As much as any of us has been expecting it, we’re never prepared for that moment of finality.
I remember the doctors preparing us, days ahead, for my father’s death. Yet when it came, it was still like a thunderbolt that left a big gap that’s yet to be filled.
Noise, then silence. Transition, then permanence.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong: “I am grieved beyond words” on the death of his father. (Image credit: Screen grab from Channel News Asia)
It was heart-breaking watching Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announce the news this morning on TV and saying he’s grieved beyond words and yet somehow having to find the words to tell the nation – it must have been the hardest speech he’s ever had to give.
As the son will miss his father, we will all miss an extraordinary man.
Travel will miss him. His was the vision that created a garden state. His was the vision that brought aviation and tourism together – the Changi and Singapore Airlines combination is a hard-to-beat match. His was the vision that built Singapore into a good place to live, work and play for everyone who’s made this place our home.
He wasn’t perfect but he didn’t set out to be. He wasn’t politically correct but he didn’t set out to be.
I will remember him through his words, truly one of the greatest orators of our times. If you’ve ever heard him speak, you’ll know what I mean.
Here are a few I picked.
Lee Kuan Yew: “I have never been overconcerned or obsessed with opinion polls or popularity polls.” (Image credit: www.lee-kuan-yew.com)
“In the end, my greatest satisfaction in life comes from the fact that I have spent years gathering support, mustering the will to make this place meritocratic, corruption-free and equal for all races – and that it will endure beyond me, as it has.”
How many of us can say that? That we achieved what we set out to do. He had a vision and he executed it brilliantly and relentlessly. That we left a legacy. Long may his endure for the generations to come.
“I have never been overconcerned or obsessed with opinion polls or popularity polls. I think a leader who is, is a weak leader. If you are concerned with whether your rating will go up or down, then you are not a leader. You are just catching the wind … you will go where the wind is blowing. And that’s not what I am in this for.”
This is especially important to heed in today’s world of social media which measures you instantly by likes, clicks and views. The answers may well be blowing in the wind but when the wind is blowing ever faster and is ever fickle, it takes wisdom and a strong sense of conviction to stand your ground when everyone’s telling you not to.
“If you don’t include your women graduates in your breeding pool and leave them on the shelf, you would end up a more stupid society… So what happens? There will be less bright people to support dumb people in the next generation. That’s a problem.”
He had strong views on women’s role in society and he was worried about a declining birth rate and so he said things that were provocative but as he said, “I always tried to be correct, not politically correct.”
Lee Kuan Yew with “the love of his life” – his wife, Kwa Geok Choo. (Image credit: Pinterest.com)
As a woman in Singapore, I’ve never had to contend with gender issues and I hold by the truth, “If you make it an issue, it becomes an issue.” His views were sometimes old-fashioned but old-fashioned is good.
Because, in the end, his heart was in the right place, with the woman by his side, and the nation behind him.
“Without her, I would be a different man, with a different life… I should find solace in her 89 years of a life well lived. But at this moment of the final parting, my heart is heavy with sorrow and grief.”
As ours are.
• Featured image credit (Lee Kuan Yew): Remembering Lee Kuan Yew website
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