| |
| |
 |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
SINGAPORE : A detailed and candid book on Singapore's Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, billed as the first extended conversation with a Western journalist was launched on Wednesday.
"Conversations With Lee Kuan Yew" is written by American columnist Tom Plate.
How does an American present an accurate and non-judgemental view of Singapore? For columnist Tom Plate, he took that challenge head-on - and being from Los Angeles, he approached the story as if he was writing a screenplay on a blockbuster that is Singapore.
Tom Plate, author of "Conversations With Lee Kuan Yew", said: "You come into a room, and you start talking with him and he cracks a joke and you say something. And then you disagree, he agrees, and back and forth, and it's almost like a movie.
"No footnotes, a lot of dialogue and it's an intimate but issue oriented profile of a political giant."
The 200-plus page book covers topics ranging from Mr Lee's views on China and US presidents to revelations about his family life.
For the author, it was also an opportunity to dispel some Western perceived myths about Singapore.
Mr Plate said: "He's state of the art political management - I mean this is not a chewing gum, caning environment; this is a serious place, brilliant people.
"We Americans don't know everything, we've made our share of mistakes, but we make a terrible mistake when we write Asia off."
And what was his most memorable moment with Mr Lee?
Mr Plate said: "At one point, his press secretary felt that Minister Mentor was tired and we should cut the session short and (as a) typical journalist, you're a journalist, you know what I mean, we weren't going to let that happen, right?
"We want to squeeze every last minute we could and I said 'No, I'm not moving. You can leave, but I'm not moving.' And I think Lee Kuan Yew might have overheard the conversation and he came back and he said, 'No I'm staying, we're going to finish.' So he was very committed to finishing the project."
Speaking briefly at the book launch, Mr Lee acknowledged that "on the whole, he (the author) got my point of view across."
The book was written after two days of intensive interviews held in Singapore, middle of last year. 25,000 copies of the book have been printed, with 23,000 sent to stores in Singapore and Malaysia.
The book is the first in a series published by Marshall Cavendish on Giants Of Asia. The next two will be on former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.
Viewers can catch Channel NewsAsia's 'Live' interview with the author, Tom Plate, on "Primetime Morning" at 8.50am Singapore/HK time on Thursday.
- CNA/al
|
