SINGAPORE’S HELMSMAN LEE KUAN YEW
Seth Mydans wrote in the New York Times: “Lee Kuan Yew transformed the tiny outpost of Singapore into one of Asia’s wealthiest and least corrupt countries as its founding father and first prime minister. Mr. Lee was prime minister from 1959, when Singapore gained full self-government from the British, until 1990, when he stepped down. Late into his life he remained the dominant personality and driving force in what he called a First World oasis in a Third World region.” The nation reflected the man: efficient, unsentimental, incorrupt, inventive, forward-looking and pragmatic. “We are ideology-free,” Mr. Lee said in an interview with The New York Times in 2007, stating what had become, in effect, Singapore’s ideology. “Does it work? If it works, let’s try it. If it’s fine, let’s continue it. If it doesn’t work, toss it out, try another one.” His leadership was criticized for suppressing freedom, but the formula succeeded. Singapore became an admired international business and financial center. [Source: Seth Mydans, New York Times, March 22, 2015]
Singapore, Inc., as some observers refer to the country, spent the first twenty-five years of its independence under the same management. Lee Kuan Yew founded modern Singapore and built the city-state from virtually nothing into a thriving economy and a leading financial center in Asia. Reuters reported: A founder of the People's Action Party (PAP), which has been continuously in power for more than five decades, Lee Kuan Yew was Singapore's leader for its first 31 years and is widely credited with turning a colonial backwater into Southeast Asia’s only advanced economy and one of the world's great manufacturing and financial hubs. He has remained a vocal presence at home and abroad after resigning in 1990 to take up the advisory posts of senior minister and then minister mentor. The PAP government plays a pervasive role in the lives of Singapore's 4.4 million people, using a state investment firm to buy shares in major companies and setting down prescriptive rules to preserve harmony among the Chinese, Indian and Malay communities. And Lee Kuan Yew is at the centre of the PAP, the star speaker whose views are cited at length in the pro-government media.
Led by Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister, the People's Action Party (PAP) won all or nearly all of the seats in parliament in the six elections held between 1959 and 1988. Based on a British parliamentary system, with free and open elections, the Singapore government was recognized for its stability, honesty, and effectiveness. Critics complained, however, that the government's authoritarian leadership reserved for itself all power of decision making and blocked the rise of an effective opposition. A small nucleus of leaders centered around Lee had indeed closely guided the country from its turbulent preindependence days and crafted the policies that led to Singapore's economic development. During the 1980s, however, a second generation of leaders was carefully groomed to take over, and in early 1990, only Lee remained of the first generation leaders. *
See Separate Article LEE KUAN YEW: FOUNDER AND MENTOR OF SINGAPORE factsanddetails.com .
Singapore Under Lee Kuan Yew
Lee became Singapore's first Prime Minister in 1959. Singapore was expelled from the Malaysian Federation, many people believe, partly because Malay leaders were concerned that Lee wanted to seize power and abolish the special privileges granted to Malays at the expense of Chinese.
In the 1960s, Singapore was known for its opium dens, gang-ridden streets, fetid slums and racial tensions. Under Lee Kuan Yew, slums were cleared and replaced with comfortable but characterless highrises. Pro-business policies were put in place.
Lee built the finest infrastructure in the region: good roads, a first class airport, ports, communications networks. He established excellent health and education systems, set up a public housing system that allowed nearly all Singaporeans to own their own home and established the Central Providence Fund which acted as both a pension system and corporation, making Singaporeans feel that they had a stake in their own country.
Seah Chiang Nee wrote in The Star, “The tough-minded Lee Kuan Yew regime always believed in fast action and damned public consultation. The People’s Action Party (PAP) government has been largely following a do-first-talk-later tradition in resolving problems. It could be due to a confidence that the government would always have the ability to talk its people into accepting unpopular decisions. [Source: Seah Chiang Nee, Star, January 5, 2013]
In a typical election, Lee’s People Action Party (PAP) won all 60 legislative seats and three quarters of the vote. Lee once said, “In every democratic country, freedom is limited” and only three to five percent of the population can handle the "free-for-all" of democracy. On Freedom of Speech, Lee Kuan Yew said: "This free-for-all, this notion that all ideas should contend and there will be a bring light out of which you will see the truth—ha!"
