Lee Kuan Yew, the first prime minister of Singapore has died.
He died at the age of 91, according to a statement released by the office of Singapore’s current Prime Minister and Lee’s son, Lee Hsien Loong.
Lee had been hospitalized since February 5 with pneumonia but gave up early Monday.
Born in 1923, Lee became Prime Minister in 1959 when Singapore, a tiny spit of land with no natural resources and a polyglot population of Chinese, Malays and Indians, was still British territory and beset by riots and unrest.
He presided over Singapore’s bitter split from Malaysia in 1965 and molded the independent country into the global economic powerhouse it is today.
Lee voluntarily stepped down as Pime Mnister in 1990, the first Asian strongman to do so.
However, he played a role in the country’s Cabinet until 2011 when his eldest son, Lee Hsien Loong, was elected for a second term as prime minister.
In 2010 he was admitted to the hospital with a chest infection and in early 2013, Lee — then 89 — was hospitalized and treated treated for “stroke-like symptoms.”
He was again admitted to the hospital on February 5 for severe pneumonia and more than six weeks later remained on a ventilator.
