纽约时报：新加坡国父李光耀病逝

Lee Kuan Yew, Founding Father and First Premier of Singapore, Dies at 91

新加坡国父李光耀病逝

Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father and first prime minister of Singapore who transformed that tiny island outpost into one of the wealthiest and least corrupt countries in Asia, died on Monday morning. He was 91.

新加坡国父和首任总理李光耀于周一早晨过世，享年91岁。他把一个边远岛域打造成为了亚洲最富有的、腐败度最低的国家之一。

“The prime minister is deeply grieved to announce the passing of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, the founding prime minister of Singapore,” a statement posted on the prime minister’s official website said. “Mr. Lee passed away peacefully at the Singapore General Hospital today at 3:18 am.”

“总理十分悲痛地宣布，新加坡建国总理李光耀先生辞世，”新加坡总理官方网站上的一则声明写道。“李先生于今晨3点18分在新加坡中央医院平静逝世。”

Mr. Lee was prime minister from 1959, when Singapore gained full self-government from the British, until 1990, when he stepped down. Late into his life he remained the dominant personality and driving force in what he called a First World oasis in a Third World region.

1959年，新加坡从英国那里获得了完全自治的权力，自此李光耀就开始担任总理，直到1990年卸任。李光耀曾说新加坡是第三世界地区的“第一世界绿洲”，在晚年，他是这个国家的支配性人物，而且也依然是这个“绿洲”的推动力。

The nation, reflected the man: efficient, unsentimental, incorrupt, inventive, forward-looking and pragmatic.

新加坡折射了李光耀的特点：高效、廉洁、不感情用事，并富有创造性、前瞻性和务实精神。

“We are ideology-free,” Mr. Lee said in an interview with The New York Times in 2007, stating what had become, in effect, Singapore’s ideology. “Does it work? If it works, let’s try it. If it’s fine, let’s continue it. If it doesn’t work, toss it out, try another one.”

“我们没有意识形态，”李光耀2007年接受《纽约时报》采访时说，而这实际上已经成为了新加坡的意识形态。“它有效吗?如果它有效，那我们试试。如果效果不错，那我们就继续。如果没效果，那就扔掉它，试下别的东西。”

His leadership was sometimes criticized for suppressing freedom, but the formula succeeded. Singapore became an international business and financial center admired for its efficiency and low level of corruption.

尽管其领导不时被批评为压制自由，但这种做法成功了。新加坡成为了一个国际商业和金融中心，其效率高、腐败程度低的特点受到世人景仰。

An election in 2011 marked the end of the Lee Kuan Yew era, with a voter revolt against the ruling People’s Action Party. Mr. Lee resigned from the specially created post of minister mentor and stepped into the background as the nation began exploring the possibilities of a more engaged and less autocratic government.

2011年的选举标志着李光耀时代的结束，执政党人民行动党(People's Action Party)遇到了来自选民的抵抗。李光耀辞去了专门为他设立的职位“内阁咨政”，步入后台，这个国家开始探索如何组建一个参与度更高、独裁成分更少的政府。

Since Singapore separated from Malaysia in 1965 — an event Mr. Lee called his “moment of anguish” — he had seen 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.

新加坡1965年脱离马来西亚，李光耀称那是他的“痛苦时刻”。自那之后，他就觉得自己处在一场永无休止的斗争之中，必须克服这个国家面临的多个问题：自然资源的匮乏;含有敌意的国际环境;华人、马来人和印度人形成的不稳定的种族组合。

“To understand Singapore and why it is what it is, you’ve got to start off with the fact that it’s not supposed to exist and cannot exist,” he said in the 2007 interview. “To begin with, we don’t have the ingredients of a nation, the elementary factors: a homogeneous population, common language, common culture and common destiny. So, history is a long time. I’ve done my bit.”

