Thursday, September 30, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
New York Times/IHT interview Lee Kuan Yew
The following is the transcript of the interview Seth Mydans had with Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, for the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune. The interview was held on 1 September 2010.
Mr Lee: “Thank you. When you are coming to 87, you are not very happy..”
Q: “Not. Well you should be glad that you’ve gotten way past where most of us will get.”
Mr Lee: “That is my trouble. So, when is the last leaf falling?”
Q: “Do you feel like that, do you feel like the leaves are coming off?”
Mr Lee: “Well, yes. I mean I can feel the gradual decline of energy and vitality and I mean generally every year when you know you are not on the same level as last year. But that is life.”
Q: “My mother used to say never get old.”
Mr Lee: “Well, there you will try never to think yourself old. I mean I keep fit, I swim, I cycle.”
Q: “And yoga, is that right? Meditation?”
Mr Lee: “Yes.”
Q: “Tell me about meditation?”
Mr Lee: “Well, I started it about two, three years ago when Ng Kok Song, the Chief Investment Officer of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, I knew he was doing meditation. His wife had died but he was completely serene. So, I said, how do you achieve this? He said I meditate everyday and so did my wife and when she was dying of cancer, she was totally serene because she meditated everyday and he gave me a video of her in her last few weeks completely composed completely relaxed and she and him had been meditating for years. Well, I said to him, you teach me. He is a devout Christian. He was taught by a man called Laurence Freeman, a Catholic. His guru was John Main a devout Catholic. When I was in London, Ng Kok Song introduced me to Laurence Freeman. In fact, he is coming on Saturday to visit Singapore, and we will do a meditation session. The problem is to keep the monkey mind from running off into all kinds of thoughts. It is most difficult to stay focused on the mantra. The discipline is to have a mantra which you keep repeating in your innermost heart, no need to voice it over and over again throughout the whole period of meditation. The mantra they recommended was a religious one. Ma Ra Na Ta, four syllables. Come To Me Oh Lord Jesus. So I said Okay, I am not a Catholic but I will try. He said you can take any other mantra, Buddhist Om Mi Tuo Fo, and keep repeating it. To me Ma Ran Na Ta is more soothing. So I used Ma Ra Na Ta. You must be disciplined. I find it helps me go to sleep after that. A certain tranquility settles over you. The day’s pressures and worries are pushed out. Then there’s less problem sleeping. I miss it sometimes when I am tired, or have gone out to a dinner and had wine. Then I cannot concentrate. Otherwise I stick to it.”
Q: “So…”
Mr Lee: “.. for a good meditator will do it for half-an-hour. I do it for 20 minutes.”
Q: “So, would you say like your friend who taught you, would you say you are serene?”
Mr Lee: “Well, not as serene as he is. He has done it for many years and he is a devout Catholic. That makes a difference. He believes in Jesus. He believes in the teachings of the Bible. He has lost his wife, a great calamity. But the wife was serene. He gave me this video to show how meditation helped her in her last few months. I do not think I can achieve his level of serenity. But I do achieve some composure.”
Q: “And do you find that at this time in your life you do find yourself getting closer to religion of one sort or another?”
Mr Lee: “I am an agnostic. I was brought up in a traditional Chinese family with ancestor worship. I would go to my grandfather’s grave on All Soul’s Day which is called “Qingming”. My father would bring me along, lay out food and candles and burn some paper money and kowtow three times over his tombstone. At home on specific days outside the kitchen he would put up two candles with my grandfather’s picture. But as I grew up, I questioned this because I think this is superstition. You are gone, you burn paper money, how can he collect the paper money where he is? After my father died, I dropped the practice. My youngest brother baptised my father as a Christian. He did not have the right to. He was a doctor and for the last weeks before my father’s life, he took my father to his house because he was a doctor and was able to keep my father comforted. I do not know if my father was fully aware when he was converted into Christianity.”
Q: “Converted your father?”
Mr Lee: “Yes.”
Q: “Well this happens when you get close to the end.”
Mr Lee: “Well, but I do not know whether my father agreed. At that time he may have been beyond making a rational decision. My brother assumed that he agreed and converted him.”
Q: “But…”
Mr Lee: “I am not converted.”
Q: “But when you reach that stage, you may wonder more than ever what is next?”
Mr Lee: “Well, what is next, I do not know. Nobody has ever come back. The Muslims say that there are seventy houris, beautiful women up there. But nobody has come back to confirm this.”
Q: “And you haven’t converted to Islam, knowing that?”
Mr Lee: “Most unlikely. The Buddhist believes in transmigration of the soul. If you live a good life, the reward is in your next migration, you will be a good being, not an ugly animal. It is a comforting thought, but my wife and I do not believe in it. She has been for two years bed-ridden, unable to speak after a series of strokes. I am not going to convert her. I am not going to allow anybody to convert her because I know it will be against what she believed in all her life. How do I comfort myself? Well, I say life is just like that. You can’t choose how you go unless you are going to take an overdose of sleeping pills, like sodium amytal. For just over two years, she has been inert in bed, but still cognitive. She understands when I talk to her, which I do every night. She keeps awake for me; I tell her about my day’s work, read her favourite poems.”
