Former Singapore legendary leader Lee Kuan Yew remarks in 1990 on religious tolerance and against aggressive proselytization
Ravi: I would like to declare that while I am a Hindu, I have great respect for faiths like Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism etc. I am a firm believer in, and open supporter of, freedom of religion including freedom to have no religion.
Lee Kuan Yew on religious tolerance, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KDjjXUx9bY, 7 min. 45 secs.
Very interesting views of former Singapore long-time Prime Minister from 1959 to 1990 and legendary leader, the Late Lee Kuan Yew in 1990 about religious tolerance and intolerance in Asia in general and in Singapore in particular from the 1950s onwards.
I have given below an edited transcript of the video, using the youtube auto generated transcript as a base. I am not commenting on the accuracy of Lee Kuan Yew's views. Just sharing what Lee Kuan Yew said in the Question and Answer session, and thereby know how he perceived religious tolerance and intolerance in Asia in this period (1950 to 1990).
Timestamp: 00:00
Questioner: I'm -- from (Arts and?) social sciences year three. Mr chairman, I have a question for the prime minister. Does the Prime Minister foresee a decline in religious tolerance in the near future in Singapore?
Then Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew: I do not foresee - I've already seen. I started off with nineteen .. nineteen fifty. Forty five - I was too young, too busy with my old career.
00:40
When I came back and started practice in nineteen fifty (1950), religion was not an issue. But then you see Islam had not gone through a resurgent phase. India had got independence and a secular generation of leaders were in charge - Nehru.
In Ceylon (Sri Lanka) you had a very westernized elite that took over - Buddhists nominally but very accommodating of other religions and that was the mood throughout the world. And Singapore and Malaysia was part of that milieu.
The climate has turned harsher. If you read Mark Tully on his book on India - he is the BBC correspondent in India - he points to Mrs. Indira Gandhi as the turning - as the person who made India more Hindu, because, according to him, she was faced with a different situation and she decided to rally the north which was Hindu by appealing to the Hinduness.
02:10
Meanwhile of course Islam had gone through a resurgent phase but now it has a political tinge to it. It's a riot about power, about the way the --snipped sensitive words --.
02:31
I did not expect this to affect Singapore but it has. A resurgent Islam is a fact of life. A resurgent Christian group going up proselytizing, evangelizing was totally unexpected. We had always taken a free and liberal attitude and we assumed that people will be sensible and live and let live. But you have this evangelist man called --- some Redemption Church. What does he call himself? ---
He says, "Go out and convert the Muslim. You are entitled to do so by the Constitution." Well, that's not very helpful, is it?
Around 03:35
It's reached a point where finally the Buddhists came to see me and (said), would I open (their) conference because they also feel that, you know, what's happening! I thought we were going to live and let live. If this is what's going to happen I'm going to assert my rights. So I accepted. They gave me beads and so on. Well, I accepted it because nominally I'm a Buddhist. (Unclear-word) that is the secret of tolerance that you have a generation in charge like me, by and large, secular in our approach, definitely in how to govern the country and only too ready to concede the spiritual to personal beliefs to whichever religion or religious group can convince you, provided the two are kept separate.
Around 04:43
(That) the religion contests (?) your right to believe in certain values but not to the extent that you push a government into implementing those values at the expense of other groups.
Around 05:00
Muslims tell me - that's not possible. Islam is a total, all-embracing philosophy. The charismatic Christians tell me the same and if this goes on we're going to have unpleasantness - Friction there already is, (and) clashes are coming. (And) my simple position is let's stop it before it's too late.
05:31
It's all silly. However hard the Christians can try, they are not going to make Singapore a Christian society. It's just not possible. They've tried in China. It failed.
05:47
There's something about ancient civilizations both India and China - the Christians did not convert. They converted segments. You may say superstition. That Quan Yin or ---- are all superstitions. You may say Ganesh with his blue face and multi arms is again superstition. But it's given succor, comfort, relief to successive generations for thousands of years. Who are you to say that your Bible is not superstition?
06:27
They have converted whole island communities like Fiji. All the native Fijians have become Christians but not the Indians in Fiji. So I tell these Christian groups - let's have a sense of proportion. Let's live and let live. You're not going to change the world. Maybe you (will) change a few individuals for a very brief period of time, maybe a few years - he gets excited - he's seen the light. [Laughter]
06:59
But he's got to live and you look at the Europeans. They were the earliest Christian nations. They're not excited. Their churches are being deconsecrated and becoming bingo halls. So why do we need to be excited? But we are going through that phase and I think sensible, sensitive but firm government will ride this patch. Soft government trying to accommodate everybody will lead to big mischief.
