For a large segment of the Malay community in Malaysia, Lee Kuan Yew is no doubt a hate figure which Umno relishes in exploiting to rally the masses.

But again, Lee does the same whenever he reminds the Singaporeans of the island state's "painful" memories of abrupt expulsion by Tunku Abdul Rahman.

To some extent, the autocrat-like leadership of the two countries need each other as bogeymen just to compensate for their lack of legitimacy.

The Chinese community in Malaysia has long been harbouring a love-loath complex about Lee.

On one hand, the octogenarian statesman is bold enough to ruffle Umno's feathers by "speaking up" for the marginalised communities here, which has won him rounds of applause in the Chinese press.

On the other hand, a product of pragmatism, Lee dedicated the first half of his political career to dismantling vernacular education in the island state and substituted it with English supremacy, a kind of gigantic social engineering that is almost unprecedented in modern times.

Today, the death of mother-tongue education in Singapore and the revival of Hebrew with the establishment of the State of Israel are the two poles of the twentieth-century linguistic miracle.

Little wonder that many a grassroots campaigner for a wider use of vernacular languages in Malaysia tends to be silent on Lee's righteous vibe.

Let's face it, many Chinese Malaysians rush to shower praises on Lee simply because he is a Chinese and Singapore is a predominantly Chinese society that is "flourishing".

It is therefore quite natural for one to express the disgruntlement and resentment that one is experiencing in Malaysia through one's admiration for Singapore.

However, for those Chinese Malaysians who are quick to thank Lee for his untiring voice, a question must be asked as to whether they would be prepared to sacrifice the hard-fought-and-safeguarded right to mother tongue education in return for Chinese dominance just like Singapore, an erstwhile bastion of Chinese education?

Or would they be creative enough to imagine a state where people are treated equally and fairly regardless of creed, race and religion, with their economic, social and cultural rights enshrined and honoured under the Constitution?

Why the praise?

Lee has successfully developed the island into an economic hub, and should be rightly credited for doing just that.

Still, success is not measured by economic statistics alone. Academically, Singapore may be a shining star in the region, but the People's Action Party has also failed to produce a generation of intelligentsia, either in English or Chinese.

And Lee has praised Malaysiakini as being credible, so what? Does an independent media need any affirmation from a man who is best known for co-opting the media industry into submission, turning local journalists and editors into his apologists, ghost-writers or speechwriters along the way?

As for foreign media, the job is much less arduous: he only has to threaten them with lawsuits.

In the same vein, it does not boost one's esteem when one is mentioned by Zainuddin Maidin, our information minister who is running the department like the Thought Police.

The truth is, Singapore under Lee is among the least willing nations to provide a safe haven for the most eloquent and noisy critics in its own breast.

Lee has been generous enough to acknowledge Malaysiakini simply because the latter has been publishing all the negative news about Umno, especially the Lingam Tape scandal in recent days.

But one must not fail to see that, in doing so, the Minister Mentor is merely making use of the opportunity to pick on the scab on Malaysian body politic, ridicule Umno over its failures, and tease the MCA for its political emasculation.

So, does Lee believe in press freedom? Not in the least, otherwise it would be hard to explain why a vibrant and autonomous media community is conspicuously absent in the fantastically rich, technological savvy and economically sophisticated Singapore.

In short, a litmus test of Lee's sincerity is whether a critical and independent Singapore Now would emerge in a foreseeable future.

For now, let's just enjoy Uniquely Singapore .