Q: ‘And what kind of books do you read to her?”
Mr Lee: “So much of my time is reading things online. The latest book which I want to read or re-read is Kim. It is a beautiful of description of India as it was in Kipling’s time. And he had an insight into the Indian mind and it is still basically that same society that I find when I visit India. “
Q: “When you spoke to Time Magazine a couple of years ago, you said Don Quixote was your favourite?”
Mr Lee: “Yes, I was just given the book, Don Quixote, a new translation.”
Q: “But people might find that ironic because he was fantasist who did not realistically choose his projects and you are sort of the opposite?”
Mr Lee: “No, no, you must have something fanciful and a flight of fancy. I had a colleague Rajaratnam who read Sci-Fi for his leisure.”’
Q: “And you?”:
Mr Lee: “No, I do not believe in Sci-Fi.”
Q: “But you must have something to fantasise.”
Mr Lee: “Well, at the moment, as I said, I would like to read Kim again. Why I thought of Kim was because I have just been through a list of audio books to choose for my wife. Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, books she has on her book shelf. So, I ticked off the ones I think she would find interesting. The one that caught my eye was Kim. She was into literature, from Alice in Wonderland, to Adventures with a Looking Glass, to Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility. Jane Austen was her favourite writer because she wrote elegant and leisurely English prose of the 19th century. The prose flowed beautifully, described the human condition in a graceful way, and rolls off the tongue and in the mind. She enjoyed it. Also Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. She was an English Literature major.”
Q: “You are naming books on the list, not necessarily books you have already read, yes?”
Mr Lee: “I would have read some of them.”
Q: “Like a Jane Austen book, or Canterbury Tales?”
Mr Lee: “No, Canterbury Tales, I had to do it for my second year English Literature course in Raffles College. For a person in the 15th Century, he wrote very modern stuff. I didn’t find his English all that archaic. I find those Scottish poets difficult to read. Sometimes I don’t make sense of their Scottish brogue. My wife makes sense of them. Then Shakespeare’s sonnets.”
Q: “You read those?”
Mr Lee: “I read those sonnets when I did English literature in my freshman’s year. She read them.”
Q: “When you say she reads them now, you’re the one who reads them, yes?”
Mr Lee: “Yes, I read them to her.”
Q: “But you go to her.”
Mr Lee: “Yes, I read from an Anthology of Poems which she has, and several other anthologies. So I know her favourite poems. She had flagged them. I read them to her.”
Q: “She’s in the hospital? You go to the hospital?”
Mr Lee: “No, no, she’s at home. We’ve got a hospital bed and nurses attending to her. We used to share the same room. Now I’m staying in the next room. I have to get used to her groans and grunts when she’s uncomfortable from a dry throat and they pump in a spray moisture called “Biothene” which soothes her throat, and they suck out phlegm. Because she can’t get up, she can’t breathe fully. The phlegm accumulates in the chest but you can’t suck it out from the chest, you’ve got to wait until she coughs and it goes out to her throat. They suck it out, and she’s relieved. They sit her up and tap her back. It’s very distressing, but that’s life.”
Q: “Yes, your daughter on Sunday wrote a moving column, movingly about the situation referring to you.”
Mr Lee: “How did you come to read it?”
Q: “Somebody said you’ve got to read that column, so I read it.”
Mr Lee: “You don’t get the Straits Times.”
Q: “I get it online actually. I certainly do, I follow Singapore online and she wrote that the whole family suffers of course from this and she wrote the one who’s been hurting the most and is yet carrying on stoically is my father.”
Mr Lee: “What to do? What else can I do? I can’t break down. Life has got to go on. I try to busy myself, but from time to time in idle moments, my mind goes back to the happy days we were up and about together.”
Q: “When you go to visit her, is that the time when your mind goes back?”
Mr Lee: “No, not then. My daughter’s fished out many old photographs for this piece she wrote and picked out a dozen or two dozen photographs from the digital copies which somebody had kept at the Singapore Press Holdings. When I look at them, I thought how lucky I was. I had 61 years of happiness. We’ve got to go sometime, so I’m not sure who’s going first, whether she or me. So I told her, I’ve been looking at the marriage vows of the Christians. The best I read was,” To love, to hold and to cherish, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, till death do us part.” I told her I would try and keep you company for as long as I can. She understood.”
Q: “Yes, it’s been really.”
