Update:
I went to the London High Commission bright and early this morning for the memorial service and also to sign in the condolence book. We had the Singapore High Commissioner Ms Foo speak and was very touched by the thousands of people who have come down to sign the book in the past few days. She mentioned that the Singapore High Commission has never seen that many visitors before. We cried and laughed together when the different eulogies were read out. It was a very poignant moment while signing in the book for me. I felt like I was bidding farewell to my own grandfather.
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| Our flag at half mast |
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| All his books were placed above the fireplace below our national crest |
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Singaporeans are full of emotions since last Sunday. Lee Kuan Yew our founding father passed away at the age of 91. I really wish I were back home now, to be able to pay my last respects to this man whom I did not know personally, but gave his life building this nation.
I am a born and bred Singaporean. Singapore will always be my home despite me being away for the past 7 years. Living abroad, I have seen how life under a different government works and I've come to conclude that there is no perfect government, let's accept this fact. No matter what the naysayers say about LKY and the government of Singapore, looking at Singapore 50 years ago and today, no one can deny the fact that the nation has transformed from a third world to first world. And it's because of one man's vision and sacrifice. My grandmother's generation is mostly in awe of him. At least my grandmother who always tells us that he led the country at the tender age of 35. I mean, my friends and I are not too far from this age and who - hand on heart - is willing AND able to lead a country? A country that had so many problems - languages, culture, sanitary, clean drinking water.. the list goes on. I think it would have been easier to emigrate.
Living overseas for so many years, I choose to think I have seen my fair share of things. I have seen how democracy and freedom of speech turned the other way, bringing with it riots and strikes. Just because people can. Trains and buses don't work because drivers are demanding for more salaries. We the passengers are expected to deal with it somehow and get to work (walk, take river taxi or cycle - you choose). After 11pm here, I am especially wary of my surroundings. Something goes off in my mind "ping!" as I look out for what I call "weird people" (read: drunkards or people on drugs) and steer far from them. Before coming here, I took safety for granted but not anymore. How many countries in this world can pride on their safe streets at night?
Because of LKY we are all effectively bilingual. I cannot stress how important this is. I believe we are all reaping the benefits of this today, especially in my work place and what I've noticed. I've seen how certain nationalities (where English is not their first language) struggle with expressing themselves amongst the Brits here at work. As a result, they are often sidelined and take up what I term "geeky roles" within the bank which pride more on math and computing skills, keeping communication skills to a minimum. Because of this they also tend to be cliquish and hang out only among their own nationality group. I'm not saying we are the best communicators but at least we speak fluent English confidently. I remember one of my Brit colleagues commenting to me, saying that she thinks Singaporeans probably speak better English than the Brits. "How is that possible?" I quizzed. She said that we are taught from young the adjectives, nouns, pronouns, sentence constructions in our English lessons. Over here, she said, "we just speak". We often laugh at P, a Brit, who sits besides me and his Essex lingo. He still speaks "They was…" or "We was…".. which will probably get a smack from my primary school English teacher if she hears this. (The other night his daughter asked him the past tense for "teach" and he said for a moment he almost blurted out "teached"!) On the other hand, when we meet Chinese speaking friends and join in using Mandarin, they are often impressed. One Chinese colleague told me I speak Mandarin better than his Taiwanese friends. Wow really? Ok thanks! :)
We had education and most of us finished university and hold proper jobs. I did not come from a rich family and I remember getting awarded with bursaries if I finished in the top few percentage of my neighbourhood school. I still recall the prize giving ceremonies in my school hall as well as the local community centre, having shaken Mr Wong Kan Seng's hands a couple of times when I was awarded the bursaries (and photo taking a must). School fees are highly subsidised so that we can amass as much knowledge as possible. Sure, probably none of us ever had to use the differentiation or integration math skills in our jobs today, but still.. hey at least we once knew how to do integration and apply logarithm for a certain mathematical equation?
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| Passports of my girl friends and I taken last year |
A lot of times when you meet friends here, two of the most common questions asked are "How long have you been in London?" and "Do you plan to move back?" Our responses would always be "yes" to the second question. A Malaysian friend responded "that's the difference between us and you Singaporeans lah. You guys will always go home because Singapore is your home. But for us, most likely we will stay here for good.."
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Looking at how much Singaporeans come together this past few days in paying their last respects to our founding father has given me pangs of sadness and warm fuzziness all together at once. It's a weird feeling. I can't remember the last time I felt prouder being a Singaporean. All the queues under the hot sun. (Even as I type now it's 6am back home and I'm listening to Class 95 FM saying the queue is approximately 8h long. They are asking the public not to join the queue until further notice.) All the acts of kindness - shops and volunteers giving out water and umbrellas; shops providing seats for people queueing; volunteers giving out kuehs; florist at Raffles Place not charging for white flowers amongst many others. I've not seen Singapore like that before. This is the spirit which I am sure LKY would be proud of and I hope he is smiling down from heaven.
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| My aunt and grandma signing in the condolence book |
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| A message from my grandma from the bottom of her heart "Mr Lee Kuan Yew, you were a great man. We will remember you forever." |
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| It was a very touching scene according to my family |
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| The Community Centre which my aunts and grandma went to. They met and shook hands with our MP Mr Wong Kan Seng |
Sunday will be a dark day for all Singaporeans. There will be tears, no doubt about it. He might be gone, but his spirit and legacy will remain for generations to come. Like what one article said, he was the best gift to Singapore. There will only be one LKY. There will not be another.
Thank you, Mr Lee, from the bottom of my heart. May you rest in peace.
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