Hello, everyone!

Happy Malaysia Day to all of you who are from Malaysia!

On another and related note, those of you who know me probably know that I am a big fan of Lee Kuan Yew. 

Well, that’s a bit of a small understatement. I mean, it would have to be for someone who was somehow so moved that he decided to write an entire book about Lee Kuan Yew, which is by the way exactly what I did. 

This Malaysia Day, 16 September, I’m very happy to announce the release of “One Date, Two Destinies: Lee Kuan Yew and the Birth of Malaysia and Singapore”, at a (Malaysia Day) discount!

Pick it up here!

Link: https://victortanws.gumroad.com/l/september16th 

Also, here’s a sample that you can have a look at to preview the contents!

This was a fun project to engage in, writing about the entire track of Lee Kuan Yew’s history from his birth up until the end. 

I think it is crucial to look back at the past to understand history better, and this is one of the first things that a person will understand, I think, if they look just a little bit beneath the surface of Malaysian history and that which we call Malaysia. 

I don’t think that there is quite a project that is like this, but I think that it was an extremely fun one – It contains many of my own personal reflections about Mr. Lee and the role that he played in Malaysia and Singapore, and in our shared history together, one that was born from a time of what can rightfully be called trauma. 

I hope that you will find it meaningful and valuable for your own personal development and growth even as you reflect on these stories. 

Thank you for your support in advance if you would like to purchase the book!

Yours, 

V.

Leave A Comment

Recommended Posts

Narrative Essay Reflection and Breakdown:  Write a story which involves an extraordinary journey. (May 2025 Variant 2, Question 4) 

Welcome back, friends! We call everything extraordinary now—a sandwich, a sunset, a Tuesday afternoon. The word comes from Latin: extra ordinem, “outside the usual order.” It was meant to describe things that break the pattern, that violate what we expect from the world. But we’ve inflated it until it’s lost […]

Victor Tan

Descriptive Essay Reflection and Breakdown:  Write a description with the title, ‘The artist’. (May 2025 Variant 2, Question 3) 

Welcome back, friends! Five weeks in, and I’ve been noticing how strangely we talk about artists. We have this enormous vocabulary for describing art—composition, texture, palette, form, technique—but when we try to describe the artist themselves, we fall back on tired clichés: “tortured genius,” “creative soul,” “visionary.” It’s as if […]

Victor Tan

Descriptive Essay Reflection and Breakdown: Describe a tense moment during a competition. (May 2025 Variant 2, Question 2) 

Welcome back, friends! February’s here, and I’ve been thinking about how the word “tense” does double duty in English. There’s tense as in tight, strained, pressured—the feeling in your shoulders before a difficult conversation. And there’s tense as in grammatical tense: past, present, future. What’s fascinating is how these two […]

Victor Tan

Narrative Essay Reflection and Breakdown: Write a story with the title, ‘The path to success’. (May 2025 Variant 1, Question 5)

Welcome back, friends! January’s almost over, and I’ve been thinking about how English handles success. We have this whole vocabulary of vertical movement: “climbing the ladder,” “reaching the top,” “rising to the occasion,” “making it big.” Success, in English, is always upward—as if achievement were a matter of altitude, not […]

Victor Tan