Mr Lee: “What to do? What can you do in this situation? I can say get rid of the nurses. Then the maids won’t know how to turn her over and then she gets pneumonia. That ends the suffering. But human beings being what we are, I do the best for her and the best is to give her a competent nurse who moves her, massages her, turns her over, so no bed sores. I’ve got a hospital bed with air cushions so no bed sores. Well, that’s life. Make her comfortable.”
Q: “And for yourself, you feel the weight of age more than you have in the past?”
Mr Lee: “I’m not sure. I marginally must have. It’s stress. However, I look at it, I mean, it’s stress. That’s life. But it’s a different kind of stress from the kind of stress I faced, political stresses. Dire situations for Singapore, dire situations for myself when we broke off from Malaysia, the Malays in Singapore could have rioted and gone for me and they suddenly found themselves back as a minority because the Tunku kicked us out. That’s different, that’s intense stress and it’s over but this is stress which goes on. One doctor told me, you may think that when she’s gone you’re relieved but you’ll be sad when she’s gone because there’s still the human being here, there’s still somebody you talk to and she knows what you’re saying and you’ll miss that. Well, I don’t know, I haven’t come to that but I think I’ll probably will because it’s now two years, May, June, July, August, September, two years and four months. It’s become a part of my life.”
Q: “She’s how old now?”
Mr Lee: “She’s two-and-a-half years older than me, so she’s coming on to 90.”
Q: “But you did make a reference in an interview with Time magazine to something that goes beyond reason as you put it. You referred to the real enemy by Pierre D’Harcourt who talked about people surviving the Nazi, it’s better that they have something to believe in.”
Mr Lee: “Yes, of course.”
Q: “And you said that the Communists and the deeply religious fought on and survived. There are some things in the human spirit that are beyond reason.”
Mr Lee: “I believe that to be true. Look, I saw my friend and cabinet colleague who’s a deeply religious Catholic. He was Finance Minister, a fine man. In 1983, he had a heart attack. He was in hospital, in ICU, he improved and was taken out of ICU. Then he had a second heart attack and I knew it was bad. I went to see him and the priest was giving him the last rites as a Catholic. Absolutely fearless, he showed no distress, no fear, the family was around him, his wife and daughters, he had four daughters. With priest delivering the last rites, he knew he was reaching the end. But his mind was clear but absolutely calm.”
Q: “Well, I am more like you. We don’t have something to cling to.”
Mr Lee: “That’s our problem.”
Q: “But also the way people see you is supremely reasonable person, reason is the ultimate.”
Mr Lee: “Well, that’s the way I’ve been working.”
Q: “Well, you did mention to Tom Plate, they think they know me but they only know the public me?”
Mr Lee: “Yeah, the private view is you have emotions for your close members of your family. We are a close family, not just my sons and my wife and my parents but my brothers and my sister. So my youngest brother, a doctor as I told you, he just sent me an email that my second brother was dying of a bleeding colon, diverticulitis. And later the third brother now has got prostate cancer and has spread into his lymph nodes. So I asked what’re the chances of survival. It’s not gotten to the bones yet, so they’re doing chemotherapy and if you can prevent it from going into the bones, he’ll be okay for a few more years. If it does get to the bones, then that’s the end. I don’t think my brother knows. But I’ll probably go and see him.”
Q: “But you yourself have been fit. You have a stent, you had heart problem late last year but besides that do you have ailments?”
Mr Lee: “Well, aches and pains of a geriatric person, joints, muscles but all non-terminal. I go in for a physiotherapy, maintenance once a week, they give me a rub over because when I cycle, my thighs get sore, knees get a little painful, and so the hips.”
Q: “These are the signs of age.”
Mr Lee: “Yeah, of course.”
Q: “I’m 64. I’m beginning to feel that and I don’t like it and I don’t want to admit to myself.”
Mr Lee: “But if you stop exercising, you make it worse. That’s what my doctors tell me, just carry on. When you have these aches and pains, we’ll give you physiotherapy. I’ve learnt to use heat pads at home. So after the physiotherapy, once a week, if I feel my thighs are sore, I just have a heat pad there. You put in the microwave oven and you tie it around your thighs or your ankles or your calves. It relieves the pain.”
Q: “So you continue to cycle.”
Mr Lee: “Oh yeah.”
Q: “Treadmill?
Mr Lee: “No, I don’t do the treadmill. I walk but not always. When I’ve cycled enough I don’t walk.”
Q: “That’s your primary exercise, swimming?”
Mr Lee: “Yeah, I swim everyday, it’s relaxing.”
Q: “What other secrets, I see you drink hot water?”
Mr Lee: “Yes.”
Q: “Tell me about it.”
Mr Lee: “Well, I used to drink tea but tea is a diuretic, but I didn’t know that. I used to drink litres of it. In the 1980s, I was having a conference with Zhou Ziyang who was then Secretary-General of the Communist Party in the Great Hall of the People. The Chinese came in and poured more tea and hot water. I was scoffing it down because it kept my throat moistened, my BP was up because more liquid was in me. Halfway through, I said please stop. I’m dashing off. I had to relief myself. Then my doctors said don’t you know that tea is a diuretic? I don’t like coffee, it gives me a sour stomach, so okay, let’s switch to water.”
