Justifying million-dollar pay hike for Singapore ministers (The Straits Times, 5 April 2007)

You know, the cure for all this talk is really a good dose of incompetent government. You get that alternative and you'll never put Singapore together again: Humpty Dumpty cannot be put together again... your asset values will disappear, your apartments will be worth a fraction of what they were, and our women will become maids in other people's countries, foreign workers.

— Lee Kuan Yew

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "You know, the cure for all this talk is really a good dose of incompetent government. You get that alternative and you'll never put Singapore together again: Humpty Dumpty cannot be put together again... your asset values will disappear, your apartments will be worth a fraction of what they were, and our women will become maids in other people's countries, foreign workers." in the context of "Justifying million-dollar pay hike for Singapore ministers (The Straits Times, 5 April 2007)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Lee Kuan Yew" (Quotes, 2000s) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Lee Kuan Yew

About Lee Kuan Yew

Lee Kuan Yew (16 September 1923 – 23 March 2015) was a Singaporean politician. He was the Secretary-general of the People's Action Party (1954–1992) and Singapore Prime Minister (1959–1990), Senior Minister (1990–2004), Minister Mentor (2004–2011).