Old man Lee is at it again, trying to rationalize the authoritarian system he created and helps to reproduce in Singapore by invoking Confucius:

Embracing Confucian values has enabled Asian countries to build
harmonious societies and rapidly grow their economies, said Minister
Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.

The
moral principles of the ancient Chinese philosopher, which place the
interest of the community above that of the individual, aided the
development of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, as
well as China and Viet Nam today.

     Notice his Confucian tag line: "interest of the community above that of the individual."  But, of course, he is forgetting something else: a commitment to the cultivation of our closest loving relationships, often defined through family ties, that trump our obligations to follow the law.  Here is passage 13.18 from the Analects:

Speaking to Confucius, the Duke of
She said: "In my village there was a man called BodyUpright.  When his
father stole a sheep, he testified against him."
   "In my village,"
said Confucius, "to be upright was something else altogether.  Fathers
harbored sons, and sons harbored fathers – and between them, they were
upright."

      Of course in the nepotism he has shown toward his own family’s interests he follows this ideal to the hilt.  But would he, in his public defense of Confucius, accept this defense from one of his political opponents or from an average person on the street in Legalist Singapore?  I don’t think so.  He would throw the book at the sheep stealer and the family member who dared defend him.  He is the only one who can practice that particular Confucian principle.

      There are many other aspect of Confucianism that the Monomaniacal Minister avoids, especially those passages in the Analects and Mencius that tell how political dissent is necessary and how recalcitrant power holders can be removed from office, or even killed, righteously.  Maybe he has clipped those portions out of his own copies of the classics.

     How’s this for an idea: full blown Confucianism for Singapore!  Not just the half-baked, cherry-picked handful of quotations that are used to distract attention away from the repressive PAP Legalism that actually dominates the place.   That is something the Lee family dynasty could never accept.