“要了解新加坡，弄懂它为什么成为现在这样，你就必须以一个事实为出发点：按理它不应该存在，而且无法存在，”他在2007年接受采访时说。“首先，我们没有成为国家的要素，缺乏了一些基本因素：一个同质的群体，共同的语言，共同的文化，共同的命运。所以，历史需要很长时间的积累。而我尽了自己的那份力。”

His “Singapore model,” sometimes criticized as soft authoritarianism, included centralized power, clean government and economic liberalism along with suppression of political opposition and strict limits on free speech and public assembly, which created a climate of caution and self-censorship. The model has been admired and studied by leaders in Asia, including in China, and beyond as well as being the subject of countless academic case studies.

他的“新加坡模式”有时被批评为软独裁，这个模式包括：中央集权、廉洁的政府、经济自由主义，以及对政治反对派的打压，对言论和公众集会自由的严格限制，以营造一种行事谨慎和自我审查的氛围。

The commentator Cherian George described Mr. Lee’s leadership as “a unique combination of charisma and fear.”

评论员切里安·乔治(Cherian George)称李光耀的领导风格为感染他人的“魅力与恐惧的独特组合”。

As Mr. Lee’s influence waned, the questions were how much and how fast his model might change in the hands of a new, possibly more liberal generation. Some even asked, as he often had, whether Singapore, a nation of 5.6 million, could survive in a turbulent future.

随着李光耀的影响力减弱，有人问：在一代可能更加崇尚自由主义的新人手中，他的模式可能会在多大程度上，以多快的速度发生变化。有些人甚至问道：新加坡能否作为一个国家，在动荡的未来存续下去。就像他过去经常问的那样。

Mr. Lee was a master of “Asian values,” a concept in which the good of society took precedence over the rights of the individual and citizens ceded some autonomy in return for paternalistic rule.

李光耀是“亚洲价值观”大师。在这种价值观中，社会的利益优先于个人权利，公民需要放弃一些自主权来换取家长式的统治。

Generally passive in political affairs, Singaporeans sometimes chide themselves as being overly preoccupied with a comfortable lifestyle, which they sum up as the “Five C’s” — cash, condo, car, credit card, country club.

新加坡人在政治事务中一般颇为被动，有时会调侃自己过于贪图舒适的生活方式，他们用“五C”––现金、公寓、汽车、信用卡、乡村俱乐部--来总结这种生活方式。

In recent years, though, a confrontational world of political websites and blogs has given new voice to critics of Mr. Lee and his system.

不过，近年来，政治网站和博客组成的对抗性势力已经将新的声音赋予了针对李光耀及其体制的批评者。

Even among people who knew little of Singapore, Mr. Lee was famous for his national self-improvement campaigns, which urged people to do such things as smile, speak good English and flush the toilet, but never to spit, chew gum or throw garbage off balconies.

即使是那些对新加坡知之甚少的人，也知道李光耀的国家自强运动，这些运动呼吁人们微笑、说流利的英语、冲马桶、不吐痰、不嚼口香糖，而且不把垃圾扔下阳台。

“They laughed, at us,” he said in the second volume of his memoirs, “From Third World to First: The Singapore Story 1965-2000.” “But I was confident that we would have the last laugh. We would have been a grosser, ruder, cruder society had we not made these efforts.”

“那时他们嘲笑我们，”他在回忆录《从第三世界到第一世界：1965-2000，新加坡历史》(From Third World to First: The Singapore Story1965-2000)的第二卷中写道。“但我相信，我们会笑到最后。如果我们没有付出这些努力，这本会是一个更加粗鄙、粗鲁、粗俗的社会。”

Mr. Lee developed a distinctive Singaporean mechanism of political control, filing libel suits that sometimes drove his opponents into bankruptcy and doing battle with critics in the foreign press. Several foreign publications, including The International Herald Tribune, which is now called The International New York Times, have apologized and paid fines to settle libel suits.

李光耀创造了一种与众不同的新加坡式政治控制机制，他提起诽谤诉讼，有时会让对手破产，他还和几家外国媒体的批评做斗争。有几家外国出版物道了歉，并支付了罚款，以便对诽谤诉讼达成和解，其中就包括《国际先驱论坛报》(The International Herald Tribune)，即现在的《国际版纽约时报》(International New York Times)。

The lawsuits challenged accusations of nepotism — members of Mr. Lee’s family hold influential positions in Singapore — and questions about the independence of the judiciary, which critics have said follows the lead of the executive branch.

