I woke up yesterday morning with plans to start the new school term, only to be halted in my tracks by messages of informing me of news that in the night while we lay sleeping, the man regarded by many as the founding father of modern Singapore had passed on. Mr Lee Kuan Yew was 91.
The news, while seemingly inevitable with each subsequent press release from the PMO, was still a shock when made a reality. Mr Lee had been so large, so forceful a personality that I had almost believed that he would be around forever by the sheer power of his will. This man was Singapore. It is hard to imagine Singapore without him.
As the news settled in there arose in me a certain sadness, but above all, a thankfulness, for the life I get to live and enjoy, built on the shoulders of this man and his team who toiled tirelessly with him. “I am a nobody, really,” my father said recently while expressing his incredulity over his current comfortable circumstances. He and I know that our family has benefited much from the economic miracle that is Singapore, a country that has made a huge leap from third world to first in 40 short years.
Today I struggled to explain to my children the significance of the day, and the man that had just passed. They stared at me uncomprehending and as they watched the news clips, I realised that they would never know a Singapore with Mr Lee Kuan Yew in it. That what they know of the man would always be from a second-hand account. That to them Mr Lee would only be a historical figure and not the giant of a man who cast his shadow long over many aspects on our lives. That was when I knew that an era had passed.
As Singapore celebrates its 50th birthday this year, it feels wrong that the man most responsible for this would not be able to join in the celebrations.
Thank you, Mr Lee, for everything you have done in creating the Singapore that we know. One where even a nobody can make something of himself on the account of his own merit, through hard work and determination. Where his daughter and her daughter after her have free access to education, and enjoy the freedom to be who they want to be. Where they are free to walk the streets at night without repercussion. While I might not have agreed with everything you did and the methods you employed, no one can deny that you did what you thought was in Singapore’s best interest. Thank you for making Singapore your undying passion all your life. We are privileged to have had you.
“I have spent my life, so much of it, building up this country. There’s nothing more that I need to do. At the end of the day, what have I got? A successful Singapore. What have I given up? My life.”
~Mr Lee Kuan Yew
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