Q: “You know you had the hot water when I met you a couple of years ago and after I told my wife about that, she switched to hot water. She’s not sure why except that you drink hot water, so she’s decided to.”
Mr Lee: “Well, cold water, this was from my ENT man. If you drink cold water, you reduce the temperature of your nasal passages and throat and reduce your resistance to coughs and colds. So I take warm water, body temperature. I don’t scald myself with boiling hot water. I avoid that. But my daughter puts blocks of ice into her coffee and drinks it up. She’s all right, she’s only 50-plus.
Q: “Let me ask a question about the outside world a little bit. Singapore is a great success story even though people criticize this and that. When you look back, you can be proud of what you’ve done and I assume you are. Are there things that you regret, things that you wished you could achieve that you couldn’t?”
Mr Lee: “Well, first I regret having been turfed out of Malaysia. I think if the Tunku had kept us together, what we did in Singapore, had Malaysia accepted a multiracial base for their society, much of what we’ve achieved in Singapore would be achieved in Malaysia. But not as much because it’s a much broader base. We would have improved inter-racial relations and an improved holistic situation. Now we have a very polarized Malaysia, Malays, Chinese and Indians in separate schools, living separate lives and not really getting on with one another. You read them. That’s bad for us as close neighbours.”
Q: “So at that time, you found yourself with Singapore and you have transformed it. And my question would be how do you assess your own satisfaction with what you’ve achieved? What didn’t work?”
Mr Lee: “Well, the greatest satisfaction I had was my colleagues and I, were of that generation who were turfed out of Malaysia suffered two years under a racial policy decided that we will go the other way. We will not as a majority squeeze the minority because once we’re by ourselves, the Chinese become the majority. We made quite sure whatever your race, language or religion, you are an equal citizen and we’ll drum that into the people and I think our Chinese understand and today we have an integrated society. Our Malays are English-educated, they’re no longer like the Malays in Malaysia and you can see there are some still wearing headscarves but very modern looking.”
Q: “That doesn’t sound like a regret to me.”
Mr Lee: “No, no, but the regret is there’s such a narrow base to build this enormous edifice, so I’ve got to tell the next generation, please do not take for granted what’s been built. If you forget that this is a small island which we are built upon and reach a 100 storeys high tower block and may go up to 150 if you are wise. But if you believe that it’s permanent, it will come tumbling down and you will never get a second chance.”
Q: “I wonder if that is a concern of yours about the next generation. I saw your discussion with a group of young people before the last election and they were saying what they want is a lot of these values from the West, an open political marketplace and even playing field in all of these things and you said well, if that’s the way you feel, I’m very sad.”
Mr Lee: “Because you play it that way, if you have dissension, if you chose the easy way to Muslim votes and switch to racial politics, this society is finished. The easiest way to get majority vote is vote for me, we’re Chinese, they’re Indians, they’re Malays. Our society will be ripped apart. If you do not have a cohesive society, you cannot make progress.”
Q: “But is that a concern that the younger generation doesn’t realize as much as it should?”
Mr Lee: “I believe they have come to believe that this is a natural state of affairs, and they can take liberties with it. They think you can put it on auto-pilot. I know that is never so. We have crafted a set of very intricate rules, no housing blocks shall have more than a percentage of so many Chinese, so many percent Malays, Indians. All are thoroughly mixed. Willy-nilly, your neighbours are Indians, Malays, you go to the same shopping malls, you go to the same schools, the same playing fields, you go up and down the same lifts. We cannot allow segregation.”
Q: “There are people who think that Singapore may lighten up a little bit when you go, that the rules will become a little looser and if that happens, that might be something that’s a concern to you.”
Mr Lee: “No, you can go looser where it’s not race, language and religion because those are deeply gut issues and it will surface the moment you start playing on them. It’s inevitable, but on other areas, policies, right or wrong, disparity of opportunities, rich and poor, well go ahead. But don’t play race, language, religion. We’ve got here, we’ve become cohesive, keep it that way. We’ve not used Chinese as a majority language because it will split the population. We have English as our working language, it’s equal for everybody, and it’s given us the progress because we’re connected to the world. If you want to keep your Malay, or your Chinese, or your Tamil, Urdu or whatever, do that as a second language, not equal to your first language. It’s up to you, how high a standard you want to achieve.”
Q: “The public view of you is as a very strict, cerebral, unsentimental. Catherine Lim, “an authoritarian, no-nonsense manner that has little use for sentiment”.”
Mr Lee: “She’s a novelist, therefore, she simplifies a person’s character, make graphic caricature of me. But is anybody that simple or simplistic?”
Q: “Sentiment though, you don’t show that very much in public.”
