Singapore was founded by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles as a far-flung trading post for the British East India Company in 1819 on a small island leased from the Sultan of Johar. With the construction of the Suez Canal in 1865 Singapore became an important refueling and refitting port. Gradually it developed into an important link in the vast British empire and became home to a large British naval base that was the biggest employer of the local population. As a deep seaport on the British empire's global trade corridor, it developed an entrepôt trade economy based on import and re-export. As a consequence of Japanese occupation during the Second World War, its pre-war economy was devastated.

After the war, in 1954, as freedom struggles from colonialism intensified across the world, a young Lee Kuan Yew, a law graduate from Cambridge University, established the Peoples Action Party (PAP) in an expedient alliance with pro-communist trade unions to lead the movement for self-government and put an end to British colonial rule. In 1959, he won the national elections and became the Prime Minister of Singapore which gained self-government with autonomy in all state matters except defence and foreign affairs. In 1963, Singapore merged with Malay, Sarawak and Sabah to form the Malaysian federation. The per capita income at the time was less than $500.

Unfortunately, differences between ethnic Chinese and Malays erupted into riots, ultimately leading to the expulsion of Singapore from the Malaysian federation in 1965. Around the same time the British announced the closure of their giant naval base that contributed almost 20 percent to the Singaporean GDP. Apart from the conflict with the Malays, Singapore was also riven with labour conflict led by communist trade unions that were creating mayhem on the streets. In this environment, the feasibility of Singapore's survival and progress was highly questionable.

Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) was unfazed by the external and internal turmoil in Singapore that would have left lesser mortals gasping for survival. LKY as a leader was tailor-made for the situation, a super intelligent, honest and highly successful lawyer who had the unique abilities of not only visualizing the future but also had the organizing abilities to achieve the impossible. He embarked upon a journey of nation building that dazzled the world and brought unprecedented prosperity to the fortunate people of Singapore. This is a story of incredible leadership that single handedly transformed the destiny of its people.

LKY visualized the transformation of Singapore from a small cog in the defunct British empire to a global Knowledge, manufacturing, trading and transshipment hub catering to the needs of a large but turbulent East Asian region undergoing a rapid change. To implement this vision, his party developed the most comprehensive national strategy that aimed to curb the threats to internal and external security and create the environment for the economic transformation of Singapore. He realized that he had to immediately create thousands of jobs for the unemployed and attract western FDI and technology for an export-led economic transformation.

In doing so, he demonstrated to the world how to formulate a flawless strategy and its effective implementation in a way that reinforces Alfred Chandler's brilliant idea that 'strategy drives structure.' To implement every strand of his national strategy and to achieve its goals he created various ministries and specialized institutions manned by the most talented and a well-paid team of leaders and technocrats, with transparent processes and mechanisms utilizing state of the art technology and methods. With managerial accountability as the pivot of organizational performance to spearhead his envisioned transformation of Singapore. In the process he created a true national, bureaucratic and ministerial, squeaky clean meritocracy, that keeps reinventing itself as the global environment changes and Singapore adjusts to new realities and opportunities.

World class institutional arrangements dot the governance infrastructure of Singapore. Their success in creating the most competitive economy in the world is legendary. Starting with the Housing Development Board that was designed to jumpstart the Singaporean economy after the departure of the British, apart from creating many jobs now owns 75 percent of the rental housing in one of the world's best planned city state. The Economic Development Board (EDB) established to spearhead the economic transformation of Singapore was highly successful in attracting unprecedented FDI and technology transfer in state-of-the-art industrial and technology parks leading to Singapore economy reaching First World standards.

The Singapore port authority was setup for establishing one of the busiest port in the world. The land transport authority was established for creating the most comprehensive, efficient and comfortable public transport in the world. Singapore Airlines became a leading airline in the world and Singapore telecom the leading telecommunications company in the world. The Ministry of education propelled Singapore education system to the top of the world. Singapore Monetary Authority provided a stable macroeconomic environment of low inflation, low interest rates and stable exchange rates for decades. Singapore Development Bank spurred the development of Singapore. The Ministry of Finance created the central provident fund which covers every employee and employer leading to accumulation of huge savings for investing in the development of Singapore. Furthermore, it consistently gave surplus budgets and used the funds to establish Temasek Holdings designed to make the taxpayers investors in the Singaporean and global businesses.

To boost Singapore's productivity and global competitiveness a productivity standards board was setup in 1981. The board was instrumental in making Singapore industry one of the most competitive in the world through automation, technology up gradation and digitalization. The productivity board was subsequently renamed SPRING by adding pursuit of 'innovation' to its mandate. Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) is another organization designed to keep Singapore at the cutting edge of technology and its adaptation for projecting Singapore into new areas like bio-technology, and other emerging technologies.

Thanks to LKY Singapore's per capita income increased from $427 in 1960 to $53000 in 2016 a jump of 125 times, during the same time period Pakistan's per capita income went from around $300 to $1450 - a jump of less than 5 times. It is quite apparent that LKY was a blessing for the Singaporeans while Pakistani leadership has been a curse for Pakistanis. LKY retired as the Prime minister in 1990, he remained as a senior minister in the Singaporean cabinet till 2004 and as a mentor till 2011. After 2011 he remained a member of parliament until he died in 2015. In contrast, when a Pakistani leader is dislodged he or she has to seek refuge in Dubai or London.

On LKY's death, the entire thankful population of the city state crowded the streets and stood in line to have a last glimpse and pay respect to their great leader. Will the Pakistani people ever have a leader like LKY who can transform their lives? It is highly unlikely because Pakistani leaders have only exploited Pakistan for self-enrichment promoting dynastic politics, creating offshore wealth accumulated from looted assets of the nation.

In 1993 LKY visited Pakistan and the author had the privilege of meeting him at a luncheon hosted by the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) faculty in honour of the illustrious leader. We had a long discussion on the Singaporean miracle of development. At the end of the discussion I asked him that no doubt Singapore has immensely prospered under his stewardship but in the process did he personally become rich? LKY was quick in response and said that when he became prime minister he knew that his policies will lead to his Singaporean contemporaries becoming very rich and prosperous but personally he would not materially benefit as either the nation can become rich or the leader can become rich; both cannot. How very true, it is a lesson we have to learn in a country where leaders continue to prosper and the nation continues to wither. Certainly for Pakistan to develop and for our people to become prosperous, services of an incredible leader as demonstrated by LKY is a necessary and sufficient condition.

(The writer is a former Finance Minister)