can't wait to read LKY's new book. it's freaking long, like 430+ pages but I want to read it. I wonder if he's being as honest as he can be, because truth is you'll never know if he's still hiding some things. but it's called 'hard truths' I guess I really just want to read some truths. ALTHOUGH, I don't know why they got all Singaporean, straits times journalists to do the interviews... sigh they should have gotten a mix! if you're a Singaporean, you're probably scared. foreign journalists might have been more hard-hitting, less afraid of asking the taboo, all this with no apologies. and straits times journalists... aren't they really just the mouthpiece of the PAP anyway... the more I think about it the less I feel the book will have some real truths

but also, I just read a quote via TOC, it was in one of the comments:

We all respect the Nobel Peace Prize. Most winners deserve the prizes they get. Nobel Prizes by and large reflect the western world view. The winners in Asia are never leaders who brought great change. The man that did more good than anyone was Deng Xiaoping. When he came to power 800 million people were living on less than one dollar a day. Thirty years later on after the results of his reforms, 200 million lived on less than one dollar a day. Six hundred million people were lifted out of poverty.

Will he ever get a Nobel Peace Prize? Never. Because of the western world view that the prize must be given to dissidents in Asia. Aung San Suu Kyii. The former leader of Korea. What has Obama brought? Where is the peace in Iraq? In Afghanistan? How can you give him a Nobel Peace Prize? He is a wonderful guy but he has achieved nothing. Deng Xiaoping saved 600 million people and he will never get a Nobel Peace Prize. That’s why it is important to step outside the western world view.

said by Kishore Mahbubuani, Dean of NUS' LKY School of Public Policy. like WOW that is just... I don't even know. unfair? although Deng Xiaoping has done wondrous things for China, how can you award the Nobel PEACE Prize to someone responsible for the Tiananmen massacre? what it is is a fear of disrupting the holy alliance with China, but to dispute even Aung San Suu Kyi's prize is insanity. the problem is that we are so small that we cannot afford to tread the toes of pretty much ANYONE. I wonder if LKY talks about Aung San Suu Kyi in the book. would it be shocking if he didn't approve of her? probably not