Australians may no longer be the white trash of Asia, but their style of governance would run Singapore into the ground, the city-state's outspoken former prime minister said on Wednesday.
Lee Kuan Yew made the remark after receiving an honorary doctorate of law from Australian National University (ANU), partly for his friendship to Australia.
About 50 students held up banners with wording like "no doctorates for dictators" and chanted slogans outside the venue at the ANU's Canberra campus where Mr Lee received the award.
Having praised Australia's "exceptional growth" of the past 15 years during his acceptance speech, Mr Lee later told reporters that Australian-style governance would not work in the city-state.
Asked about a remark he made in the 1980s that Australians were destined to become the "poor white trash of Asia", Mr Lee said it was apt for that era.
The award citation said ANU conferred the doctorate on the grounds of Mr Lee's service to developing Singapore, international statesmanship and friendship to Australia.
Mr Lee led Singapore for more than 30 years until 1990 under a regime which placed prosperity and racial harmony ahead of human rights and Western-style democracy.
ANU arts-law student Ben Lyons said it was deeply offensive that the university was giving a doctorate of law to someone who used the justice system to repress dissent.
"There are a lot of students as well as academics who are quite angry about both the fact that we're giving Lee Kuan Yew a doctorate and the way it was conducted," Mr Lyons said.
Some law students argue the award may be invalid because it was not discussed by the honorary degree committee before approval by the ANU Council.
Defending the move, ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Chubb said: "Ultimately, whatever process you follow, it's a decision of the council anyway."
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said earlier in the week that while there had been international concern about human rights issues in Singapore, Mr Lee was a "great regional leader".
"(Mr Lee's someone) who's not a democrat, who's a traitor to democratic ideals and who has eliminated opposition effectively, including having people jailed and held in jail without sentence," Senator Brown told reporters.
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