这些诉讼涉及裙带关系指控––李光耀的家庭成员在新加坡占据了要职––以及司法独立性问题。批评者说新加坡的司法部门唯行政部门是瞻。

Mr. Lee denied that the suits had a political purpose, saying they were essential to clearing his name of false accusations.

李光耀否认这些诉讼具有政治目的，声称要破除诬告，还自己清誉，就必须这样做。

He seemed to genuinely believe that criticisms would gain currency if they were not vigorously disputed. But the lawsuits themselves did as much as anything to diminish his reputation.

他似乎真的相信，如果不积极地抗击批评，它们就会广泛传播。但在削弱他的声誉方面，诉讼本身其实发挥了不小的作用。

He was proud to describe himself as a political street fighter more feared than loved.

他很自豪地形容自己是政界的“街头霸王”，人们更惧怕他而不是爱戴他。

“Nobody doubts that if you take me on, I will put on knuckle-dusters and catch you in a cul-de-sac,” he said in 1994. “If you think you can hurt me more than I can hurt you, try. There is no other way you can govern a Chinese society.”

“如果你针对我，我会戴上指节金属套，在一条死巷子里逮到你，没有人怀疑这一点，”他1994年时说：“如果你以为，你对我的伤害，多过我可以对你造成的伤害，你就来试一试。没有什么别的办法来治理一个华人社会。”

A jittery public avoided openly criticizing Mr. Lee and his government and generally obeyed its dictates.

情绪紧张的公众避免公开批评李光耀及其政府，通常会服从它的指挥。

“Singaporeans are like a flea,” said Mr. Lee’s political tormentor, J.B. Jeyaretnam, who was financially broken by libel suits but persisted in opposition until his death in 2008. “They are trained to jump so high and no farther. Once they go higher they’re slapped down.”

“新加坡人就像跳蚤，”李光耀的政敌J·B·惹耶勒南(J.B. Jeyaretnam)说，“他们都被训练得跳到一定的高度，但不能更高。一旦跳到更高，他们就会挨上一巴掌。”惹耶勒南因诽谤诉讼而破产，但直到2008年过世之前，他一直坚持反对李光耀。

In an interview in 2005, Mr. Jeyaretnam added: “There’s a climate of fear in Singapore. People are just simply afraid. They feel it everywhere. And because they’re afraid they feel they can’t do anything.”

在2005年的一次采访中，惹耶勒南表示：“新加坡有一种恐惧的氛围。人们就是会感到害怕，无时无地不是这样。而且，由于感到害怕，他们觉得自己什么事情都不能做。”

Mr. Lee’s vehicle of power was the People’s Action Party, or P.A.P., which exercised the advantages of office to overwhelm and intimidate opponents. It embraced into its ranks the nation’s brightest young stars, creating what was, in effect, a one-party state.

李光耀的执政工具是人民行动党(简称PAP)，该党运用执政的优势来压制和恐吓政敌。行动党将该国最聪颖的年轻人才纳入麾下，实质上建立起了一党制国家。

In a policy intended to remove the temptation for corruption, Singapore linked the salaries of ministers, judges and top civil servants to those of leading professionals in the private sector, making them some of the highest-paid government officials in the world.

为了消除腐败的诱惑，新加坡政府颁布政策，将部长、法官和最高级别公务员的薪酬，与私营部门出色专业人士的薪酬挂钩，于是让他们成为了全世界薪水最高的政府官员。

It was only in 1981, 16 years after independence, that Mr. Jeyaretnam won the first opposition seat in Parliament, infuriating Mr. Lee. Two decades later, after the 2006 election, just two of the Parliament’s 84 elected seats were held by members of opposition parties.

直到1981年，新加坡独立16年后，惹耶勒南才第一次在议会赢得了反对派席位。而李光耀则因此大怒。过了20年，在2006年大选后，国会的84个直选议席中，只有两个席位由反对党持有。

But in 2011, the opposition won an unprecedented six seats, along with an unusually high popular vote of close to 40 percent, in what was seen as a demand by voters for more accountability and responsiveness in its leaders. Pragmatic as always, the P.A.P. reacted by modifying its peremptory style and acknowledging that times were changing.

