Ho Kwon Ping: Learning from our founding Prime Minister the importance of diligence and pragmatism in the pursuit of ideals

On March 28, SMU held an hour-long memorial ceremony as a tribute to Mr Lee Kuan Yew. The ceremony was attended by close to 400 staff, students and members of the public. Chairman of the SMU Board of Trustees and Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings Mr Ho Kwon Ping; SMU President Professor Arnoud De Meyer; former Member of Parliament (MP) and Professor of Economics (Practice) Augustine Tan; and Professor of Strategic Management (Practice) and former High Commissioner (Ambassador) for Singapore to the UK Pang Eng Fong; were present to share their memories of Mr Lee. Mr Ho said that students should work hard and learn from the pragmatism Mr Lee had when he was developing policies that worked for Singapore. Prof De Meyer also acknowledged Mr Lee's contributions to education in Singapore, describing Mr Lee as "an aggressive promoter of Singapore".