Singapore in Its Early Years of Independence
The Lee Kuan Yew government announced two days after separation that Singapore would be a republic, with Malay as its national language and Malay, Chinese, English, and Tamil retained as official languages. The Legislative Assembly was renamed the Parliament, and the prominent Malay leader, Yusof bin Ishak, was made president of the republic. The new nation, immediately recognized by Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, was admitted to the UN in September and the Commonwealth the following month. In the early months following separation, Singapore's leaders continued to talk of eventual reunion with Malaysia. Wrangling between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur over conflicting economic, defense, and foreign policies, however, soon put an end to this discussion, and Singapore's leaders turned their attention to building an independent nation. [Source: Library of Congress *]
The government sought to build a multiracial and multilingual society that would be unified by a sense of a unique "Singaporean identity." The government established a Constitutional Commission on Minority Rights in late 1965, and official policy encouraged ethnic and cultural diversity. Foreign Minister Rajaratnam told the UN General Assembly that year, "If we of the present generation can steadfastly stick to this policy for the next thirty years, then we would have succeeded in creating a Singaporean of a unique kind. He would be a man rooted in the cultures of four great civilizations but not belonging exclusively to any of them." Integrated schools and public housing were the principle means used by the government to ensure a mixing of the various ethnic groups. The government constructed modern highrise housing estates and new towns, in which the residents of the city's crowded Chinatown slums and the rural Malay kampongs (villages in Malay were thoroughly intermingled. An English-language education continued to be the preferred preparation for careers in business, industry, and government; English-language pupils outnumbered Chinese-language pupils 300,000 to 130,000 by 1968. *
Malay-language primary school enrollment declined from 5,000 in 1966 to about 2,000 in 1969. All students, however, were required to study their mother tongue at least as a second language. Many of the country's British-educated leaders, including Lee Kuan Yew, sent their children to Chinese-language schools because they believed that they provided better character training. The government stressed discipline and the necessity of building a "rugged society" in order to face the challenges of nationhood. A government anticorruption campaign was highly effective in combating that problem at all levels of administration. *
Vietnam War Era in Singapore
Konfrontasi with Indonesia ended in 1966, while trade with Japan and the United States increased substantially, especially with the latter, since Singapore became a supply center for the increasing U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War (Second Indochina War, 1954–75).
In 1967 Singapore joined Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand in forming the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for the purpose of promoting regional stability, economic development, and cultural exchange. In 1968 Britain announced its decision to withdraw from its military bases in Singapore within three years. Because of defense implications and the amount of British spending (accounting for about 25 percent of the gross national product [GNP] of Singapore), this was sobering news. The government called for new elections, seeking a new mandate to proceed. Because the PAP won all 58 parliamentary seats, the government was able to pass stricter labor legislation and thus help overcome the nation’s reputation for frequent labor disputes and strikes. Former British naval base workers were retrained to work in what became the Sembawang Shipyard, and eventually a major shipbuilding and ship repair center. By the 1970s, Singapore had achieved status as a world leader in shipping, air transport, and oil refining. No longer was Singapore as dependent on peninsular Malaysia for its economic prosperity.
