The ultimate test of the value of a political system is whether it helps that society to establish conditions which improve the standard of living for the majority of its people.

The acid test of any legal system is not the greatness or the grandeur of its ideal concepts, but whether, in fact, it is able to produce order and justice.

The exuberance of democracy leads to undisciplined and disorderly conditions which are inimical to development.

The original communitarianism of Chinese Confucian society has degenerated into nepotism, a system of family linkages, and corruption, on the mainland. And remnants of the evils of the original system are still found in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and even Singapore.

At the end of the day, is Singapore society better or worse off? That's the test.

In the political system, we are a team; politics and bureaucracy, we are a team. The politicians, bureaucrats and the people, we are a team.