Mr Lee: “Well, that’s a Chinese ideal. A gentleman in Chinese ideal, the junzi (君子) is someone who is always composed and possessed of himself and doesn’t lose his temper and doesn’t lose his tongue. That’s what I try to do, except when I got turfed out from Malaysia. Then, I just couldn’t help it.”
Q: “One aspect of the way you’ve constructed Singapore is a certain level of fear perhaps in the population. You described yourself as a street fighter, knuckle duster and so forth.”
Mr Lee: “Yes.”
Q: “And that produces among some people a level of fear and I want to tell you what a taxi driver said when I said I was going to interview you. He said, safer not to ask him anything. If you ask him, somebody will follow you. We’re not in politics so just let him do the politics.”
Mr Lee: “How old is he?’
Q: “I’m sorry, middle aged, I don’t know.”
Mr Lee: “I go out. I’m no longer the Prime Minister. I don’t have to do the difficult things. Everybody wants to shake my hands, everybody wants me to autograph something. Everybody wants to get around me to take a photo. So it’s a problem.
Q: “Yes but…”
Mr Lee: “Because I’m no longer in charge, I don’t have to do the hard things. I’ve laid the foundation and they know that because of that foundation, they’re enjoying this life.’
Q: “So when you were the one directly in-charge, you had to be tough, you had to be a fighter.”
Mr Lee: “Yes, of course. I had to fight left-wingers, Communists, pro-Communist groups who had killer squads. If I didn’t have the guts and the gumption to take them on, there wouldn’t be the Singapore. They would have taken over and it would have collapsed. I also had to fight the Malay Ultras when we were in Malaysia for two years.”
Q: “Well, you don’t have a lot of dissidents in prison but you’re known for your libel suits which keeps a lot of people at bay.”
Mr Lee: “We are non-corrupt. We lead modest lives, so it’s difficult to malign us. What’s the easy way to get a leader down? He’s a hypocrite, he is corrupt, he pretends to be this when in fact he’s that. That’s what they’re trying to do to me. Well, prove it, if what you say is right, then I don’t deserve this reputation. Why must you say these things without foundation? I’m taking you to court, you’ve made these allegations, I’m open to your cross-examination.”
Q: “But that may produce what I was talking about, about a level of fear.”
Mr Lee: “No, you’re fearful of a libel suit? Then don’t issue these defamatory statements or make them where you have no basis. The Western correspondent, especially those who hop in and hop out got to find something to show that they are impartial, that they’re not just taken in by the Singapore growth story. They say we keep down the opposition, how? Libel suits. Absolute rubbish. We have opponents in Parliament who have attacked us on policy, no libel suits against them and even in Parliament they are privileged to make defamatory allegation and cannot be sued. But they don’t. They know it is not true.”
Q: “Let me ask a last question. Again back to Tom Plate, “I’m not serious all the time. Everyone needs to have a good laugh now and then to see the funny side of things and to laugh at himself”.”
Mr Lee: “Yes, of course.”
Q: “How about that?”
Mr Lee: “You have to be that.”
Q: “So what makes you laugh?”
Mr Lee: “Many things, the absurdity of it, many things in life. Sometimes, I meet witty people, have conversations, they make sharp remarks, I laugh.
Q: “And when you laugh at yourself as you said?”
Mr Lee: “That’s very frequent. Yeah, I’m reaching 87, trying to keep fit, presenting a vigorous figure and it’s an effort and is it worth the effort? I laugh at myself trying to keep a bold front. It’s become my habit. I just carry on.”
Q: “So it’s the whole broad picture of things that you find funny?”
Mr Lee: “Yes, life as a whole has many abnormalities, of course.”
Q: “Your public life together with your private life, what you’ve done over things people write about you and Singapore, that overall is something that you can find funny?”
Mr Lee: “Yes, of course.
Q: “You made one of the few people who laugh at Singapore.”
Mr Lee: “Let me give you a Chinese proverb “do not judge a man until you’ve closed his coffin. Do not judge a man.” Close the coffin, then decide. Then you assess him. I may still do something foolish before the lid is closed on me.”
Q: “So you’re waiting for the final verdict?”
Mr Lee: “No, the final verdict will not be in the obituaries. The final verdict will be when the PhD students dig out the archives, read my old papers, assess what my enemies have said, sift the evidence and seek the truth? I’m not saying that everything I did was right, but everything I did was for an honourable purpose. I had to do some nasty things, locking fellows up without trial.”
Q: “For the greater good?
