At the wake of Lee Kuan Yewâs passing, one message that stood out in the string of videos I watched about him on Youtube was when he reckoned that the youth in Singapore today have ceased to work as hard as their forefathers did and have taken for granted the comfortable lifestyles they live now. He shared an amusing story when his young son playing in the backyard of the âPrime Ministerâ house threw his ball in the open and the butler, without the slightest compunction, dashed to retrieve it for the boy. Upon the sight of this, Lee Kuan Yew turned to his wife and said: âweâre not going to raise our children here.â He was emphasizing the value of knowing how to be poor and working hard.
To me, it was also about the value of history. How the decisions of our grandparents and great grandparents and their parents and the ones before that all had an impact to what kind of upbringing and opportunities (or a lack thereof) our parents would then give us, and how in turn, we would live ours.  To me, it was my lolo plowing through the rice fields in Cabuyao Laguna as a child under the scorching heat of the sun and setting into a quixotic solitary journey to Manila with nothing but a wild dream to get a better shot at life. My brothers and I donât have a Carabao to tend to now, and live comparatively more comfortably than him at 21. Itâs therefore crazy how life could have taken an absolutely different course  with a simple change in decision- say, my lolo deeming the better life as an all too impossible glass ceiling and just giving up.
Unsurprisingly, events in history could also greatly explain how countries have become what they are today- why Japan, Taiwan and South Korea are rich while others aren't. In fact, the conditions that have evolved hold a considerable impact to individuals particularly the existence of their perception of success via hardwork and how difficult or easy the path toward it would be.Â
For Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson of Why Nations Fail, itâs extractive economic institutions that do not create the incentives needed for people to save, invest, and innovate. Extractive political institutions support these by cementing the power of those who benefit from the extraction. Â For Joe Studwell in How Asia Works, itâs the three-tier approach that should be followed; namely, land redistribution coupled with the practice of gardening, an export-oriented manufacturing policy and a closely controlled finance system. Though different in theses, both studied extensively actual events in the past, which, I have learned, goes to show how valuable it is to learn from it. For one, General Park Chung-Hee, the renowed reformer of South Korea, was well-read on German development and âknew in detail the stories of Sun Yat-sen, Turkeyâs Kemal Pasha and Egyptâs Gamal Abdel Nasser and their efforts to nurture modern, large-scale industriesâ, all of which he understood as he mapped the developmental path of South Korea.Â
With all these, being informed of past lessons is indeed a good thing but in the sea of countries of all shapes and sizes, culling out which ones to actually take and implement would be the even bigger question. Sometimes, a situation might deem a very unique course of action. But all the same, the knowledge of history would make arriving at a decision a little less hard.Â
