Thirteen years after the city-state of Singapore achieved its independence, it had

the second highest standard of living in Asia, after Japan. However, it was not highly regarded in terms of civil liberties and democracy, and Mr. Lee was less often described in the Western press as "prime minister" than as "strongman." A low-key but absorbing hour with this dominant figure. WFB: "Somebody living in your country, judging the situation today over against the situation ten years ago, would he say, 'Prime Minister Lee gives me grounds for believing that human rights are increasing in Singapore'?" LKY: "I would hope that's the answer you'd get from most of the people in Singapore." WFB: "And what would they point to concretely?" LKY: "Well, what is it they are prevented from exercising?" WFB: "Freedom of the press." LKY: "I think human rights in a Third World situation have more important facets than freedom of the press. There's freedom from hunger, from want, from ignorance, from disease, the right to education of the young, the right to a job, the right to a life free from fear."