Japanese shoot Lee Kuan Yew

[David Tenner]

"Lee had a near-miss with a Japanese Occupation atrocity. The Japanese army
was rounding up Chinese men for questioning and Lee was told to fall in and
join the segregated Chinese men. Sensing that something was amiss, he asked
for permission to return home to collect his clothes first, and the Japanese
guard agreed. It turned out that those who were segregated were taken to the
beach to be shot as part of the Sook Ching massacre..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Kuan_Yew So in this ATL the Japanese do
shoot Lee Kuan Yew. Does Singapore still go from the "third world to first
world in a single generation"?

[Rich Rostrom]

Post by David Tenner
Does Singapore still go from the "third world to first
world in a single generation"?

Singapore was not "Third World" at independence;
it was a well-developed British colonial capital.

As to its rate of development - its population
were mostly highly entrepreneurial Chinese, plus
whites, Indians, and only a small proportion of
Malays. (This last being, I would guess, the
least contributors to the development boom. Being
local, they would be closer to "Third World"
peasantry than other expatriated ethnicities.)

Lee presided over the boom, but I don't see that
he was _essential_ to it. Singapore's base of
development and geographical position would be
the same, and other ethnic Chinese politicos
would probably follow similar policies.

Possibly Lee kept Singapore government honest by
personal insistence; that would make a difference.