Dear Editor,
The genius of Lee Kuan Yew, the first leader of Singapore after its independence in 1965, was to set up and start the airline we know now as Singapore Airlines. Arguably the top airline of SE Asia and consistently ranked the top 3 in the world. To this day, Singapore Airlines is still referred to in general as Lee’s baby.
I was fortunate enough to have flown a few of their aeroplanes before we broke off to start the airline we were hired to start, which is called Scoot Airlines. What Lee saw ahead of time was to sell the commodity, Singapore, the Independent state. He did that through the national airline that carries the country’s name, and at present the whole country’s infrastructure breathes around their national carrier, Singapore Airlines.
I left Singapore to come over in the restart of our own airline, only to be shot down by the Fiame government five years ago. That was a bad call from the former Madam PM, and sad to acknowledge that one of the aeroplanes in the past was named after her. We’ve lost five years of development, and we could’ve been somebody, but we’re still nobody. Sometimes justice deals an awkward hand. Remember the last government when that beloved airport minister was promising Samoa Airways partnership with first Emirates, Etihad and then with Singapore Airlines, and nothing happened?
