Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of Singapore and one of postwar Asia’s most revered and controversial politicians, passed away at 91 early in the morning on March 23, the Singaporean government announced.
新加坡政府日前宣布，新加坡“建国之父”李光耀于3月23日清晨逝世，享年91岁。他是二战后亚洲最受尊敬、也是最具争议的政治家之一。
Lee, a Cambridge-educated lawyer of Chinese descent, led Singapore from 1959 to 1990 and remained a member of parliament after leaving the office of prime minister. He resigned as “Minister Mentor” in 2011. His son, Lee Hsien Loong, is Singapore’s third and current prime minister.
身为华裔的李光耀曾在剑桥大学学习法律，并获得律师资格。1959至1990年期间，他一直担任新加坡总理。1990年，李光耀辞去总理职务，但仍以议员身份留在国会；直至2011年，李光耀辞去“内阁资政”一职。其子李显龙是新加坡的现任总理，也是第三任总理。
“To many Singaporeans, and indeed others too, Lee Kuan Yew was Singapore,” Lee Hsien Loong said in a televised address to the nation’s 5.4 million people. President Xi Jinping praised Lee as an “old friend of the Chinese people” and said he was widely respected by the international community as a strategist and a statesman.
在电视讲话中，李显龙对540万新加坡人民说道：“不论是在很多新加坡人眼中，还是在其它国家的人眼中，李光耀就是新加坡。”习近平主席曾称赞李光耀是“中国人民的老朋友”，并表示，他是一位广受国际社会尊重的战略家和政治家。
Lee oversaw Singapore’s independence from Britain and separation from Malaysia. A New York Times article says that Lee saw himself in a never-ending struggle to overcome the nation’s lack of natural resources, a potentially hostile international environment and a volatile ethnic mix of Chinese, Malays and Indians.
李光耀见证了新加坡脱离英国（殖民统治）而独立，也见证了新加坡脱离马来西亚。《纽约时报》的一篇文章评论道，为了克服新加坡匮乏的自然资源、应对潜在的恶劣国际环境、稳定新加坡华人、马来人和印度人动荡不安的民族关系，李光耀一直在不懈努力。
Lee cemented Singapore’s status as the most business-friendly location in the region by eliminating corruption and building a politically neutral jurisdiction based on the British legal system. A BBC obituary says: “His greatest achievement was to promote the concept of good governance in Southeast Asia, a region long plagued by corrupt, inefficient governments.”
通过消灭腐败，并以英国法律体系为基础建立政治中立的司法机构，李光耀巩固了新加坡在地区内“最友好商业环境”的地位。英国广播公司BBC在其讣告中写到：“李光耀最大的贡献，就是在饱受政治腐败和政府行政效率低下困扰的东南亚，推广了‘良政善治 ’的理念。”
Up the ladder
勇攀高峰
That helped propel Singapore from an economically adrift port city in the 1950s with a per-capita gross domestic product of just $550 to an Asian financial powerhouse with a GDP per-capita of $55,000, says a Financial Times article, citing data from the World Bank.
《金融时报》所援引的世界银行数据显示，二十世纪50年代时，新加坡还是一个经济落后的港口小城，人均GDP仅有550美元；在李光耀“良政善治”理念的指导下，现在的新加坡已经成为人均GDP55000美元的亚洲金融中心。
Lee was famous for his “Singapore model”, sometimes criticized by the West as soft authoritarianism, including centralized power, clean government and economic liberalism.
李光耀以其“新加坡模式”闻名于世。该模式包括中央集权、廉洁政府以及经济自由主义，但这种模式也一度被西方批评为“软权力主义”。
Lee was a master of “Asian values”, a concept in which the government adopts a paternal role and the good of society took precedence over the rights of the individual. His strict rule was reflected in the clean, modern and affluent city that Singapore is today. With low taxes, good schools, low crime and investment-friendly laws, Singapore became a popular place for international businesses to base their employees and operations focused on Southeast Asia and East Asia.
李光耀同样精通 “亚洲价值观”。这一观念强调政府的“父亲角色”以及社会利益高于个人权利。他严明的治理铸就了今日整洁、现代、富足的新加坡。加之低税负、良好的教育、低犯罪率以及有利投资的法律法规，这些都让新加坡成为诸多跨国公司东亚或东南亚总部的首选之地。
A New York Times article says Singapore reflected Lee: efficient, unsentimental, incorrupt, inventive, forward-looking and pragmatic.
《纽约时报》的另一篇文章则认为新加坡反映了李光耀个人的品质：高效、冷静、廉洁、富有创新精神、高瞻远瞩、脚踏实地。
On the international stage, Lee’s sharp intellect meant his advice was sought by US presidents from Lyndon B Johnson to Barack Obama, and by European leaders such as Helmut Schmidt, the former West German chancellor with whom he remained close, according to the Financial Times.
据《金融时报》报道，在国际舞台上，李光耀智慧过人，包含林登•约翰逊和奥巴马在内的美国总统都曾向他请教。此外还有一些欧洲领导人，比如西德前总理赫尔穆特•施密特，曾与李光耀一直交往甚密。
He was one of the first to spot the potential of China under Deng Xiaoping, the former Chinese leader whose pro-market reforms unleashed the economic juggernaut that is now the world’s largest economy on purchasing parity terms, says the Financial Times.
《金融时报》还写到，李光耀也是最先看到邓小平领导下的中国潜力的人之一。作为中国（第二代）领导人，邓小平的市场化改革释放了中国的经济活力。若以购买力平价来衡量，中国已成为世界上最大的经济体。
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