In an interesting read, Jeff Ooi challenges the ‘myth’ of Singapore’s founding father Lee Kwan-yew, suggesting that South Korea has done far more with far less, and has overcome more difficulties.

• Both Singapore and South Korea were under colonial dominance before WWII, the former under British rule, the latter Japan’s.
• Both had dictorial regimes in the guise of democratic electoral processes, only that South Korea was courageous to take down the repressive regime backboned with the armed forces’ might.
• Both have close-to monoethnic demography, which off-loaded the countries the extra-luggage in formulating social-economic policies.
• In terms of GDP performance, South Korea has a composition by sector that makes it 40.4% industrial and 56.3% services-based. It’s an almost similar skew for Singapore: Industry: 32.6%; Services: 67.4%.
• South Korea has relatively a vast population, while Singapore is a tiny red dot. Proportionate ratio is at work when it comes to provisioning of all kinds.
• After WWII, South Korea’s economy and demographics were ravaged by the Korean War in the 50’s. Singapore continued as a British protectorate under the Straits Settlements after WWII, faced home-grown communist insurgency in the 50’s and mid 60’s, and well-shieled by Malaysia during Konfrontasi.
• On independence, Singapore inherited and perfected the jewels of the crown left behind by the British, the harbour infrastructure, the entrepot trades, the regional financial hub - milking its northern hinterland that the colonialist decreed by design. South Korea built itself from scratch after picking up from the ashed of the invaders’ loots.

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