SINGAPORE (AP) – Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of modern Singapore who was both feared for his authoritarian tactics and admired worldwide for turning the city-state into one of the world’s richest nations while in power for 31 years, died Monday. He was 91.
Lee was admitted to Singapore General Hospital on Feb. 5 for severe pneumonia and was later put on life support.
The Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement posted on its website that Lee “passed away peacefully” at the hospital at 3:18 a.m. Monday.
The country’s first and longest-serving prime minister, Lee guided Singapore through a traumatic split with Malaysia in 1965 and led the transformation of what was then a sleepy port city into a global trade and finance center. Although he could have remained in office for much longer, he stepped aside and handed over leadership of the ruling party, and the country, to a younger generation in 1990. Still, he remained an influential behind-the-scenes figure for many more years until his health deteriorated.
“In the end, my greatest satisfaction in life comes from the fact that I have spent years gathering support, mustering the will to make this place meritocratic, corruption-free and equal for all races – and that it will endure beyond me, as it has,” Lee said in his 2013 book, “One Man’s View of the World.”