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Computers monitor everything in Singapore from soil composition to location of manholes. At the airport, it took just 15 seconds for the computerized immigration system to scan and approve my passport. It takes only one minute to be checked into a public hospital. By 1998, almost every household will be wired for interactive cable TV and the Internet, the global computer network. Shoppers will be able to view and pay for products electronically. A 24-hour community telecomputing network will allow users to communicate with elected representatives and retrieve information about government services. It is all part of the governments plan to transform the nation into what it calls the Intelligent Island. In so many ways, Singapore has elevated the concept of efficiency to a kind of national ideology. For the past ten years, Singapores work force was rated the best in the world-ahead of Japan and the U. S.-in terms of productivity, skill and attitude by the Business Environment Risk Intelligence service. Behind the Singapore miracle is a man Richard Nixon described as one of the ablest leaders I have met, one who, in other times and other places, might have attained the world stature of a Churchill. Lee Kuan Yew led Singapores struggle for independence in the 1950s, serving as Prime Minister from 1959 until 1990. Today , at 71, he has nominally retired to the office of Senior Minister, where he continues to influence his countrys future. Lee offered companies tax breaks, political stability, cheap labor and strike-free environment. | 