David Lamb wrote in Smithsonian magazine, “The first time I saw Singapore, while on an R & R break from covering the Vietnam War in 1969, the quay was part of a decrepit waterfront, crowded with sampans and junks. Gaunt, dull-eyed faces peered out of opium dens in a Chinatown alleyway I happened upon. The newly independent country—a city-state about the size of Chicago—was in the process of leveling vast areas of slums and jungle, as well as a good deal of its architectural heritage. There wasn't a lot to do after you had seen the teeming harbor and Bugis Street, where transsexuals sashayed by every evening to the delight of tourists and locals. I stayed only two days, and left thinking I had discovered a remarkably unremarkable country destined to join the impoverished fraternity of third-world nobodies. [Source: David Lamb, Smithsonian magazine, September 2007]
A regional political grouping, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN), founded in 1967 by Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, had little impact by the early 1970s on the foreign and economic policies of the member nations. However, regional and world developments in the 1970s, including the fall of Indochina to communism and the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, steered Singapore and its neighbors toward a new spirit of cooperation. *
Lee Kuan Yew Singapore Model
Mark Jacobson wrote in National Geographic, “Lee masterminded the celebrated "Singapore Model," converting a country one-eighth the size of Delaware, with no natural resources and a fractured mix of ethnicities, into "Singapore, Inc." He attracted foreign investment by building communications and transportation infrastructure, made English the official language, created a superefficient government by paying top administrators salaries equal to those in private companies, and cracked down on corruption until it disappeared. The model—a unique mix of economic empowerment and tightly controlled personal liberties—has inspired imitators in China, Russia, and eastern Europe. To lead a society, Lee said "one must understand human nature. I have always thought that humanity was animal-like. The Confucian theory was man could be improved, but I'm not sure he can be. He can be trained, he can be disciplined." In Singapore that has meant lots of rules—prohibiting littering, spitting on sidewalks, failing to flush public toilets—with fines and occasional outing in the newspaper for those who break them. It also meant educating his people—industrious by nature—and converting them from shopkeepers to high-tech workers in a few decades. [Source: Mark Jacobson, National Geographic, January 2010]
Seth Mydans wrote in the New York Times: His “Singapore model” included centralized power, clean government and economic liberalism. But it was also criticized as a soft form of authoritarianism, suppressing political opposition, imposing strict limits on free speech and public assembly, and creating a climate of caution and self-censorship. To remove the temptation for corruption, Singapore linked the salaries of ministers, judges and top civil servants to those of leading professionals in the private sector, making them some of the highest-paid government officials in the world. The model has been studied by leaders elsewhere in Asia, including China, and the subject of many academic case studies. The commentator Cherian George described Mr. Lee’s leadership as “a unique combination of charisma and fear.” [Source: Seth Mydans, New York Times, March 22, 2015 /]
“Mr. Lee promoted the use of English as the language of business and the common tongue among the ethnic groups, while recognizing Malay, Chinese and Tamil as other official languages. With tourists and investors in mind, Singapore sought to become a cultural and recreational hub, with a sprawling performing arts center, museums, galleries, Western and Chinese orchestras and not one but two casinos. /
“Mr. Lee was a master of so-called “Asian values,” in which the good of society takes precedence over the rights of the individual and citizens cede some autonomy in return for paternalistic rule. What Singapore got was centralized, efficient policy making and social campaigns unencumbered by what Mr. Lee called the “heat and dust” of political clashes. Lee was ideologically neutral. Is China willing to admit that it was on the wrong path when it was governed by the Communists? /
“Even among people who knew little of Singapore, Mr. Lee was famous for his national self-improvement campaigns, which urged people to do such things as smile, speak good English and flush the toilet, but never to spit, chew gum or throw garbage off balconies. One government campaign tried to combat a falling birthrate by organizing, in effect, an official matchmaking agency aimed particularly at affluent ethnic Chinese. “They laughed, at us,” he said in the second volume of his memoirs, “From Third World to First: The Singapore Story 1965-2000.” “But I was confident that we would have the last laugh. We would have been a grosser, ruder, cruder society had we not made these efforts.” /
Getting the Singapore Economy Going After Independence
