A New Day Dawns on Singapore

I often ask my husband if he will miss me should I die before him because I will tell him, if he goes, my life will end. His answer is always the same; "Life goes on". It's not exactly the phrase I wish to hear. I want to hear him say that his whole world will come crashing down and he won't be able to function properly anymore! His reply sounds like he'll just carry on living like normal with my absence not making any difference. But that's just my ego wanting to be stoked. He speaks the truth. The world will go on spinning even if you sit glued to one spot for the rest of your life.

Our First Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew is no more.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew 16 Sept 1923 - 23 Mar 2015

 

It is said that an Indonesian Prince first discovered the island of Singapore. His name is said to be Sang Nila Utama (although I do not always see his name mentioned in some similar stories). When he arrived, he saw a creature that looked like a Lion and thus, the name of Singa Pura (Lion City) was born. Sir Stamford Raffles founded Singapore in 1819. But the man who propelled this tiny island into the world arena was Mr Lee Kuan Yew.

 

Hundreds of thousands of people queued up for hours to pay their last respects to him at Parliament House where his body was Lying in State. Thousands thronged the streets waving our national flag, flowers and banners as his funeral procession went its route on 29 March 2015.

 

Many Singaporeans across the island stood up as sirens wailed to signify the end of his funeral service. We stood humbly and observed the minute of silence and thereafter, we proudly recited our pledge and sang the national anthem, Majulah Singapore! (Onward Singapore!). It was hard to speak and sing when tears were flowing freely. As a student and during my time as a school teacher, I recited the pledge and sang the national anthem on a daily basis. Never, had I felt so emotional, proud or grateful.

 

Would that flag be flying today if not for him? We are indebted to a man who LIVED and BREATHED Singapore. Everywhere we look, it is him. It is his work. His ethos to build a better Singapore drove him to bequeath to us a place we can be proud to call home. Yet, through it all, I can imagine him chiding me for using the word 'pride' because, through it all, he exemplified honour, dignity and humility.

 

It has been an emotional roller coaster ride for me and many, many other Singaporeans. I cannot imagine how superficial our intended SG50 celebrations would have been (Singapore is celebrating 50 years of Independence in 2015) if we had not come together as a nation to mourn the loss of our Founding Father. The goodness and kindness of Singaporeans just surfaced as we shared a commonality. Stories abound of people's kind acts and gestures to one another as people queued patiently for hours on end.

 

It also brought to light an interesting phenomenon. In recent years, very sadly, we have let the online community of keyboard warriors bring him down. People made cruel jokes and comments, criticised him no end. The majority remained silent in their rabbit holes until his death. I too crawled out and got very defensive about him and felt extremely upset at people who were timing their anti-LKY posts with our nation's mourning period (from 23 Mar to 29 Mar 2015). My question to them is, for all their eloquent flaming online, their inappropriateness only serves to reflect their poor upbringing and self-absorbed minds. INAPPROPRIATE. You get it? When a person is mourning the loss of his father, you do not purposely say bad things about his father. There is a time and a place for everything.

 

I wish to say to these smart alecs who think they know the world just because they have lived a little, that they always have a choice whether or not to live as a Singaporean. Please feel free to move to another country which exalts and allows you to practise 'total freedom'. Go ahead, please. We won't be missing any of you. The rest of us would like Singapore to be rid of you.

 

Seriously, after the overwhelming outpouring of grief and respect for the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, it is this lot of anti-LKY flamers who should be crawling into the rabbit holes forever.

 

A new day has dawned on Singapore. We must not think that Singapore was born as it is today. Everything Mr Lee's leadership has allowed us to have today, can be taken away from us tomorrow if we are not careful. Democracy, peace, progress, justice, equality. We shall not take these for granted, Mr Lee. Thank you and may you rest in peace. Though you were never a baptised Christian, I pray that Jesus will have kind words to say to you and that Heaven awaits you.