Outrage over honours for Singapore founding father

Sydney - Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew sparked angry protest in Canberra Wednesday when he received an honorary degree which critics said ignored his opposition to democracy.

Lee, Singapore's prime minister from independence until 1990, was awarded an honorary doctorate in laws amid high security at the prestigious Australian National University.

More than 50 protesters, including law academics and students, demonstrated at the campus but 83-year-old Lee said he was unfazed.

"If they didn't protest nobody would know that I was given an honorary degree at ANU," he said. "Despite their protest, the ANU proceeded and I was not deterred from coming."

Lee also engaged in a heated exchange with Australian journalists, telling them Singapore would hit "rock bottom" if they were in charge.

The decision to award the degree to Lee, known for an authoritarian rule which brought prosperity to his small island state, was an abuse of the university's honour system, said Bob Brown, leader of the Greens party.

"I object and many other Australians will object to this crass use of the degree system to honour someone who doesn't deserve it," he said.

Lee is someone "who's a traitor to democratic ideals and who has eliminated opposition effectively, including having people jailed and held in jail without sentence," Brown said.

"He eliminated opposition as effectively as he eliminated chewing gum."

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on Monday said despite concerns about Singapore's human rights record, Lee was "a great regional leader."

Agence France Presse