Lee Kuan Yew has been running Singapore, in substance if not in title, since his People's Action Party swept the polls in 1959. As Mr Lee passed his 80th birthday on September 16, some people wondered if it was time for a rare and remarkable Asian leader to step down. But the very qualities that have contributed to Mr Lee's achievements prevented him giving any hint of complete retirement.
At the birthday celebrations, the former minister best able to get on with the often irascible Mr Lee, former minister for National Development Lim Kim San, best described his hard-driving approach to politics and government: 'One characteristic that sets him apart from most men is that he is 24 hours on the job ... His job is Singapore, and how to ensure the security and stability it needs ... He thinks, talks and, no doubt dreams about this. He is a workaholic, working sometimes until dawn.'
Mr Lee used the main celebration to deliver a vintage performance. Most leaders tell their people what they think they want to hear, placing the future as much as possible in a rosy or optimistic glow. That has never been Mr Lee's style. He has always preferred to use realism mixed with pessimism as a spur to greater achievement. At his birthday celebrations, he was still doing it. 'No one owes us a living, so we must make a living for ourselves,' he said. 'Difficult changes are necessary to remake Singapore. To cut costs significantly, to downsize and trim operations, to improve training and productivity, to reshape our strategies and reposition ourselves and our businesses, and get our companies world-competitive again - all these changes will not be pain-free. After we have cut costs and made ourselves competitive, we shall rise to greater heights. But if we psyche ourselves into gloom, we deserve to be sidelined.'
The words show the intensity and energy which Mr Lee still brings to the task of governing Singapore, even though he is no longer prime minister, and even though he is 80. Having failed once, in the merger with Malaysia, he could not countenance failing again. So he became a political perfectionist. Hence his inability to suffer fools gladly and the occasional overuse of authoritarian methods.
But there is also that positive quality which is often missing from the way in which most politicians govern - the exacting standards that Mr Lee has set himself and which he expects of others.
For this longtime Lee-watcher, three interlocking qualities epitomise the man. There is the sheer physical dedication and intellectual vigour that he has brought, and still brings, to the task of making Singapore what it has become. There is the patriotism that underpins that dedication, the passionate belief that only the best is good enough for the city-state. Above all, there is the sheer intensity which Mr Lee brings to his life and work.
Now a tough question intrudes. Is Mr Lee's very intensity leading him astray? Some Singaporeans were expecting him to announce gracefully, during his birthday celebrations, that he would step down. He did not do so.