I felt very inspired after what MM lee had said about staying active. I fully agree that the biggest punishment a man can suffer is total isolation in a dungeon, cut off from the outside world.........


Retirement means death, says MM Lee

Minister's silver advice: keep working, keep fit, stay connected and stimulated

(SINGAPORE) Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has a message for Singaporeans hitting their 60s: Don't retire.

'I think a man or a woman should go on working as long as he (or she) can, but changing the nature and intensity of his work as they age.'
- MM Lee

'Retirement means death,' he told the Silver Industry Conference yesterday at Suntec City, where he shared his recipe for a long and successful life - keep healthy and fit, stay active, connected and stimulated.

Singaporeans who plan to retire at 62 could be 'making the biggest mistake of their lives', he reckons.

Apart from the need for them to remain in the workforce because there will be relatively fewer younger people, 'if you believe that at 55, you're retiring, you're going to read books, and play golf and drink wine, you're done in', said Mr Lee, who will be 85 in September.

He cited studies and spoke about an uncle who retired at 55 and died within two years, having had good food - 'lots of fat pork' - and a sedentary life. His father, on the other hand, started selling watches and dabbling in semi-precious stones and coins after retiring from Shell as a superintendent, kept himself busy, and lived until 94.

Declaring that he believes there should not be a retirement age, Mr Lee said: 'I think a man or a woman should go on working as long as he (or she) can, but changing the nature and intensity of his work as they age.'

For himself, retirement would have meant death, he said. 'I would not be able to speak to you in this way if I had not led a very active life, connecting with the world, connecting with many people throughout the world, reading, talking, understanding, assimilating and trying to interpret it to make sense for Singapore.'

Ageing has been a process of constant adjustment at various turning points in his life, Mr Lee said. He spoke about quitting smoking in his mid-30s - 'a tremendous deprivation, because I was addicted to it' - taking up jogging instead of playing golf, to get rid of his beer belly and sluggishness, and about his two angioplasties in 1996 and subsequent lifestyle changes.

Still, for all the exercise and effort, 'I'm fit, I swim, I cycle, but I can't prevent this losing of the capacity of the nerves', he told his audience about his current weakness.

'I never planned to live till 85, or 84. I just never think about it. My mother died when she was 74,' Mr Lee said. His father swam everyday until a fall at age 87. 'So, next deadline (for me) . . . my father's fall at 87,' he quipped.

'But I think the most important single lesson I learned in life is that if you isolate yourself, you're done for.'

People are social animals who need stimuli and contact with others, he said. 'I don't much like travel, but I travel very frequently despite the jet lag because I get to meet people of great interest to me, who will help me in my work. And that stimuli brings me to the world of today.'

The biggest punishment a man can suffer is total isolation in a dungeon, cut off from the outside world, he said. 'That's real torture.'

His advice to everyone: 'Keep yourself interested, have a challenge. If you want to see sunrise tomorrow, or sunset, you must have a reason, you must have a stimulus to keep going.'

Mr Lee also talked about what he hopes Singapore will be in 10 to 15 years - like Italy and Austria, not in terms of economic capacity but in becoming a cultivated society rich in the arts and culture. Economic growth is a prerequisite, but with that in the bag, Singapore should move on to raise the quality of its civic society.

A cultivated society would be incongruous with 'an underclass sleeping under the bridges' or abandoned old folk. But there are serious problems of ageing that every society, including Singapore, will face.