Thank you Mr Lee

(photo credit: the wall street journal)

The Prime Minister is deeply grieved to announce the passing of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the founding Prime Minister of Singapore. Mr Lee passed away peacefully at the Singapore General Hospital today at 3.18am. He was 91.

PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE

23 MARCH 2015

I'm a cynic, when I see everyone doing certain things, I tend to doubt it, and doubt it a lot. This announcement came at a time where everyone was sleeping, the next morning, it sent the whole nation into a frenzy, everyone was 'shedding a tear', tears rolling down their cheeks. I feel some of them are just blindly following a trend. Why did NParks only named an orchid after him now? Was his accomplishments only valued after his passing? Will there be a park named after him? 

Some even got lazy and start naming stuff after him. I'll do 91 chin-ups and name it #LKY91 (don't forget to hash-tag), each chin up shall signify the rises and falls of the 91 years of his life and challenging obstacles he faced in building our nation.

People in my generation are born after to reap the fruits of his work. Singapore was already a first world nation when I was very young.

Unlike most pretentious people, I have learnt about his life since I was very young (I'm really not bragging but how many people queuing to the Parliament house actually knows his English name or when he started smoking or realise that he studied law before entering politics) I didn't shed a tear when he died, to be honest, I have never really seen him in the flesh. (NDP doesn't count). He is a great man, he was ahead of his time in thinking and his work. Its amazing how little we know about this man as as a person rather than from his work. 

Other than just saying he is a great man or he is why Singapore is, lets look at him as a person and then his work:

- He is incredibly smart (check out the amount of academic achievements he has, he even said in a book that he learnt from copying from a classmate and still top the class).

- He is very proud of his Chinese ancestry, which is why he didn't really use his English name (his english name is given at birth)

- He was a really heavy smoker during his Uni days

His political career is something I wasn't really interested in and I feel instead of saying he is a politician, we should say that he is a nation builder. He made everyone not litter, ignore race, afford education, serve and protect our own country, not rely on anyone else. People may disagree but I feel this man definitely knows what it takes to be peaceful and prosperous. 

I hope this brief post can urge you to go and learn about LKY as a person, his life, his legacy is already all around us. The way some people post on social media is as if they are his oldest friends and relatives of him when in fact they don't. If you do, good, teach the young. If you don't stop shedding tears for a man you don't really know and pretend to be just because everyone is doing it.  

He is a great man that many of us do not truly know, yet he built the nation (not single-handedly though) in which we all live in. Though written by S.Rajaratnam, I feel this is the best thing to be recited to remember who LKY was and what he represents. Good job sir. Rest in peace. Please watch over Singapore from where ever you are.

We, the citizens of Singapore,

Pledge ourselves as one united people,

Regardless of race, language or religion

To build a democratic society

Based on justice and equality

So as to achieve

Happiness

Prosperity

And Progress for our Nation

(unknown photo credit)