Mr Lee: “Well, yes, because otherwise they are running around and causing havoc playing on Chinese language and culture, and accusing me of destroying Chinese education. You’ve not been here when the Communists were running around. They do not believe in the democratic process. They don’t believe in one man, one vote. They believe in one bullet, one vote. They had killer squads. But they at the same time had a united front exploiting the democratic game. It gave them cover. But my business, my job was to make sure that they did not succeed. Sometimes you just got to lock the leaders up. They are confusing the people. The reality is that if you allow these people to work up animosity against the government because it’s keeping down the Chinese language, because we’ve promoted English, keeping down Chinese culture because you have allowed English literature, and we suppress our Chinese values and the Chinese language, the Chinese press, well, you will break up the society. They harp on these things when they know they are not true. They know that if you actually do in Chinese language and culture, the Chinese will riot and the society must break up.”
Q: “So leadership is a constant battle?”
Mr Lee: “In a multiracial situation like this, it is. Malaysia took the different line; Malaysians saw it as a Malay country, all others are lodgers, “orang tumpangan”, and they the Bumiputras, sons of the soil, run the show. So the Sultans, the Chief Justice and judges, generals, police commissioner, the whole hierarchy is Malay. All the big contracts for Malays. Malay is the language of the schools although it does not get them into modern knowledge. So the Chinese build and find their own independent schools to teach Chinese, the Tamils create their own Tamil schools, which do not get them jobs. It’s a most unhappy situation.”
Mdm Yeong: “I thought that was the last question.”
Q: “This is the last part of the last question. So your career has been a struggle to keep things going in the right way and you’ve also said that the best way to keep your health is to keep on working. Are you tired of it by this point? Do you feel like you want to rest?”
Mr Lee: “No, I don’t. I know if I rest I’ll slide downhill fast. No, my whole being has been stimulated by the daily challenge. If I suddenly drop it all, play golf, stroll around, watch the sunset, read novels, that’s downhill. It is the daily challenge, social contacts, meeting people, people like you, you press me, I answer, when I don’t…. what have I got tomorrow?”
Mdm Yeong: “You have two more events coming up. One is the Radin Mas Community.”
Mr Lee: “Oh yeah. I got it.”
Mdm Yeong: “And then you have other call, courtesy call on the 3rd.”
Mr Lee: “We are social animals. Without that interaction with people, you are isolated. The worst punishment you can give a person is the isolation ward. You get hallucinations. Four walls, no books, no nothing. By way of example, Henry Kissinger wants to speak to me. So I said okay, we’ll speak on Sunday. What about? We are meeting in Sao Paolo at a J P Morgan International Advisory Board. He wants to talk to me to check certain facts on China. My mind is kept alive, I go to China once a year at least. I meet Chinese leaders. So it’s a constant stimulus as I keep up to date. Supposing I sit back, I don’t think about China, just watch videos. I am off to Moscow, Kiev and Paris on the 15th of September. Three days Moscow, three days Kiev, four days Paris. Moscow I am involved in the Skolkovo Business School which President Medvedev, when he wasn’t President started. I promised to go if he did not fix it in the winter. So they fix it for September. I look at the fires, I said wow this is no good.”
Q: “It’s not going to be freezing if there are fires.”
Mr Lee: “No but our embassy says the skies have cleared. Kiev because the President has invited me specially and will fly me from Moscow to Kiev and then fly me on to Paris. Paris I am on the TOTAL Advisory Board together with Joe Nye and a few others. They want a presentation on what are China’s strengths and weaknesses. That keeps me alive. It’s just not my impressionistic views of China but one that has to be backed by facts and figures. So my team works out the facts and figures, and I check to see if they tally with my impressions. But it’s a constant stimulus to keep alive, and up-to-date. If I stop it, it’s downhill.”
Q: “Well, I hope you continue. Thank you very much, I really enjoyed this interview.”
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Villaraigosa signs deals with green firms in S.F. Valley and China
In what officials are calling a major milestone in Los Angeles' effort to develop more green-power sources, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday signed agreements with firms in the San Fernando Valley and China.
The city-owned Department of Water and Power will work with Quallion LLC of Sylmar, and BYD Inc., based in Shenzhen, on a project to be located at Pine Tree Wind Farm in the Tehachapi Mountains. The companies plan to invent batteries that will be able to store energy generated by wind or solar power, then release electricity to the DWP power grid at night or during periods of high demand.
"This is an important step forward in building technology that does not even exist yet," Villaraigosa said. "What we are looking to develop is a way to store energy so that we don't have to use it as it is developed. It will allow us to guarantee stable power."
The companies plan to share technology and information, with the goal of being able to develop a five- to 10-megawatt energy-storage system by year's end.
The city-owned Department of Water and Power will work with Quallion LLC of Sylmar, and BYD Inc., based in Shenzhen, on a project to be located at Pine Tree Wind Farm in the Tehachapi Mountains. The companies plan to invent batteries that will be able to store energy generated by wind or solar power, then release electricity to the DWP power grid at night or during periods of high demand.
"This is an important step forward in building technology that does not even exist yet," Villaraigosa said. "What we are looking to develop is a way to store energy so that we don't have to use it as it is developed. It will allow us to guarantee stable power."
