SINGAPORE: Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has stressed that Singapore will go back to the days of where it started if it loses the system of government machinery that has evolved all these years.

In a wide-ranging interview with the International Herald Tribune, he explained that Singapore's leaders knew that if the country were like its neighbours, it would die as Singapore had nothing to offer against what they had.

Singapore had to produce something which was different and better than what its neighbours had, and that is, a system of government that is incorrupt, efficient, meritocratic and one which works.

Mr Lee noted that the Singapore system works regardless of race, language or religion. Otherwise, the country would have divisions.

He said: "We are pragmatists. We don't stick to any ideology. Does it work? Let's try it and if it does work, fine, let's continue it. If it doesn't work, toss it out, try another one.

"We are not enamoured with any ideology. Let the historians and the Ph.D students work out their doctrines. I'm not interested in theories per se."

Minister Mentor Lee also covered topics concerning the effects of global warming.

He said Singapore is already in consultations with Delft in Holland to learn how to build dikes.

He said: "It scares me, because many world leaders have not woken up to the peril that their populations are in. This melting ice cap. I expected great consternation!

"What would happen to this earth? But, no. Has it triggered off emergency meetings to do something about this? Earth warming, the glaciers melting away? Never mind the Swiss Alps and skiing resorts having to manufacture snow.

"When the glaciers in the Himalayas and Tibet melt away, the Ganges, the Yangtze, the Irrawaddy, the Mekong, may dry up, except for rainy seasons. What will happen to the hundreds of millions? Where do they go? Where can they go? This will be a very serious problem."

Mr Lee also touched on the economic challenges, with the rise of China and India. - CNA/ir