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Lee Kuan Yew's time as prime minister ended on November 28th 1990 when he handed the reigns over to Goh Chok Tong.
1990年11月28日，李光耀将政权移交给吴作栋，结束了他的总理任期。
Still this wasn't the end of Lee's influence on Singapore.
然而，这并不是李光耀对新加坡影响力的终结。
Lee may have vacated the throne but he remained a significant power behind the scenes.
李光耀可能已经放弃了王位，但他在幕后仍然是一股重要的力量。
First as the cabinet senior minister and then in the specially created role of minister mentor.
首先担任内阁资政，然后是特别设立的部长导师角色。
This way he was able to keep his steadying hand on the tiller through all 14 years of Goh's premiership, right into the early years of Zelda's son, Lee Hsien Loong's ongoing reign.
通过这种方式，他能够在吴作栋担任首相的14年里，一直稳稳地把手放在舵柄上, 一直到李显龙接任的早期。
It was May 2011 before lee finally surrendered any role in politics following a historic election that saw PAP's vote dropped to its lowest level ever.
直到2011年5月，在一场历史性的选举中，人民行动党的得票率跌至有史以来的最低水平，李光耀才最终放弃了任何政治角色。
By then, though it was abundantly clear that the nation he had forged would be capable of carrying on without him.
到那时，尽管很明显，他建立的国家将有能力在没有他的情况下继续下去。
Lee Kuan Yew died on March 23, 2015, at the age of 91.
李光耀于2015年3月23日去世，享年91岁。
As he breathed his last, it was at the center of an island nation that had utterly transformed in his nine decades.
当他最后一口气的时候，该国正处于一个岛国的中心，在他活着的90年里，这个岛国发生了彻底的变化。
A one-time tropical colony that was now both a gleaming metropolis and one of the most avowedly multicultural nations on earth.
曾经的热带殖民地，现在既是一个闪闪发光的大都市，也是地球上公开宣称的最多元文化国家之一。
Today, it's hard to overstate the impact Lee had in his long life as PAP's main visionary he more or less created modern Singapore.
今天，李光耀作为人民行动党的主要梦想家，在他漫长的一生中所产生的影响怎么说都不为过，他或多或少地创造了现代新加坡。
The wealth, the safety, the limits on free speech, the luxurious lives of many inhabitants, they all can be rested at his feet.
财富，安全，言论自由的限制，许多居民的奢侈生活，这些都是他的壮举。
To be sure, the system he left behind isn't ideal, inequality remains a problem and government censorship has gotten even more hard hard-edged over the last decade or so.
可以肯定的是，他留下的制度并不理想，不平等仍然是一个问题，在过去十年左右的时间里，政府审查变得更加强硬。
But when you look at the cards, Lee was dealt after Singapore crashed out of Malaysia and then look at the results.
但当你看牌的时候，李光耀是在新加坡退出马来西亚后才接手这个国家的，然后看看结果。
Well, it's hard to argue that he didn't play his hand spectacularly.
嗯，很难辩称他没有做出惊人的成绩。
Sometimes, people like to talk about the idea of a benign autocrat, the leader who may hoard power but really does have their people's best interests at heart.
有时，人们喜欢谈论一个善良的独裁者的想法，一个可能囤积权力但真正将人民的最佳利益放在心上的领导人。
Normally, this is just a comforting story dictators tell themselves a handy fiction to cover their corruption and psychopathy.
通常情况下，这只是一个令人欣慰的故事，独裁者们给自己编了一个方便的小说来掩盖他们的腐败和精神问题。
Yet Lee was the rare ruler who did fit this mold.
然而，李光耀是少有的符合这种模式的统治者。
Maybe his tactics were at times questionable, maybe he sometimes did some bad things.
也许他的战术有时是值得怀疑的，也许他有时做了一些坏事。
Without him, though singapore today would likely be a much poorer, much more divided place.
不过，如果没有他，今天的新加坡可能会变得更穷、更分裂。
He may not have been perfect but Lee Kuan Yew was undoubtedly one very important thing, a visionary.
他可能并不完美，但李光耀无疑是一位非常重要的人，一位有远见的人。