不过在2011年，反对党前所未有地赢得了六个议席，并在总票数中赢得了高得异乎寻常的比例：40%。这一转变被认为是选民在要求，该国领导人应受到更多问责，更多地响应民意。行动党一如既往地务实，该党改变了专横的执政风格，承认时代已经变了，以此作为对民众诉求的回应。

But the new approach still fell short of true multiparty democracy, and Singaporeans continued to question whether the party intended to change itself or would even be able to do so.

然而新的方式仍然不是真正的多党民主，新加坡人也在继续追问，行动党到底打不打算改变自己，甚至有没有能力改变自己。

“Many people say, ‘Why don’t we open up, then you have two big parties and one party always ready to take over?’ “ Mr. Lee said in a speech in 2008. “I do not believe that for a single moment.”

“许多人问，‘为什么你们不开放体制，然后会有两个大党，总有一个政党随时准备掌权呢?’”李光耀在2008年的一次演讲中说。“这种说法我一刻也不认同。”

He added: “We do not have the numbers to ensure that we’ll always have an A Team and an alternative A Team. I’ve tried it; it’s just not possible.”

他还说：“我们没有那么多人口来确保一直有一个顶级团队，同时还有一个备选的顶级团队。我尝试过，那是不可能的。”

What Singapore got was centralized, efficient policy making unencumbered by what Mr. Lee called the “heat and dust” of political clashes, and social campaigns.

新加坡得到的是一个集中化、有效率的政策制定机制，不会受到李光耀口中政治冲突和社会运动的“狂热和纷乱”的影响。

In one, the government tried vigorously to combat a falling birthrate, organizing what was in effect an official matchmaking agency aimed particularly at affluent ethnic Chinese.

其中一项政策是，政府为了努力阻止出生率的降低，组建了事实上是相亲场所的官方机构，且主要目标是富裕的华裔人口。

Mr. Lee also promoted the use of English as the language of business and the common tongue among the ethnic groups, while recognizing Malay, Chinese and Tamil as other official languages.

李光耀还推广使用英语作为工作语言和各族群间的通用语，同时也承认了马来语、华语和淡米尔语(泰米尔语)的官方语言地位。

With tourists and investors in mind, Singapore sought to become a cultural and recreational hub, with a sprawling performing arts center, museums, galleries, Western and Chinese orchestras and not one but two casinos.

怀着吸引游客和投资者的目标，新加坡寻求成为一个文化和休闲中心，修建了庞大的表演艺术中心、博物馆、画廊，建立了西式和中式乐团，而且建造了不只一座，而是两座赌场。

Despite his success, Mr. Lee said that he sometimes had trouble sleeping and that he calmed himself each night with 20 minutes of meditation, reciting a mantra: “Ma-Ra-Na-Tha.”

尽管取得了成功，但是李光耀说，他有时候会夜不能寐，每晚要花20分钟冥想并念诵口诀“Ma-Ra-Na-Tha”才能让自己沉静下来。

“The problem is to keep the monkey mind from running off into all kinds of thoughts,” he said in an interview with The Times in 2010. “A certain tranquillity settles over you. The day’s pressures and worries are pushed out. Then there’s less problem sleeping.”

“难题是不能让‘心猿’到处跑，钻进各种想法里，”他在2010年接受时报采访时说。“某种沉静感会降在你身上，白天的压力和忧虑就被推了出去。睡眠的问题也就没那么重了。”

Lee Kuan Yew, who was sometimes known by his English name, Harry Lee, was born in Singapore on Sept. 16, 1923, to a fourth-generation, middle-class Chinese family.

李光耀有时使用英文名哈里·李(Harry Lee)，他在1923年9月16日生于新加坡一个中产阶级的四代华裔家庭。

He worked as a translator and engaged in black market trading during the Japanese occupation in World War II, then went to Britain, where he earned a law degree in 1949 from Cambridge University. In 1950 he married Kwa Geok Choo, a fellow law student from Singapore. She died in 2010.

