Sony portable dictator with pouch used by Lee Kuan Yew

Title

Year/Period

1995

Region

Purchased in Singapore

Object Type

dictating machines, pouches

Material

plastic (material), metal, leather

Technique

assembling (additive and joining process), forming (physical activity)

Dimension

Object size: 13.0 x 8.0 x 3.0 cm,
Object size: 13.8 x 9.7 x 3.7 cm

Accession No.

2021-00473

Collection of

National Museum of Singapore

Credit Line

Gift of the Prime Minister's Office

This Sony BM-18 portable dictator was used by Mr Lee Kuan Yew from 1995 to 2007, and it replaced the previous faulty portable dictator. Mr Lee Kuan Yew used it to record notes and messages for transcription and follow-up action by his staff. Initially, Mr Lee’s portable dictators were used to record messages both when in the office and at his residence. The dictator with recorded messages in the cassette tapes were usually sent to the office via the red box for transcription, and returned via the red box with a clean cassette tape at the end of the day. However, when the desktop dictator set was installed in his office and at home, the portable tape-recorder became mainly used for his overseas travels only.