Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew turns 80 soon and he's still going strong :) Francis Seow must be having a fit.

Naturally, the Straits Times ran a feature on SM Lee in yesterday's paper. The usual articles praising him, examining how the generations after his view him and the great things he and his trusted lieutenants accomplished in those chaotic, poverty-ridden days to make Singapore what it is today.

His life is the stuff of movies. For instance, his marriage. His wife was his academic rival. They went to Cambridge, fell in love there and even married there in secret. By all accounts they are still happily married, and have immensely successful progeny too.

Interestingly enough, in the same paper is a article by verteran ST writer Asad Latif on Chin Peng's new biography. Chin Peng became the head of the Malaya Communist Party after World War II and led it against the British during the Emergency. To this day he remains strong-willed and independent. Unrepentant and unashamed about his actions and beliefs, but never fanatical.

He will turn 79 soon.