Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore Story (2023) • Hacker News Board

Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore Story (2023)

#201

Post by rrvsh » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 12:37 AM UTC

nerdsniper wrote: post #173

rrvsh wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not nonsensical in the slightest. The government does their best to maintain a monoculture while promoting the farce of multiculturalism, because a monoculture facilitates easier economic growth which is the overall aim of the government rather than cultural development. Multiculturalism is essentially pacification because obviously this is unpopular

So you're saying what? 1) The countries that are less multicultural than Singapore are more technical? 2) The countries that are more multicultural than Singapore are less technical? 3) The diversity of foods, religions, ethnic backgrounds, and economic backgrounds in Singapore celebrated here [0] is completely fake? 0: https://www.sg101.gov.sg/society/multicultural/

You don't need to quote my own country's government propaganda to me. My family has been here for seven generations. I made no claims that multiculturalism is wholly correlated with "more/less technical". The point is that monocultures are easier to control and a multicultural society is harder. The monoculture is cultivated so that the government has an easier time servicing their main goal of economic growth, because multiculturalism is NOT a priority, just a PR tactic to allow them to achieve what they actually want. Quoting a .gov.sg source has literally zero bearing in this.

Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore Story (2023)

#202

Post by rrvsh » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 12:42 AM UTC

sillyfluke wrote: post #196

rrvsh wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not nonsensical in the slightest. The government does their best to maintain a monoculture while promoting the farce of multiculturalism, because a monoculture facilitates easier economic growth which is the overall aim of the government rather than cultural development. Multiculturalism is essentially pacification because obviously this is unpopular

>a monoculture facilitates easier economic growth The why of this is not explained by you nor the original comment referring to the lack multiculturism, it is simply asserted. That's why the original comment came off as nonsensical. More than a quarter Singapore's population are foreign workers, and they make up at least 40% of Singapore's entire workforce. Seeing as the workforce that is driving Singapore's economic…

Having a diverse population != multiculturalism in the way that we were discussing. Singapore promotes "racial harmony" where every "race" is given equal public holidays, equity, and inclusion in government etc. This is not wholly true, as the majority ethnic group is overrepresented in positions of power, and foreign workers making up (the bottom) 40% of the workforce does not change that. This extends beyond ethnic lines - the monoculture is not only Chinese > over the rest, but also the dampening of any freedom in expresssion, art, etc. - this is easily verifiable by 1. speaking to any Singaporean 2. looking at the education system and 3. looking at how much cultural impact Singapore has had compared to other "global" cities. You are also clearly misrepresenting my comment about pacification, and I do not appreciate it. I am clearly not referring to some conspiracy where people are disappeared. I am talking about a decades-long government campaign to supress alternative voices and _pacify_ (in the correct sense of the word) dissent.

Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore Story (2023)

#203

Post by jabedude » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 2:36 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #147

jabedude wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If Powell hadn't been a racist shit, he could have been as effective as Lee Kwan Yew was How do you compare Powell's "racism" and LKY's views on race and intelligence? By nearly all definitions of racism, Yew was a racist as well

By what definition was LKY “racist?” He presided over growing prosperity for a multi-ethnic country of Chinese, Malays, and Indians. I’d submit that, if LKY fits within your “definitions of racism,” that’s not a useful definition.

"The Bell curve is a fact of life. The blacks on average score 85 per cent on IQ and it is accurate, nothing to do with culture. The whites score on average 100. The Orientals score higher"

"These are realities that, if you do not accept, will lead to frustration because you will be spending money on wrong assumptions and the results cannot follow. If I tell Singaporeans – we are all equal regardless of race, language, religion, culture, then they will say, 'Look, I'm doing poorly. You are responsible.' But I can show that from British times, certain groups have always done poorly, in mathematics and in science."

"If you don't reproduce yourself, what happens? Next generation you will have a less capable generation to run the country... We must go closer to the evidence of the experts, which shows that about 80 per cent of a person's makeup is nature, inherited, and only 20 per cent nurture, environment and training."