The companies plan to share technology and information, with the goal of being able to develop a five- to 10-megawatt energy-storage system by year's end.
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Friday, September 10, 2010
Interview with BYD's 王建钧
《中国经济和信息化》：比亚迪与戴姆勒的合资在比亚迪的战略发展中有什么意义？
王建钧：这应该算是一笔交易。首先，在这笔交易中知识产权是平等的，双方会建立一个全新的品牌，这个品牌由比亚迪和戴姆勒共同拥有；其次，双方合资的比例是平等的，各自出资50%；最后，董事长由外资方担任，总经理则是比亚迪股份有限公司副总裁廉玉波。外资方将派出几十位工程师参与项目的运作。新品牌和新车型都在讨论之中，三年内将会推出全新的高端电动汽车。
说到意义，比亚迪与戴姆勒的合资对比亚迪品牌的提升有很大的作用。2009年以前，比亚迪在新能源汽车方面做了很多努力，却没有得到国家和业界认同。自从2009年国家认同了电动汽车的技术路径以后，比亚迪在新能源方面，尤其是电池、电控领域已经积累了一定的优势。这次戴姆勒看中的就是比亚迪的这些优势。
很多人问我们，为什么不去宣传和戴姆勒的合作。我们自己不刻意去讲，由外方讲反而更容易被大家理解。这次和戴姆勒的合作，是戴姆勒先在欧洲日内瓦车展前期宣布的，我们在之后才宣布。
我们企业还是比较有中国传统的风格的，做了一些事后希望得到大家的认可。也许事情做出来之后大家会有这样或那样的议论，我们也认为这是正常的。各种声音的存在有利于公司和产业的发展。一个公司从平庸走向伟大必须要有这样的经历。
《中国经济和信息化》：合资的背后有什么故事吗？
王建钧：戴姆勒中国公司买了很多品牌的各种车型的车，其中也有我们的，经过综合对比之后，他们认为比亚迪汽车的品质以及其他综合性能是有吸引力的。我们和戴姆勒在经历了一段时间的接触和相互了解后，达成了现在的合作意向。
《中国经济和信息化》：比亚迪做新能源汽车这么多年，我们也确实能感觉到不容易，请问一下，比亚迪做新能源汽车的路线是什么？
王建钧：首先，我们坚持电动技术优先。比亚迪是做电池起家的，我们会坚持在电池方面不断创新。其次，我们还会根据市场的需求进行选择。我们为什么没有直接推出纯电动车而是推出油电混合的双模车，就是希望根据市场的需求做一个适当的过渡。在选择试点城市和使用环境时，我们选择了深圳的出租车市场，因为出租车的使用频率要比私家车高3～4倍，能够使电动车得到充分的使用和推广。
《中国经济和信息化》：怎样看待“新能源汽车央企大联盟”的成立？
王建钧：在新能源汽车方面，参与的企业越多，对国家政策和消费者的影响就越大。一些很重要的央企参与进来，这更是一件好事，他们的话语权要远远高于比亚迪这样的民营企业。这么多的企业参与进来，对新能源汽车的发展非常有利，至少在商业推广上对比亚迪来说是一个有力支撑。
《中国经济和信息化》：新能源汽车推广的难点在哪里？
王建钧：国家在新能源汽车政策方面已经做了大量的工作，现在我们企业也需要推进。新能源汽车在推进过程中对于基础设施，特别是使用环境的要求比较高。
《中国经济和信息化》：国资委明确表示，央企联盟是不拒绝民企的，如果央企联盟向比亚迪招手，比亚迪会怎样回应？
王建钧：比亚迪在电池供应方面是一个开放的平台，我们愿意为联盟内企业提供电池产品。
《中国经济和信息化》：如果央企联盟优先获得国家对新能源汽车的资金支持，比亚迪是否担心大部分的资金流入央企而减少对民营企业的支持力度？
王建钧：在资金分配方面，政府面对的不单是央企，也不单是中国企业，它面对的是全球的企业。我相信在市场面前企业都是平等的。
《中国经济和信息化》：比亚迪的区域产业布局思路是什么？
王建钧：我们是根据对全球及中国市场的感觉来布局的。在研发体系方面，比亚迪根据对研发潮流及全球科技走向的感觉来进行布局；在城市选择方面，我们主要选择在比亚迪以前的基础上有辐射性的城市。同时我们也有一些人工成本上的考虑。当然，这些都要有利于股东权益和公司的长远发展。
《中国经济和信息化》：比亚迪遇到困难时找市场还是找市长？