In 1963, before Singapore was thrown of out of the Malaysian Federation, Lee opened the island to foreign investment and established the Economic Development Board to attract foreign companies. After independence Singapore had to tackle a number of serious economic problems. The hopes pinned on establishing a common market with Malaysia were dead, and it was clear that Singapore would not only have to go it alone but also would face rising tariffs and other barriers to trade with Malaysia. Under Goh Keng Swee and other able finance ministers, the government worked hard to woo local and foreign capital. New financial inducements were provided to attract export industries, promote trade, and end the country's dependence on Britain as the major source of investment capital. The generally prosperous world economic situation in the mid-1960s favored Singapore's growth and development. Confrontation with Indonesia had ended by 1966 after Soeharto came to power, and trade between the two countries resumed. Trade with Japan and the United States increased substantially, especially with the latter as Singapore became a supply center for the United States in its increasing involvement in Indochina. [Source: Library of Congress *]
A serious problem the government had to deal with in order to attract large-scale investment was Singapore's reputation for labor disputes and strikes. "The excesses of irresponsible trade unions...are luxuries which we can no longer afford," stated President Yusof bin Ishak in December 1965, speaking for the government. Two events in 1968 enabled the government to pass stricter labor legislation. In January Britain announced its intention to withdraw from its bases in Singapore within three years. Aside from the defense implications, the news was sobering because British spending in Singapore accounted for about 25 percent of Singapore's gross national product ( GNP) for a total of about S$450 million a year, and the bases employed some 21,000 Singapore citizens. The government called an election for April in order to gain a new mandate for facing the crisis. Unopposed in all but seven constituencies, the PAP made a clean sweep, winning all fifty-eight parliamentary seats. With the new mandate, the government passed in August new labor laws that were tough on workers and employers alike. The new legislation permitted longer working hours, reduced holidays, and gave employers more power over hiring, firing, and promoting workers. Workers could appeal actions they considered unjust to the Ministry of Labour, and employers were obligated to increase their contributions to the Central Provident Fund (CPF). Workers also were given for the first time sick leave and unemployment compensation. As a result of the new legislation, productivity increased, and there were no strikes in 1969. *
With labor relations under control, the government set up the Jurong Town Corporation to develop Jurong and the other industrial estates. By late 1970, 271 factories in Jurong employed 32,000 workers, and there were more than 100 factories under construction. Foreign investors were attracted by the improved labor situation and by such incentives as tax relief for up to five years and unrestricted repatriation of profits and capital in certain government-favored industries. United States firms flocked to invest in Singapore, accounting for 46 percent of new foreign capital invested in 1972. Companies from Western Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Australia also invested capital, and by 1972 one quarter of Singapore's manufacturing firms were either foreign-owned or joint-venture companies. Another attraction of Singapore for foreign capital was the region's petroleum resources. Singapore was the natural base for dozens of exploration, engineering, diving, and other support companies for the petroleum industry in nearby Indonesia, as well as being the oil storage center for the region. By the mid-1970s, Singapore was the third largest oil-refining center in the world. *
The government turned to advantage the British pullout by converting some of the military facilities to commercial and industrial purposes and retraining laid-off workers for new jobs. The former King George VI Graving Dock was converted to the Sembawang Shipyard, employing 3,000 former naval base workers in ship building and ship repair. Singapore also moved into shipping in 1968 with its own Neptune Orient Line. A container complex built in 1972 made the country the container transshipment center of Southeast Asia. By 1975 Singapore was the world's third busiest port behind Rotterdam and New York. *
Economic Success in Singapore
Under Lee’s stewardship Singapore had both low inflation and negligible unemployment. In the 1980's wages were increased by government decree at a rate of 20 percent and strikes were virtually nonexistent. Lee was against welfare because he believed it encouraged people not to work. In his book, he wrote: “Those who can run faster should run faster. They shouldn’t be restrained by this who don’t want to run at all.”
In the 1970s through the 1990s, Singapore experienced sustained economic growth. Along with Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan, it was called one of the “Four Tigers” of Asian economic prosperity. Labor-intensive industries were relocated to other ASEAN nations and were replaced by high-technology industries and services. The PAP developed a stable and corruption-free government, marked by strong central development planning and social policies. Despite paternalistic and at times authoritarian governmental practices and one-party dominance, the PAP maintained its large popular mandate. A Singaporean identity, distinct from that of the Malay and Chinese, emerged as the nation increasingly integrated itself into the global economy. [Source: Library of Congress *]
