i have never got tired of a book in my life, in volume and content, such as ‘from third world to first: memoirs of lee kuan yew’ which is his biography. the book is distinguished with its extraordinary weight and size, in addition to its content. in spite of the smoothness of the english language, the reader is forced to make comparisons between singapore’s situation and our situation, and the opportunities we have wasted that could have made us better, but. lee kuan with a group of competent assistants, mainly chinese, transformed singapore from a group of swamps and 2 million people of diverse races, religions and backgrounds, an area measuring just 650 kilometers square, from nothing to one of the developed countries of the world, a global financial center that completes the earth course from zurich to frankfurt to london to new york and then san francisco, through tokyo to singapore, to keep the land, capital markets, and for the first time in history in 24 hours of continuous contact. in 1959, lee kuan yew became the president of singapore under british rule, then in 1963, it declared independence from britain and joined malaysia the same year, but malaysia decided to expel it from the federation in 1965 because of the sharp differences between the two sides. singapore declared its independence in just a few hours, and yusof bin ishak became the first president of the republic while lee kuan yew went on to become the prime minister. the current president is not the first muslim in this position. from day one, lee kuan showed his determination to manage the country that had no resources, history, myths, and nothing to bring together a population of two million people, a majority of them uneducated, unskilled; 30 percent buddhists, 18 percent christians or irreligionists, less muslims, laoists, and others. because of poor infrastructure and poor institutions, the government replaced all this with emphasis on modernity and progress, focusing on giving centers to the elite because they are considered the key source for government administration. lee’s first project was the establishment of the economic development authority, as one institution that facilitates the communication of the investor with it rather than dealing with a large number of departments and ministries, which we have in kuwait for half a century and failed. it was this measure that attracted foreign investors with tax concessions, legal guarantees and protection, with the help of experts from the united nations development program, focusing on the shipbuilding industries, metal engineering, chemicals and electrical appliances. lee kuan selected the best qualified scientists and graduates from foreign universities to work for this authority and selected a qualified leader to manage it. his policies succeeded in attracting large oil companies such as shell and others which established oil refineries and industries. by the 1990s, singapore became the third largest oil refining center in the world after houston and notre dame, and the third largest oil trading center after new york and london and became a major petrochemical producer, with a mere 650 square kilometers, becoming the best airport and largest airline, one of the world’s largest, busiest and most profitable seaports. since the first day, the government has been interested in education, and in a short period of time its students became most distinguished in the world in mathematics and knowledge sciences. the university of singapore and nanyang technology university are among the top 100 universities in the world. the judiciary, health and national unity paid a great attention to form a common national identity to combine singapore’s various nationalities, making it one of the most transparent and least corrupt countries in the world. its best judicial system in asia is even superior to japan. despite the secularism of the state, and the few muslims, singapore did not hesitate to put the crescent (islamic) within its flag, and may be the only non-muslim state to do that. examples and lessons are many. all what is required is the determination to learn.

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