Taking a pragmatic line It would probably be accurate to say that the Japanese occupation of Singapore and Lee's stay in England formed his basic political philosophy, while he acted upon and revised this philosophy in the course of later dealings with various international forces, communism, and racist political upheaval.
走「實用主義」的路線可以說，日治時期與負笈英倫的兩段體驗，決定了李光耀政治生涯的基調，至於後來周旋在國際勢力、共產黨、種族主義分子的政治鬥爭，則是實踐及增補其政治基調的過程。