By Rohan Gunaratna

On Singapore’s 61st National Day, I wish to pay a tribute to Lee Kuan Yew, the founding  father of Singapore, and share some memories of this great statesman.

I first met with Mr. Lee two weeks before the Bali bombing in Indonesia on October 2002. The meeting at the Istana was like a teacher-student conversation. His mind was razor sharp! In one hour, he asked me 30 questions. And I had to respond promptly. 

He asked me my why I relocated from St. Andrews University in Scotland to Singapore. I said that “Southeast Asia will be the next field of Al Qaeda led operations”.

Towards the end of our meeting, he asked me for my forecast of the regional threat. I said, “terrorists are planning to attack entertainment venues in Southeast Asia.”

He disagreed with me and said, “No, the attacks will be in the Middle East where the terrorists want to take control of the oil fields”. He added, “the terrorists want to dictate politics to the west”.

I said according to intelligence reporting, “the Al Qaeda point-man in the region, Hambali met Mohomad Mansour Jabarah, who had surveilled Singapore’s diplomatic and other targets”, and, added “that they are planning to conduct a strike in the region.”

Mr. Lee’s face turned pale and ears became red. He got up, and, the meeting ended abruptly.

Mr. Lee was worried because Singapore had disrupted an Al Qaeda-Jemaah Islamiyah plan to hit U.S., British, Australian and Israeli diplomatic missions. However, in the region, there was another attack in the making.

That night, Mr. Lee’s Principal Private Secretary Andrew Tan called me. I was at home. He asked if I could send a note on the pending attack to Mr. Lee. I said, of course.

Based on a U.S. and Canadian debriefing of a foreign terrorist fighter tasked by the 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohamed to surveil targets in Singapore and in the Philippines, I wrote that the threat of an attack in the region was imminent. Quoting from the intelligence reports, I stated that the terrorists wanted to bomb “bars, night clubs and restaurants” in the region. After years of witnessing suffering and death from terrorism, I said that some governments in the ASEAN region too lacked the political will to act preventively and preemptively to disrupt and dismantle the terrorist networks.

Two week after I wrote to Mr. Lee of an attack in the making, Southeast Asia witnessed its worst terrorist attack. On October 12, 2002, the al Qaeda funded, trained and directed Jemaah Islamiyah bombed the Paddy and Sari night clubs killing 202 and injuring 500. 

I flew to Bali to assist my Indonesian and Australian colleagues. Mr. Lee wanted to see me again. When we met at the Istana, Mr. Lee said, “My highest priority is to protect Singapore”.  In his face, I could see Mr. Lee’s resolve and commitment to fight a fierce, ruthless and merciless threat.

He was determined and was willing to do what it takes. We discussed his concerns and he asked me what should Singapore do to secure its national security.

I said, “the terrorists wants to turn Southeast Asia into the second front”. “Unless the leaders work together and develop a zero-tolerance policy against terrorism”, I added, “the region will move from crisis to chaos”.

He wanted the terrorists to be stopped.

As Singapore had no strategic depth, I said the future security of Singapore depends on the threat in the region. As Indonesia is the largest country in the region, we should assist Jakarta to take the lead and develop a strategy to dismantle the active terrorist networks on their soil. As the terrorists were determined to strike Singapore, Mr. Lee engaged leaders both in the region and beyond.

In an interview with Charlie Rose in New York, Mr. Lee spoke about our meetings. See link at 8:10 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngtDgPmzLbM>

There were many developments outside Southeast Asia that increased the threat in the region. Before the US invasion of Iraq, Mr. Lee asked me for my point of view.

I said, “it is a bad idea”.

He thought it was a good idea because the terrorists in the Southeast Asian region would travel to the Middle Eastern region.

I said, “the destruction in Iraq will mobilise, radicalise, and, militarise a segment of the vulnerable and susceptible communities in our region”.

In addition to his friend Henry Kissinger, Mr. Lee communicated our assessment to many leaders in Europe, North America, and Australia. He said, “the US and the British leaders believes that Saddam is working with Al Qaeda”.

Based on verified and validated intelligence, I said, “there is no relationship between Saddam and Osama bin Laden.”  And as an invasion will lead to more terrorism, I promptly published an article titled, “Iraq and Al Qaeda: No evidence of alliance” in New York Times on February 19, 2003. <https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/19/opinion/IHT-iraq-and-al-qaeda-no-evidence-of-alliance.html>

To me, with the US invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003, the world lost a great opportunity. The Western core lost Muslim support vital to defeat an insidious and a surging threat. The violence and counter violence fuelled radicalisation globally, regionally and nationally. While a few hundred Indonesians, Malaysians, Filipinos and Singaporeans went to train in Pakistan and fight for Al Qaeda in Afghanistan in the 1990s, over a thousand Southeast Asians went to join the Islamic State Iraq and Syria (ISIS) starting in 2014.

A man of principle and integrity, Mr. Lee informed the government and the public what we had discussed.

Although Mr. Lee did not live to witness the ISIS five month siege in the city of Marawi in the Philippines in 2017 and the Batam plot to attack Singapore’s iconic Marina Bay Sands in 2016, Mr. Lee’s far reaching vision created the understanding that the region should work together to defeat a common threat.

Singapore is a small country. However, it is a mini-superpower. Singapore actively prevented the ASEAN region from becoming a second front. If not for his iron grip, his diplomacy, and secret diplomacy, the Southeast Asian region would have become a terrorist theatre. He wanted the best and the brightest minds to study national security in Singapore and he himself read widely and attempted to educate other world leaders. Today, Singapore and its neighbours work together to fight a persistent threat.

In his life time, Mr. Lee achieved what he wanted by transforming Singapore from a developing to a developed country. He inspired the world to fight corruption, mentored talented leaders, and built a first rate civil service. A few leaders can match him.

Franklin D. Roosevelt led the U.S. through the Great Depression and World War Two. Similarly, Winston Churchill led Britain through World War Two with strong speeches. To protect the Lion City, Mr. Lee was unrelenting when it came to defence and security.

Most politicians play politics for personal and party gain. Mr. Lee was different. He would never compromise Singapore’s national and strategic interests. He could see far! To build Singapore, he worked with the Americans and engaged China. He wanted a peaceful rise of China!

A decade before, he predicted the ongoing developments in the Middle East. When the Islamic State took control of the oil fields in Iraq and Syria in 2014, the forecast Mr. Lee made in 2002 came true.

Mr. Lee was a man before his time. However, his greatest strength was that he lived in reality. He saw things as they are and he took necessary action to build a system and educated a citizenry to keep Singapore safe and secure.

Happy 61^st National Day, Singapore!

Rohan Gunaratna

I invite you to watch Mr. Lee Kuan Yew discussing our encounters with Charlie Rose in the following short video:

The full conversation can be watched here.