对于政府的形式，让傻瓜们去争论； 凡是管理得最好的就是最好的

 

李光耀是一个不懈的即兴创作者，而不是一个政府的理论家。

他采用了他认为有可能成功的政策，如果他发现这些政策不成功，就会对其进行修改。

他不断地进行试验，从其他国家借鉴思想，并试图从他们的错误中学习。

尽管如此，他确保自己从未被他人的榜样所迷惑；

相反，新加坡必须不断地问自己，它是否正在实现由其独特的地理环境和特殊的人口构成所带来的目标。

正如他自己所说，"我从来不是任何理论的俘虏。

指导我的是理性和现实。

我对每一种理论或科学的酸性测试是，它是否可行？”[164]

也许柯玉芝教给他亚历山大-波普的格言：

”对于政府的形式，让傻瓜们去争论；

凡是管理得最好的就是最好的。

 

李光耀 was a relentless improviser, not a theoretician of government. He adopted policies that he thought stood a chance of working and revised them if he saw that they did not. He experimented constantly, borrowing ideas from other countries and trying to learn from their mistakes. Nonetheless, he made sure that he was never mesmerized by the example of others; rather, Singapore had to ask itself constantly whether it was achieving goals imposed by its unique geography and enabled by its special demographic makeup. As he himself would put it, ‘I was never prisoner of any theory. What guided me were reason and reality. The acid test I applied to every theory or science was, would it work?’[164]

Perhaps Kwa Geok Choo had taught him the adage of Alexander Pope: ‘For forms of government let fools contest; whatever is best administered is best.’[165]