From Third World to First: Die Sicht auf Thailand und auf die Philippinen
Einige Bemerkungen und Einschätzungen von Lee Kuan Yew zu anderen Ländern in Südostasien sind hier erwähnenswert. So lobt er die Regierungszeit von Prem Tinsulanonda in der 80er Jahren in Thailand: “A bachelor, he was exceptionally honest and led a government largely free from corruption. During the eight years he was prime minister (1980-1988), Thailand prospered and economic development took off, in spite of the war in Cambodia. He was a steady and reliable leader who held to a consistent policy, a man of few words, no scholar, but practical. He enjoyed the king’s trust. His command of English was not as good as Kukrit’s [ein früherer Premierminister, Anm. von mir], but he had the better strategic sense.” Doch Prem Tinsulanonda stellt da eine Ausnahme dar. Normalerweise müssen Wählerstimmen in Thailand mit großen Kampagnen und finanziellen Zusagen regelrecht erkauft werden. Nach einem Treffen mit dem darauffolgenden Premierminister Chatichai Choonhavan stellte Lee fest: “He did not explain what I had learned from newspaper reports, that often the headman was paid to ensure that he delivered the votes of his villagers... Vast sums of money were needed to get elected. Party leaders had to finance their supporting candidates, but after elections the leaders and MPs had to recover their expenses. This was money politics the Thai way.” Und somit wuchert die Korruption in Thailand unglaublichen Ausmaßes.
Nicht anders war und ist es auf den Philippinen. Dazu kam noch, dass nach der Marcos-Ära der Kampf um die Macht zwischen den Familienclans mit Verleumdungen in der Presse und blutigen Anschlägen - fingierte und reale - ausgetragen wurde. Dies hatte natürlich negative Folgen für die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung. Lee dazu: “There were more coup attempts, discouraging investments badly needed to create jobs. This was a pity because they had so many able people, educated in the Philippines and the United States. Their workers were English-speaking, at least in Manila. There was no reason why the Philippines should not have been one of the more successful of the Asean countries. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was the most developed, because America had been generous in rehabilitating the country after the war. Something was missing, a gel to hold society together. The people at the top, the elite mestizos, had the same detached attitude to the native peasants as the mestizos in their haciendas in Latin America had toward their peons. They were two different societies: Those at the top lived a life of extreme luxury and comfort while the peasants scraped a living, and in the Philippines it was a hard living. They had no land but worked on sugar and coconut plantations. They had many children because the church discouraged birth control. The result was increasing poverty.”
Der Umgang mit korrupten politischen Führer auf den Philippinen kritisiert Lee und macht kulturelle Aspekte geltend. Diese Konsequenzlosigkeit fördert eben ein korruptes politisches System und hemmt die Entwicklung des Landes. Das macht den Unterschied zu einem demokratischen System der USA: “The difference lies in the culture of the Filipino people. It is a soft, forgiving culture. Only in the Philippines could a leader like Ferdinand Marcos, who pillaged his country for over 20 years, still be considered for a national burial.”
Bei einer Wirtschaftkonferenz auf den Philippinen im November 1992 hielt Lee Kuan Yew eine Rede, wo er einen Satz aussprach, der auf eine feine Beobachtung der politischen Entwicklungen in Asien gründet: “In a speech to the 18th Philippine Business Conference, I said, «I do not believe democracy necessarily leads to development. I believe what a country needs to develop is discipline more than democracy.»” Stabile Verhältnisse haben zu wirtschaftlichen Entwicklungen geführt, während die Machtkämpfen der Demokratien gepaart mit Korruption den Niedergang der Länder bedeuteten. Nicht nur in Asien, sondern in allen Ländern der Welt kann man genau diese Entwicklungen beobachten.