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FORMER Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos might have started off as a hero but ended up a crook, Singapore elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew said in exerpts of his memoirs published today.

He said that former US vice president Walter Mondale asked him in March 1998 to compare former Indonesian president Suharto and Marcos.

"You knew Marcos. Was he a hero or a crook? How does Suharto compare to Marcos? Is Suharto a patriot or a crook?" Lee quoted Mondale as asking him.

Mondale was passing through Singapore after carrying a message to Suharto from President Bill Clinton as the political and economic crisis in Indonesia deepened.

"I felt Mondale was making up his mind on Suharto's motivations before submitting his recommendations to his president," Lee said.

"I answered that Marcos might have started off as a hero but ended up as a crook," Lee said.

"Suharto was different. His heroes were not (George) Washington or (Thomas) Jefferson or Madison, but the sultans of Solo in Central Java."

Lee said Suharto, who ruled for 32 years, "saw himself as a patriot. I will not classify him as a crook."

Marcos was deposed from 20 years in power following a popular uprising in 1986 amid allegations of corruption and human rights abuses. He fled to exile in Hawaii where he died in 1989.

The three Philippine governments which succeeded Marcos have so far been unsuccessful in prosecuting any member of the family over the past 14 years despite charges they plundered billions of dollars from the national coffers.

Indonesia has set the stage for the 79-year-old Suharto's trial on corruption charges.