--- end edited transcript ---
Very interesting views of former Singapore long-time Prime Minister from 1959 to 1990 and legendary leader, the Late Lee Kuan Yew in 1990 about religious tolerance and intolerance in Asia in general and in Singapore in particular from the 1950s onwards.
I have given below an edited transcript of the video, using the youtube auto generated transcript as a base. I am not commenting on the accuracy of Lee Kuan Yew's views. Just sharing what Lee Kuan Yew said in the Question and Answer session, and thereby know how he perceived religious tolerance and intolerance in Asia in this period (1950 to 1990).
Timestamp: 00:00
Questioner: I'm -- from (Arts and?) social sciences year three. Mr chairman, I have a question for the prime minister. Does the Prime Minister foresee a decline in religious tolerance in the near future in Singapore?
Then Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew: I do not foresee - I've already seen. I started off with nineteen .. nineteen fifty. Forty five - I was too young, too busy with my old career.
00:40
When I came back and started practice in nineteen fifty (1950), religion was not an issue. But then you see Islam had not gone through a resurgent phase. India had got independence and a secular generation of leaders were in charge - Nehru.
In Ceylon (Sri Lanka) you had a very westernized elite that took over - Buddhists nominally but very accommodating of other religions and that was the mood throughout the world. And Singapore and Malaysia was part of that milieu.
The climate has turned harsher. If you read Mark Tully on his book on India - he is the BBC correspondent in India - he points to Mrs. Indira Gandhi as the turning - as the person who made India more Hindu, because, according to him, she was faced with a different situation and she decided to rally the north which was Hindu by appealing to the Hinduness.
02:10
Meanwhile of course Islam had gone through a resurgent phase but now it has a political tinge to it. It's a riot about power, about the way the --snipped sensitive words --.
02:31
I did not expect this to affect Singapore but it has. A resurgent Islam is a fact of life. A resurgent Christian group going up proselytizing, evangelizing was totally unexpected. We had always taken a free and liberal attitude and we assumed that people will be sensible and live and let live. But you have this evangelist man called --- some Redemption Church. What does he call himself? ---
He says, "Go out and convert the Muslim. You are entitled to do so by the Constitution." Well, that's not very helpful, is it?
Around 03:35
It's reached a point where finally the Buddhists came to see me and (said), would I open (their) conference because they also feel that, you know, what's happening! I thought we were going to live and let live. If this is what's going to happen I'm going to assert my rights. So I accepted. They gave me beads and so on. Well, I accepted it because nominally I'm a Buddhist. (Unclear-word) that is the secret of tolerance that you have a generation in charge like me, by and large, secular in our approach, definitely in how to govern the country and only too ready to concede the spiritual to personal beliefs to whichever religion or religious group can convince you, provided the two are kept separate.
Around 04:43
(That) the religion contests (?) your right to believe in certain values but not to the extent that you push a government into implementing those values at the expense of other groups.
Around 05:00
Muslims tell me - that's not possible. Islam is a total, all-embracing philosophy. The charismatic Christians tell me the same and if this goes on we're going to have unpleasantness - Friction there already is, (and) clashes are coming. (And) my simple position is let's stop it before it's too late.
05:31
It's all silly. However hard the Christians can try, they are not going to make Singapore a Christian society. It's just not possible. They've tried in China. It failed.
05:47
There's something about ancient civilizations both India and China - the Christians did not convert. They converted segments. You may say superstition. That Quan Yin or ---- are all superstitions. You may say Ganesh with his blue face and multi arms is again superstition. But it's given succor, comfort, relief to successive generations for thousands of years. Who are you to say that your Bible is not superstition?
06:27
They have converted whole island communities like Fiji. All the native Fijians have become Christians but not the Indians in Fiji. So I tell these Christian groups - let's have a sense of proportion. Let's live and let live. You're not going to change the world. Maybe you (will) change a few individuals for a very brief period of time, maybe a few years - he gets excited - he's seen the light. [Laughter]
06:59
But he's got to live and you look at the Europeans. They were the earliest Christian nations. They're not excited. Their churches are being deconsecrated and becoming bingo halls. So why do we need to be excited? But we are going through that phase and I think sensible, sensitive but firm government will ride this patch. Soft government trying to accommodate everybody will lead to big mischief.
--- end edited transcript ---
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