王建钧：比亚迪作为一个上市公司，遇到经营方面的困难，大部分还是要靠市场的力量来解决，过多地依赖政府，企业是长不大的。政府真正需要管的是公共资源，比如比亚迪工厂周边的政府配套设施。真正经营上的问题，还是需要企业自己去解决，如果没有企业自身的努力，没有产品的积累，没有核心的技术，那么企业根本走不远。
《中国经济和信息化》：比亚迪与南方电网的合作是怎样一个模式？
王建钧：主要是比亚迪向南方电网提供一些储能电站。比亚迪是南方电网的供应商，电网的发电端和用户端我们都无法控制，只有中间的变电环节可以协调电网的供应。我们可以利用储能电站使电网变得可控。比如，夜间我们可能把电存在配置好的储能电站里，白天再把它返还给电网。南方电网则利用我们的储能技术，再对电网做一个合理的调控。
《中国经济和信息化》： 新能源汽车是比亚迪新能源事业的一环吗？
王建钧：比亚迪上市之后，投资汽车是战略性的选择。比亚迪就是太透明了，所以大家觉得我们什么都在做。比亚迪作为一个上市公司，拿到了投资者的钱，就要考虑投资者的收益，力争做好每一个投资项目。2002年比亚迪上市时，我们还在做代工，根据对市场的研究，我们觉得需要做战略上的转型，于是我们选择了做汽车。为什么做汽车呢？因为我们需要选择一个行业，这个行业是要有进入门槛的，玩家要比较少，这些条件对企业进入之后的运营和发展是有好处的。当时的汽车业，特别是乘用车，国家控制的只有十几家，我们买了其中一家，然后把它发展壮大。
我们做新能源，是因为我们在电池领域已经发展了十多年。在考虑战略转型时，我们首先要考虑固有的核心技术的延展，它要符合国家的产业政策及产业方向，基于这些原因，我们在选择产业的时候就选择了新能源。另外，比亚迪有技术积累，国家又是鼓励的，我们为什么不做呢？
比亚迪是一个非常简单的公司，对技术非常痴迷。同时他又是一个对股东负责任的公司。未来我们也会根据自己的产业发展状况来做，但一定不会离开我们最基础的绿色公司的梦想。我们一直有三大梦想：储能电站、太阳能、电动汽车。这些都是为我们的绿色梦想奠定基础的产业，我们现在的产业是这样，未来如果涉及新的产业也会是这个大思路。
《中国经济和信息化》：比亚迪未来有什么样的规划？主营业务包括哪些细分领域？
王建钧：我们未来的发展由三大产业组成：手机零部件和整机代工；汽车业务，包括传统汽车和新能源汽车；新能源业务，如家庭能源系统、太阳能板、LED照明等。在汽车领域，我们的目标是到2015年成为中国最大的乘用车制造商。我们对于管理和生产的理解就是越简单越好。
《中国经济和信息化》：有消息称比亚迪将进入家电行业，就我们的理解，家电行业已经进入红海了，比亚迪为什么会想进军家电业呢？
王建钧：我们还没有进入家电行业，仅仅是有一些市场部门在做调研。远远没有进入公司战略委员会和董事会决策的阶段。比亚迪进入每一个行业都会非常谨慎。比亚迪要进入一个行业，首先要看这个行业竞争对手的多少，是红海还是蓝海，这是一个竞争惨烈程度大小的问题；其次是投资门槛的问题；再次就是消费者能否接受的问题。我们对各方面的因素进行了认真考量，才会决定是否进入一个行业。
《中国经济和信息化》：销量带来的压力有没有传导到上游的生产？
王建钧：今年1～6月乘用车的销量，进口车要好于国产车，大排量的车要好于小排量的车。1.6L以下排量汽车销量增速今年明显放缓，1.6L以上排量汽车销量增速今年明显高于去年。
今年的汽车消费趋于对大排量、大品牌、高端产品的选择，这些对我们是个警示。比亚迪对市场的反应是很迅速的，我们也充分进行了市场研究。我们热销车型的利润空间在下滑，而我们的产能是有限的，需要拿出品质更好的产品。所以，下半年我们主要推出了1.6L以上排量的产品，如M6、I6、L3等，都是1.8～2.0L排量的产品，做工和装饰都有所提升，价格都在10万元以上。
这次调整是想推出高附加值的产品，这对于公司的经营及品牌的提升都是有重要意义的。任何公司发展到一定阶段都要面临品牌的问题，这个问题是要及早做准备的。比亚迪以前以小排量经济型轿车为主导产品，现在要向中高端产品延伸。在1.6L排量以上的市场中，排量越大的，自主品牌汽车占有的市场份额越小。
比亚迪必须走出一条自己的路，去争夺这个细分市场，使我们的品牌力得到提升。只有这样才能在市场中得到更多的认可。这样的调整早晚要做，早做比晚做好。
《中国经济和信息化》：怎么看经销商的抱怨？
王建钧：我们和经销商是合作伙伴，利润问题是我们之间不可回避的矛盾。他们这样或者那样的说法，也是为了自身的利益，我们认为有这些说法也是正常的，企业的发展离不开各种批评的声音。
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