By Loida Rosario
Former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew , now 87 years old and a friend of America, just published: “Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master’s Insights on China the United States and the World”. He is credited with raising the per capita income from $400 a year in 1959 to more than $50,000 last year. In the process, he made tiny Singapore an Asian business center in the world.
His views for America are optimistic, logical and flattering. He explains how the United States of America is poised to continue to be “the most militarily powerful and economically dynamic nation in the world…and likely to remain for the next few decades the sole superpower”. He uttered words that I have said in many lectures about business and marketing as an adjunct professor of the College of Commerce at DePaul University. He mentions how the “American culture is the best at starting from scratch and beating you”. The “can do” attitude and “magnanimity and generosity” helped “rebuild a most prosperous world”. Even in the midst of problems, I believe we will continue to build that better world and in turn become a better nation ourselves, just as Mr. Kuan Yew concludes.
I agreed with our friend, former Prime Minister Lee Juan Yew’s views on America, until the second to last paragraph.
The Article by Peggy Noonan, “A Statesman’s Friendly Advice’, on the April 6-7, 2013 edition of the Wall Street Journal discusses Mr. Lee Kuan Yew’s book. I enjoyed reading the article until I read the first sentence in that second to last paragraph: “What can destroy America is multiculturalism”.
The article goes on to define multiculturalism as “a gradual surrendering of the essential culture that has sustained America since its beginning”. First, this is not the definition of the word. The Webster dictionary defines multiculturalism as “the preservation of different cultures or cultural identities within a unified society, as a state or nation.” Under this definition, the culture of ‘origin’ is not threatened by different cultures. I will argue that multiculturalism in the U.S. of America is strengthened by it.
Yes, it is true that in other countries around the world, the world multiculturalism has come to signify Mr. Lee Kuan Yew views. There are many reasons for this. In this article I will focus on the American style of multiculturalism.
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