Singapore dollar. Instead we need all round reduction of rents, fees, taxes, power rates, telecoms, and wage costs, everything that can help to bring employers’ costs down. These adjustments will not solve our problems and bring us recovery quickly, as happened in 1985. But they are indispensable if Singapore is to weather the severe difficulties that will last for a few years in the region.

We met the challenge in 1968 of massive unemployment, then about 14% before the British withdrew, by taking tough measures which had the co-operation of the unions, the management and people and were able to attract investments and mop up unemployment. There was then little or no trade with Indonesia, and Malaysia was out to bypass Singapore, if you will remember, in 1965, so it is not a new story. We leap-frogged the region and linked up with the industrial dynamos of America, Japan and western Europe. We succeeded. Our living standards then were low and as jobs came in, living standards went up and the people were happy. This time it will be harder. Japan is in recession, leaving us only America and the EU. Moreover Singaporeans will be moving from high standards of living and low unemployment, to lower standards of living and higher unemployment. But I am confident that the present government has the ability to mobilise the unions and win co-operation from employers. But they must also galvanise the people to make that extra effort to prove that Singapore’s leaders and people can make it in the toughest of times.

Let me repeat what I said on my 60^th birthday: "The past was not pre-ordained. Nor is the future. There will be unexpected problems ahead. Only a people willing to face up to their problems and prepared to work with their leaders to overcome unexpected hardships with courage and resolution, deserve to thrive and prosper."

Finally, Ladies and Gentlemen, may I invite you to join me in a toast to Singapore, to the Prime Minister and his team to express our confidence that the present and future generations of Singaporeans, both leaders and people, will, as they are challenged now, display these qualities of fortitude and resourcefulness that have made Singapore what it is today.

----------