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EMBARGO 5 SEPTEMBER, 4 P.M.

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SPEECH BY MR. LEE KUAN YEW AT THE SOCIALIST

INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS IN BRUSSELS ON 5TH SEPTEMBER,

1964.

Democratic Socialism under stress in Asia

Since 1945 more than 50 independent nations have emerged in Asia and

Africa. In nearly all of them, the political leadership profess to socialism of varying shades. The appeal of an equal society to the dispossessed millions in

Asia and Africa is so powerful that no regime emerging from colonial rule dares call itself a party of the right.

In the first flush of the transfer of power to local nationalist leaders, a number of democratic socialists assumed authority over the apparatus of the state and the fortunes of their people. The history of the last two decades, however, is a sad commentary on their lack of understanding of the mechanics of power, and worse, their lack of expertise in the exercise of power.

Some democratic socialists have come and gone

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In Burma, Indonesia and Ceylon, democratic socialist leaders have come and gone. The movements that they have led are in a state of disarray. A former prime minister of Ceylon was assassinated by a priest of a religion he tried to harness for his vaguely socialist ambitions. Two former prime minister, both socialists, Sutan Sjharir of Indonesia and U Nu of Burma, are in jail in their own capitals. But sadder still is the thought that the restorations of their personal freedom and political capacity now can no longer make any difference to their countrymen's lot.

Communists come and stay

In sharp contrast is the subsequent emergence of Communist leaders in

Asia. When they come in power, they stay in. So it is with the Chinese People's

Republic under Chairman Mao Tse-tung, North Korea under Kim II Sung and

North Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh.

There is a marked distinction in attitudes to the exercise and mechanics of power between the Communist and the democratic socialist. The Communist with his dialectical catechism and his instruction manual on how to organise and seize power poses the sharpest challenge to socialism and democracy in Asia.

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Whilst the democratic socialist weaves neat and attractive patterns for an egalitarian society, often he does not give as much time and effort to building up the organisational instruments which alone can give flesh and blood to egalitarian ideals. The contest for power, the right to shape a destiny of nearly

1,000 million people in Asia, as yet uncommitted, depends upon whether the democratic socialist can meet the challenge that Communist organisational and propaganda techniques pose in appealing to the dispossessed millions in Asia.

There are another 200-million in Africa whom the Communists have not overlooked in their quest to convert and conquer the world. And they understand and exploit the fact that ideological subtleties between democracy and totalitarianism, between socialism by consent and Communism by force, are often lost on a hungry and sometimes angry people.

Two pre-conditions: above rice line and effective administration

Democratic socialism has survived in Asia only where living standards are above the rice line and where the administrative organs of the state are effective.

So it is that in Ceylon, in spite of setbacks, democratic socialism still sticks on trying to find a new formula to solve old social and economic problems.

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And India, after 17 years of Nehru's interpretation of socialism for the

Indian Congress movement, will not succumb to Communism even though there are temporary difficulties over grain distribution.

In Singapore it was affluence, relative in Asia terms, spread out more widely by social and economic policies that checked a hot house revolution carried on the backs of teenagers, who in other communities take to more flamboyant and less dialectical pursuits.

Where these two conditions, reasonable living standards and an effective administrations, do not exist, democratic socialism cannot provide an answer.

The conflict then invariably becomes one between a reactionary regime backed by military force and a totalitarian Communist movement backed by terror. From such a situation, it is doubtful whether it is possible to unravel the situation so that the regime can become less reactionary and so make possible some political solution other than a Communist dictatorship. This is an exercise in human ingenuity which so far has outwitted all local talent in South Vietnam, even when backed by massive American aid.

Performance not promises

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All these newly independent countries are not economically developed.

With independence comes no immediate socialist paradise to satisfy the rising expectations of their people. Instead, if things are to get better, there must be increased effort to increase productivity. Otherwise, poverty is all there is to share out equally.

The acid test is in performance, not promises. The millions of dispossessed in Asia care not and know not of theory. They want a better life.

They want a more equal, a more just society. He who gives them this is their saviour.

The democratic socialist has to organise to get people to put in more effort after independence. He has to demonstrate that the sensation of improved living standards can give encouragement and enthusiasm to people in their effort, so speeding up capital accumulation and the acquisition of higher technical skills which can bring about a better life.

Democratic socialists must help each other

The democratic socialist can provide these answer quickly enough only if he can draw on the technical and industrial skills of the developed industrial

lky/1964/lky0905.doc 6 nations. The Communists also do this. And people in Asia are only too acutely aware of the adverse effects on the industrialisation programmes of certain Asian countries when the Russians withdrew their experts and machines.

There is a growing cynicism amongst the have-not nations of the world that the have's, whether capitalists or Communists, are not prepared to help them become have nations. Not only are industrial skill and capital not forthcoming in a manner to make any appreciable difference, but worse, trade barriers are put up against the simple manufactures that the have-not nations manage to produce.

This cynicism can and should be banished. The democratic socialist parties of the advanced countries can help create a new atmosphere of hope and co-operation in this endeavour to lift the lives of the millions in Asia and Africa into something more akin to what the have-nots in the have nations of Europe and

America enjoy.

The events of the last two decades have in many ways mocked the

Communist claim that Communism is inevitable. If democratic socialists help each other, they can write some illustrious chapters of history about the newly independent countries of Asia and Africa.

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5th September, 1964.

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