From Inspector Javert to Jean Valjean ?

Singapore's Minister Mentor (MM) Lee Kuan Yew, who are always perceived and felt to be legalistic, calculating, rationalist and utilitarian in politics, now tells Times magazine that "there are some things in the human spirit that are beyond reason".

In his latest interview with the US-based current affairs weekly, he is also quoted as saying that he too enjoys reading Don Quixote. Hopefully, Samuel Huntington and Robert Kaplan also share Lee's interest in Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra's magnum opus.

But it is still not known if he now finds Victor Hugo's Les Miserables spiritually inspiring and morally instructive.