By the early 1970s, Singapore not only had nearly full employment but also faced labor shortages in some areas. As a result, immigration laws and work permit requirements were relaxed somewhat, and by 1972 immigrant workers made up 12 percent of the labor force. In order to develop a more highly skilled work force that could command higher wages, the government successfully courted high-technology industries, which provided training in the advanced skills required. Concerned that the country's economic success not be diluted by overpopulation, the government launched a family planning program in 1966. *
The country's economic success and domestic tranquility, which contrasted so starkly with the impoverished strife-torn Singapore of the late 1940s, was not purchased without cost, however. Although not a one-party state, the government was virtually under the total control of the PAP, and the Lee Kuan Yew administration did not hesitate to block the rise of an effective opposition. Holding a monopoly on power and opportunity in a small state, the party could easily co-opt the willing and suppress dissenters. The traditional bases — student and labor organizations — used by opposition groups in the past were tightly circumscribed. Control of the broadcast media was in the hands of the government, and economic pressures were applied to any newspapers that became too critical. The government leadership had adopted a paternalistic viewpoint that only those who had brought the nation through the perilous years could be trusted to make the decisions that would keep Singapore on the narrow path of stability and prosperity. The majority of Singaporeans scarcely dissented from this view and left the planning and decision making to the political leadership. Although five opposition parties contested the 1972 elections and won nearly one-third of the popular vote, the PAP again won all of the seats. *
Although admired for its success, Lee's government increasingly attracted criticism from the international press for its less than democratic style. Singapore's neighbors also resented the survival- oriented nature of the country's foreign and economic policies. The aggressive defense policy recommended by Singapore's Israeli military advisers irritated and alarmed Muslim Indonesia and Malaysia. Resentful of the profits made by Singapore in handling their commodities, Malaysia and Indonesia began setting up their own rubber-milling and petroleum-servicing industries. In the early 1970s, Malaysia and Singapore separated their joint currency, stock exchange, and airlines. *
Perhaps Lee’s biggest failure was his attempt to merge the Singaporean can-do spirit with Chinese labor. An industrial park he masterminded in Suzhou collapsed under the weight of corruption, nepotism and greed—vices he worked so hard to eliminate in Singapore.
Repression Under Lee Kuan Yew
Some foreigners called Lee Kuan Yew "Hitler-with-a-heart." In Singapore it was difficult for newspapers to criticize Lee Kuan Yew or his government. Two newspapers, including the “Singapore Herald”, were abolished for breaching Lee's standards of political faith and morals. Even people close to Lee feared him. Even when told people to call him Harry few dared to do so. Singaporean likes to make jokes about Lee Kuan Yew but they tended to so quietly so they wouldn’t get into trouble.
Under Lee Kuan Yew student leaders, journalists and intellectuals were forced to “confess” on television. In 1966, Chia Thye Pohm the leader of a small opposition party called the Socialist Front, was imprisoned without being charged after he tried to stage an anti-Vietnam rally during a visit by United States President Lyndon Johnson. He wasn't released until 1989 and then he was exiled to a small island in the Singapore Strait. During his 23 three years in prison he spent long periods of time in the "dark cell," a totally dark, totally quiet cell that reportedly has driven numerous prisoners to insanity.
Seth Mydans wrote in the New York Times: “Mr. Lee developed a distinctive Singaporean mechanism of political control, filing libel suits that sometimes drove his opponents into bankruptcy and doing battle with critics in the foreign press. Several foreign publications, including The International Herald Tribune, which is now called The International New York Times, have apologized and paid fines to settle libel suits. The lawsuits challenged accusations of nepotism — members of Mr. Lee’s family hold influential positions in Singapore — and questions about the independence of the judiciary, which its critics say follows the lead of the executive branch. [Source: Seth Mydans, New York Times, March 22, 2015 /]
“Mr. Lee denied that the suits had a political purpose, saying they were essential to clearing his name of false accusations. He seemed to believe that criticism would gain currency if it were not challenged vigorously. But the lawsuits themselves did as much as anything to diminish his reputation. Mr. Lee was proud to describe himself as a political street fighter more feared than loved. “Nobody doubts that if you take me on, I will put on knuckle-dusters and catch you in a cul-de-sac,” he said in 1994. “If you think you can hurt me more than I can hurt you, try. There is no other way you can govern a Chinese society.” /
