Not much of a retort. It starts of with an insult at the journalist asking the question why they need to be so strict and then goes on with the usual fear mongering about heroin use being so rampant it destroys society.

Fact is LKY and the government he founded is exceptionally brutal and petty (to this day foreign journalists who dare criticize the PAP government will find themselves sued for libel) but there is very little to suggest that specific aspect of theirs actually does Singapore any good.

A much more likely explanation for their success is that they’re famously incorruptible. Unlike other SE Asian strongmen LKY never diverted his CIA bribe money to a Swiss bank account but instead spent it on beautifying his fief.

(Of course government officials do pay themselves exorbitant salaries so you could argue it’s just corruption by another name, but at least that happens out in the open and comes with a veneer of respectability)