If you can't force or are unwilling to force your people to follow you, with or without threats, you are not a leader.

At the end of the day, what have I got? A successful Singapore. What have I given up? My life.

The ideas of individual supremacy and the right of free expression, when carried to excess, have not worked. They have made it difficult to keep America society cohesive. Asia can see it is not working.. In America itself, there is widespread crime and violence, old people feel forgotten, families are falling apart. And the media attacks the integrity and character of your leaders with impunity, drags down all those in authority and blames everyone but itself.

Usually I read biographies of interesting people. I am not attracted to novels - make-believe, or recreations of what people think life should be.

There are some flaws in the assumptions made for democracy. It is assumed that all men and women are equal or should be equal. Hence, one-man-one-vote. But is equality realistic? If it is not, to insist on equality must lead to regression.

You take a poll of any people. What is it they want? The right to write an editorial as you like? They want homes, medicine, jobs, schools.

If Singapore is a nanny state, then I am proud to have fostered one.