Singapore still has to contend with a Malaysian leadership that performs one volte-face after another, one that is quick to dismiss all calm, rational and legalistic arguments as examples of arrogance, insincerity and insensitivity.

Malaysia's reactions to the book come, of course, as no surprise. Maybe our problems with Malaysia spring from an inability to communicate effectively.

SM Lee must have understood this, and is exemplary in the way he learnt a language to get through to people at each stage in his life. He added Japanese, Hokkien and Mandarin to his fluent Malay and English.

If there is one thing to be learnt from the book, it is that language and culture issues cannot be ignored.

We are in this region, so we must learn the cultures of people in this region and sometimes engage them on their own terms. We can't just concentrate on doing what we do best and expect them always to engage with us on our terms.

Did the memoirs inspire me? Yes, in the sense that they heightened my appreciation of how precarious our nation's survival and eventual success have been.

It inspires me that when I return home from England to take up my appointment in the civil service, I will be part of a team building up the foundations of the Singapore project which Mr Lee and his team have laid, a project which is also my home.

Overall, I found the writing style controlled, consistent, uncluttered, elegant and at times ironic. I found it honest intellectually, with little trace of self-indulgent nostalgia or self-aggrandisement. I was especially fascinated to read the official correspondence that SM Lee quoted in his book, to great effect.

Not all of those reports, letters and memos spoke of Mr Lee in flattering terms! He himself did not seem preoccupied with whitewashing his image.

I suppose all this makes the memoirs more palatable, especially to the younger generation, who having always respected and possibly revered him, may now come to love him a little as well!"