Without the elected president and if there is a freak result, within two or three years, the army would have to come in and stop it - Lee Kuan Yew

Even from my sick bed, even if you are going to lower me into the grave and I feel something is going wrong, I will get up.

Let me give you an example that encapsulates the whole difference between America and Singapore. America has a vicious drug problem. How does it solve it? It goes around the world helping other anti-narcotic agencies to try and stop the suppliers... Singapore does not have that option. What we can do is to pass a law which says that any customs officer or policeman who sees anybody in Singapore behaving suspiciously... can require that man to have his urine tested. If the sample is found to contain drugs, the man immediately goes for treatment. In America if you did that it would be an invasion of the individual's rights and you would be sued.

For me, it is a moment of anguish. All my life, my whole adult life, I believed in merger and unity of the two territories.