'Brilliant': Elon Musk praises Lee Kuan Yew yet again

SINGAPORE: The world’s wealthiest man, Elon Musk, praised Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew for the second time in a social media post, this time over Mr Lee’s foresight concerning air-conditioning and the productivity of Singapore’s public service.

On Wednesday (June 24), Mr Musk wrote “Lee Kuan Yew was a genius,” on X, a platform he owns, re-tweeting a post from the well-known technology and business writer Trung Phan. 

Mr Trung had posted a quote from Mr Lee.

“Air conditioning was a most important invention for us, perhaps one of the signal inventions of history. It changed the nature of civilization by making development possible in the tropics. Without air conditioning, you can work only in the cool early-morning hours or at dusk. The first thing I did upon becoming prime minister was to install air conditioners in buildings where the civil service worked. This was key to public efficiency,” it reads.

He also posted a graphic from the Financial Times, which shows how work productivity, among other activities, plummets the higher the temperature gets.

This comes even as much of Europe is suffering under an intense heat wave, with temperatures in some locations reaching as high as 44 degrees, and debates over air-conditioning have taken place online.

The re-tweet from Mr Musk, who also held the title of world’s first trillionaire briefly this month, has been viewed 14.6 million times and sparked a flurry of comments that similarly praised Mr Lee, along with other shares of his quotes and videos.

“I always liked Lee’s fierce pragmatism and unwavering integrity,” wrote one.

Another appeared to agree with Mr Musk, writing, “Yep, the West needs leaders (like) Lee Kuan Yew.” 

“Any time spent in Singapore confirms it! LKY was special,” an X user commented.

Others, however, shared some of Mr Lee’s more controversial statements.

In 2024, Mr Musk praised Lee Kuan Yew as “brilliant” in response to a blog post about Changi Airport. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO reposted a blog by newsletter writer George Mack, who wrote about Mr Lee’s role in developing Changi Airport.

Last year, his former partner, the Canadian singer Grimes, touched on several topics in an interview with TIME, including, surprisingly, the kind of leadership needed in the world. 

She held up the example of Lee Kuan Yew, saying, “I don’t know. I feel like we have a lot of generals and not a lot of philosopher-kings, which would be the ideal situation.

Just like Lee Kuan Yew types. I just want people to come out here and throw everything at the kids and throw everything at education. You don’t need to be on either side to do things like that.” /TISG

Read also: Elon Musk’s ex, Grimes, says the world needs more ‘philosopher-kings’ like Lee Kuan Yew