Excerpts from a transcript of a speech by Lee Kuan Yew:
And I guarantee you this: there will be a Constitution which we will get re-drawn in which minority rights .... You know, it is very easy in Singapore for people to stand up and if you talk, "One race, one language, one religion," there will be a lot trouble, you know. We do not want that sort of thing. That is stupidity. So we are going to get the Chief Justice of India, Australia, New Zealand and a few others together with our own Chief Justice and a few of our eminent lawyers to draft "entrenched" clauses .... You know, "entrenched": no government can just cancel the clauses. Entrenched, and enforcible.
If anybody thinks he is being discriminated against either for a flat or a scholarship or a job or for social welfare relief because of race, or language or religion, he can go to the court, take out a writ; and if he proves that it was because of discrimination on the ground of race, language, religion, culture, then the court will have to enforce the Constitution and ensure minority rights.
We are an equal society. You are equal to me; I am equal to you. Nobody is more equal than others. In some places, they say, "we are all equal." But what they mean is they are more equal, you see -- which makes life very difficult. But here, when we say "equal", we really mean it. We do not have to do it in Singapore . But we are thinking in terms of 100, 200 years, 1,000 years. You must help them emerge. And there is only one way: education and economic thrust.
My main complaint is our Malaysian hypocrisy when stating about democracy, equality and other lofty politically correct ideals. If we don't mean it, please don't state it.
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