President & Mrs Nathan, Prime Minister & Mrs Goh,
Senior Minister & Mrs Lee,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies & Gentlemen,

In 1996, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew did me the honor of ushering me into the Octogenarian Club. Tonight it is my honor and pleasure to welcome him to that Club. One’s 80^th birthday is a cause for joyous celebration, especially when one is in such fine fettle as SM Lee.

By any criteria, Lee Kuan Yew’s 80 years are a great success. Sometimes, I wonder what Singapore would have been like had he remained a lawyer or had he chosen to be a businessman. Fortunately for us, he chose to be a politician.

My generation experienced British colonial rule and the humiliation and horror of the Japanese Occupation. At the end of the Second World War, we became British subjects again. Then we endured the frustration of merger with Malaysia and the trauma of separation. At the end of it all, we were all of one mind. It was time to be masters of our own destiny.

In 1954, Lee Kuan Yew, with a dedicated group of like-minded men and women founded the People’s Action Party. They wanted to bring about a more "just and equal" society.

The PAP won the General Election in 1959 and Lee Kuan Yew became the Prime Minister. He was only 36 years old. The team was given the unique challenge to build a nation from scratch. His memoir The Singapore Story records the HOW and WHY the team, under his able leadership transformed a motley collection of people of different races, languages and religions into a proud and cohesive nation. His other memoir From Third World to First: 1965 to 2000 records the transformation of our economy from a scruffy Third World trading port into a First World metropolis.

What was it like working for him and with him?

I first worked for SM Lee in 1960 when he, as Prime Minister, appointed me as Chairman of the Housing & Development Board. My task was to build 10,000 units of flats for the year. My Minister was a young man who had been the populist mayor of Singapore. We differed on how to go about doing the job. I went to see Prime Minister Lee and told him I could only build flats by hiring contractors instead of being my own contractor as my Minister wanted. He overruled the Minister and left me to carry on with the job and we did not discuss the matter again until 10 months later. One evening, I took him on a drive to Queenstown where the HDB was about to complete a few thousand homes. He was pleased.

Once he entrusts you with a job, he lets you get on with it and allows you space to grow.

Later, when I joined the Cabinet and worked closely with him, it became apparent to me that Senior Minister is a man of great determination and tremendous energy, decisive and obsessed with the future of Singapore and Singaporeans. One characteristic that sets him apart from most men is that he is 24 hours in the job. And his job is Singapore, and how to ensure the security and stability it needs for progress and the prosperity of its people. He thinks, talks and no doubt, dreams about this. He is a workaholic, working sometimes till dawn. Lee Kuan Yew is meticulous and thorough in his work and he expects his colleagues to be the same. He is a great mentor, able to coax your best out of you. He would also share with you his thinking and experience. Working for him was an experience not to be missed.

Just before I left the Cabinet in 1981, the Prime Minister, as he was then, was bent on renewing the national leadership. This was the beginning of a search for younger, intelligent men of character and integrity to take over the governing of our country from the ageing incumbents.

In 1990, by choice he handed the baton to Goh Chok Tong. By doing so, he passed on to Singapore a unique and precious legacy, namely a system of renewal of national leadership.

There are many other legacies but I would like to mention three in particular which have a great bearing on the future of our country. They are:

1. an incorrupt government;

2. a well-structured succession plan and

3. a strong defence system

The Senior Minister is not easily satisfied but I think he must now be satisfied that his 80 years have been well spent. Twenty years ago, at his 60^th Birthday on 16 September 1983, he said, and I quote: "IT WILL BE SATISFYING TO KNOW THAT WHAT MY COLLEAGUES AND I ARE TRYING TO DO IN THE NEXT 10 YEARS WILL NOT HAVE BEEN IN VAIN. I WOULD LIKE TO BE ABLE TO SIT BACK IF ONLY FOR THE DAY I BECOME A GRAND SENIOR (In Japan, you are a grand senior at 70) TO SURVEY A THRIVING SINGAPORE, WITH A YOUNGER PRIME MINSITER AND HIS CABINET WELL ESTABLISHED IN A RELATIONSHIP OF TRUST AND CONFIDENCE WITH THE PEOPLE OF SINGAPORE, AND ON TOP OF THE MANY PROBLEMS THAT COME WITH HIGH GROWTH AND RAPID CHANGE". That wish has been fulfilled.

A tribute to Lee Kuan Yew will not be complete without referring to Mrs Lee who keeps a low profile. Like him, she is a first-class honors law graduate from the University of Cambridge. A loving and devoted wife and mother, she had stood by him through thick and thin. There is no doubt that she has been of great help and comfort to him in his stressful but successful political career. If I may say so, Mrs Lee has been working in tandem with Senior Minister for the good of Singapore.

Senior Minister has mellowed. He now spends some time in small talk. Personally, I find him more sociable and more friendly as he now moves around greeting old friends and colleagues, finding out how they and their families are getting on. This caring side of his nature is now more evident. Senior Minister is more relaxed, but ever vigilant. He said at a National Day Rally in 1988 that should he feel something is going wrong (in Singapore), he will react.

Senior Minister, on behalf of all present here tonight, I thank you and salute you for all that you have done for Singapore and Singaporeans.

Ladies and gentlemen, now would you raise your glass and join me in a toast to Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew: Senior Minister, Congratulations on your 80^th Birthday. Wishing you good health, happiness and longevity.

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