“A jittery public avoided openly criticizing Mr. Lee and his government and generally obeyed its dictates. “Singaporeans are like a flea,” said Mr. Lee’s political tormentor, J.B. Jeyaretnam, who was financially broken by libel suits but persisted in opposition until his death in 2008. “They are trained to jump so high and no farther. Once they go higher they’re slapped down.” In an interview in 2005, Mr. Jeyaretnam added: “There’s a climate of fear in Singapore. People are just simply afraid. They feel it everywhere. And because they’re afraid they feel they can’t do anything.” Mr. Lee’s vehicle of power was the People’s Action Party, or P.A.P., which exercised the advantages of office to overwhelm and intimidate opponents. It embraced into its ranks the nation’s brightest young stars, creating what was, in effect, a one-party state. /
Singapore in the 1980s
According to Lonely Planet: “Housing and urban renovation, in particular, have been keys to the PAP’s success – by the mid-1990s the city-state had the world’s highest rate of home ownership. Living out ‘social-engineering dreams’ (as couched in the anti-Western rhetoric of Confucianism) recalled from British textbooks, Singapore’s leaders also sought order and progress in the strict regulation of social behaviour and identity – thus earning its reputation as a fairly uptight corner of the world. Singaporean media is subject to strict government censorship – freedom of speech isn’t something Singaporeans are altogether familiar with. [Source: Lonely Planet]
Singapore successfully pursued its foreign policy goal of improved relations with Malaysia and Indonesia in the early 1980s as Lee Kuan Yew established cordial and productive personal relations with both Soeharto and Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad. Cooperation agreements were reached between Singapore and Malaysia on joint civil service and military training programs. The economic interdependence of the two countries was reaffirmed as Singapore continued its role as the reexport center for the tin, rubber, lumber and other resources of the Malaysian hinterland, as well as becoming a major investor in that country's economy. [Source: Library of Congress *]
Throughout the early 1980s, Singapore headed the ASEAN drive to find a solution to the Cambodia problem. Beginning in 1979, the ASEAN countries sponsored an annual resolution in the UN calling for a withdrawal of Vietnamese troops and a political settlement on Cambodia. In 1981 Singapore hosted a successful meeting of the leaders of the three Khmer liberation factions, which led to the formation of the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea the following year. *
During the first half of the 1980s, the Singapore economy continued to grow steadily, despite a worldwide recession. The economic growth rate of about 10 percent in 1980 and 1981 dipped to 6.3 percent in 1982 but rebounded to 8.5 percent with only 2.7 percent inflation in 1984. In his 1984 New Year's message to the nation, Lee Kuan Yew attributed Singapore's high economic growth rate, low inflation, and full employment during the period to its hardworking work force, political stability and efficient administration, regional peace, and solidarity in ASEAN. Singapore's successful economic strategy included phasing out labor-intensive industries in favor of high-technology industries, which would enhance the skills of its labor force and thereby attract more international investment. *
Waning of Lee Kuan Yew’s Influence
Seth Mydans wrote in the New York Times: “As Mr. Lee’s influence waned, the questions were how much and how fast his model might change in the hands of a new, possibly more liberal generation. Some even asked, as he often had, whether Singapore, a nation of 5.6 million, could survive in a turbulent future. In recent years, though, a confrontational world of political websites and blogs has given new voice to critics of Mr. Lee and his system. [Source: Seth Mydans, New York Times, March 22, 2015 /]
“It was only in 1981, 16 years after independence, that Mr. Jeyaretnam won the first opposition seat in Parliament, infuriating Mr. Lee. Two decades later, after the 2006 election, just two of the Parliament’s 84 elected seats were held by members of opposition parties. But in 2011, the opposition won an unprecedented six seats, along with an unusually high popular vote of close to 40 percent, in what was seen as a demand by voters for more accountability and responsiveness in its leaders. Pragmatic as always, the P.A.P. reacted by modifying its peremptory style and acknowledging that times were changing. /
“An election in 2011 marked the end of the Lee Kuan Yew era, with a voter revolt against the ruling People’s Action Party. Mr. Lee resigned from the specially created post of minister mentor and stepped into the background as the nation began exploring the possibilities of a more engaged and less autocratic government. But the new approach still fell short of true multiparty democracy, and Singaporeans continued to question whether the party intended to change itself or would even be able to do so. “Many people say, ‘Why don’t we open up, then you have two big parties and one party always ready to take over?’ “ Mr. Lee said in a speech in 2008. “I do not believe that for a single moment.” He added: “We do not have the numbers to ensure that we’ll always have an A Team and an alternative A Team. I’ve tried it; it’s just not possible.” /
Image Sources:
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Singapore Tourism Board, Compton’s Encyclopedia, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, The Economist, Foreign Policy, Wikipedia, BBC, CNN, and various books, websites and other publications.
Last updated June 2015