他在第二次世界大战中，日本占领期间担任翻译，并从事黑市贸易。之后前往英国，并于1949年从剑桥大学(Cambridge University)取得法学学位。1950年，他与攻读法律的新加坡同学柯玉芝(Kwa Geok Choo)结婚。柯玉芝于2010年去世。

After serving as prime minister from 1959 to 1990, Mr. Lee was followed by two handpicked successors, Goh Chok Tong and Mr. Lee’s eldest son, Lee Hsien Loong, who, groomed for the job, has been prime minister since 2004.

李光耀自1959年至1990年担任总理，之后总理职务先后由两位他亲自挑选的接班人担任，分别是吴作栋(Goh Chok Tong)和他的长子李显龙(Lee Hsien Loong)。李显龙自2004年来一直担任总理，上任之前就一直作为总理人选受到栽培。

Besides the prime minister, Mr. Lee is survived by his younger son, Lee Hsien Yang, who is the chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore; a daughter, Dr. Lee Wei Ling, who runs the National Neuroscience Institute; a younger brother, Suan Yew; and a younger sister, Monica.

除了现任总理，李光耀在世的子女还有次子李显扬(Lee Hsien Yang)，新加坡民用航空局(Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore)主席;女儿李玮玲(Lee Wei Ling)，新加坡国立神经科学研究所(National Neuroscience Institute)负责人。李光耀的弟弟李祥耀(Lee Suan Yew)、妹妹李金满(Monica)也在世。

Ho Ching, the wife of the prime minister, is executive director and chief executive of Temasek Holdings, a government holding company.

现任总理李显龙的妻子何晶(Ho Ching)是政府投资公司淡马锡控股(Temasek Holdings)的执行董事兼首席执行官。

“His stature is immense,” Catherine Lim, a novelist and frequent critic of Mr. Lee, said in an interview. “This man is a statesman. He is probably too big for Singapore, on a level with Tito and de Gaulle. If they had three Lee Kuan Yews in Africa, that continent wouldn’t be in such a bad state.”

“他的地位是崇高的，”小说家林宝音(Catherine Lim)在一次采访中说。“他是个政治家。他可能太伟大了，新加坡无法容纳。他的地位和铁托(Tito)、戴高乐(de Gaulle)相当。如果非洲有三个李光耀，那块大洲就不会是今天这种糟糕的局面。”林宝音经常对李光耀提出批评。

The cost of his success, she said, was a lack of emotional connection.

林宝音形容，他取得成功的代价是，与他治理的民众缺乏情感联结。

“Everything goes tick-tock, tick-tock,” she said. “He is an admirable man, but, oh, people like a little bit of heart as well as head. He is all hard-wired.”

“所有的事情都按部就班，”她说。“他是个受人崇敬的人，哎，可是人除了头脑之外，还需要一些心灵，才能受人喜爱。他太死板了。”

In the 2010 interview with The Times, though, he took a reflective, valedictory tone.

不过在2010年接受时报采访时，他却采取了一种更像是反思和谢幕的口吻。

“I’m not saying that everything I did was right, but everything I did was for an honorable purpose,” he said. “I had to do some nasty things, locking fellows up without trial.”

“我不是说我做的所有事都是对的，而是我做的所有事都是出于崇高的目的，”他说。“我迫于无奈做过一些丑恶的事，比如不经审判就把一些人关起来。”

He said he was not a religious man and that he dealt with setbacks by simply telling himself, “Well, life is just like that.”

他说，他不信仰宗教，每次遇到挫折后，他只是告诉自己：“好吧，人生就是这样。”

Mr. Lee maintained a careful diet and exercised for most of his life, but he admitted to feeling the signs of age and to a touch of weariness at the self-imposed rigor of his life.

李光耀膳食认真，一生大部分时间都有锻炼的习惯。不过他也承认感受到了衰老的迹象，对自我施加的严苛生活习惯也感到了一丝厌倦。