I thought that this week would be more or less the same. And the sunday before, i had spent the evening with my secondary school friends having a barbeque at HY's. Even though the past few weeks there were announcements from the PMO that Mr Lee Kuan Yew was sick and his condition just deteriorated, i honestly hoped that he would make it to SG50.
So the morning after a really enjoyable night with some close friends, i woke up to check twitter and found out that LKY has passed on. 23 March 2015. Many social media accounts turned their display photo black and white. And Singapore was to go through a week of mourning in respect for our founding father.
Citizens were allowed to pay their last respects to LKY from Wednesday to Saturday. I went on a late Friday evening and the queue was 7 hours long! We started at Padang, proceeded to Esplanade, went through the floating platform, back to Padang, to Clarke Quay where we walked past Timbre to go through the security checks. Barely spent a minute in the Parliament house. But still i gave a slight bow in front of the coffin.
Never really expected myself to stay throughout the whole 7 hours. (On top of that, i actually held onto a yellow gebra i think, and although everyone was pretty sure it will die in my hands before we could reach the Parliament house, it survived!) I guess one of the reasons why was because i caught just a tiny glimpse of poverty before.
When i was 13, i went on my first mission trip with the GB to Cambodia and we had to stay in a village for 3 days i think. There was no hot water, no internet, no tv. We went round villages distributing old clothes and went to local village schools to teach english and play with children. We only spent 3 days in the village and the remaining 3 or 4 days in the city. After the trip, i of course, learnt how to appreciate my things and my family a lot more.
But i guess if you're living in a first world country, it's easy to take things for granted. So when i found out LKY passed away, i got reminded of my short 3 days in Cambodia. And it sort of felt like someone did the ice bucket challenge on me. :/
I had overlooked the safety, the cleanliness and the education this tiny island provided for me. I can walk the streets at 3am in the morning (believe me i tried, hehe) without the fear of getting robbed and go to a school to attend a course i actually have passion in (and fuel my passion) is all because of LKY. So i felt it was only right to thank the man that has build this teeny tiny island into a strong independent country.
God could've placed me in a filthy rich family and my filthy rich parents could've provided me with security, sent me to the school with the best media course in the world, fed me with the best food and clean water and satisfied ALL my material wants. But instead, God blessed me with a leader that spent his whole life building this nation. Of course i'm not saying my parents don't give me the best lah, walao. But my point is, that even though i wasn't placed in a filthy rich family, God blessed my life (and the lives of many others) with LKY.
So thank you, Mr Lee.
"50 years ago, he cried for the nation. 50 years later, the nation cried for him."
Rest well, sir. You can leave the rest to us.
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