The ASEAN Achievement Millenium Award was presented to Mr Lee Kuan Yew on 10 September 2001 during a presentation ceremony dinner organised by the Asean Business Forum and the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute. It was presented in recognition of Lee’s vision for independent Singapore and his single-minded determination as the nation’s leader to transform the erstwhile British colony into a developed country of economic significance in the world.The award itself is visually attractive in the sense that it depicts in what appears to be laser-cut heavy glass crystal, an amalgam of iconic skyscrapers in the CBD area, the colonial-era Raffles Hotel and the Merlion as the ‘transformed modern Singapore’. The award also bears the inscription – ‘The Asean Business Forum presents the ASEAN Achievement Millenium Award to Mr Lee Kuan Yew for his unique achievement of transforming a poor and disparate island society into a harmonious, prosperous, equitable and internationally acclaimed nation of Singapore’. The description of pre-independence Singapore as ‘poor and disparate island society’ echoes early narratives about how Stamford Raffles also ‘transformed’ Singapura from an abandoned Majapahit outpost into ‘modern Singapore’ in the 19th century. The inscription demonstrates how representations of Singapore’s past have persisted into the 21st century as a way in which business leaders frame Singapore’s exponential development and economic growth since 1965.
