Mr Lee set about creating a highly educated work force fluent in English, and reached out to foreign investors to turn Singapore into a manufacturing hub.

He embarked on a programme of slum clearance, industrialisation and tackling corruption. He was a fierce advocate of a multi-racial Singapore.

However, Mr Lee also introduced tight controls, and one of his legacies was a clampdown on the press – tight restrictions that remain in place today.

Dissent – and political opponents – were ruthlessly quashed. Today, PAP remains firmly in control. There are currently six opposition lawmakers in parliament.

Other measures, such as corporal punishment, a ban on chewing gum and the government’s foray into matchmaking for Singapore’s brightest – to create smarter babies – led to perceptions of excessive state interference.

Mr Lee criticised what he saw as the overly liberal approach of the US and the West, saying it had “come at the expense of orderly society”.

BBC