Our giant of a man: RIP Lee Kuan Yew

I am among the thousands of Singaporeans who indulged in a lot of thinking about our nation’s state of play, following the passing of our nation’s founding father.  We all saw it coming, but only upon his death that we all felt that huge sense of loss. To me, LKY was to Singapore what Steve Jobs was to Apple. Both men were visionaries with the intelligence and tenacity to champion any sort of adversity. They could rally thousands toward a common goal.

I started to reflect on my own life, my family and my surroundings as more and more of LKY’s life was revealed to us. While I’m also among the majority who never had any interaction with the ‘extraordinary orang besar’ himself, I realised that actually everyone does have their very own personal connection with him – as a result of his work in public service.

The ripple effect has of course found its way deep into my life. From the water I drink straight from the tap (even my 5-month old baby does too), to my engagements at work with people over continents, to my husband who has built himself a career in Singapore over 9 years in Singapore, and even to the life of my Indonesian domestic helper. LKY has touched them all some way or other through his efforts and his far-reaching policies.

Especially poignant was when I pieced together the story behind my own heritage. My Chinese-educated father bore witness to the pro-communist movement at school, and felt disadvantaged at his lack of English skills. Thankfully, he had the privilege of being among the first school of British-trained chefs. He eventually picked up English at culinary school, albeit a vocabulary consisting mainly of various cuts of ham and sauces. But it was thanks to the meeting of my English-educated mother that English became our dominant language at home. Today we still have both the English and Chinese newspapers sent to our home. LKY’s belief in bilingualism resonates very strongly in my household, and we are certainly proud of it.

Last week while in Australia, my husband and I caught up with our European friends who chose to leave their countries (Germany & UK) to live in Sydney. In our discussions about living in Singapore, I took the chance to broach on the topic of LKY’s passing. Only then did I realise this is hardly news to the rest of the world. And while trying to contextualise of the gravity of this issue to us that I remembered: we’re still that little red dot. LKY may have been respected by some of the world’s greatest politicians, but at the end of the day, he is still his own people’s man. And all these critical foreign press articles written about LKY’s work following his death don’t matter, because his job was to take care of Singaporeans. And a damn fine job he did.

Now that he has left us, I cannot help but feel like a turtle that has lost its back. We had a giant of a man who took our orphaned nation and built it into a little powerhouse. He may have placed the best people he could find to continue his legacy, but we all know that there is no one like him, and will probably never be.

Perhaps we can say, this was the ultimate sacrifice. LKY’s death might have been the awakening we needed to finally see all that we have turned a blind eye to all this while. I’m almost embarrassed to say that I learnt more about our nation’s tumultuous history in the last seven days than I ever did in my years as a History student. He somehow became more human and more alive to us only when he died. Some may liken it to artists and musicians only becoming famous when they die, but this is so much more. His work gave us a truly great place that we’ve built a future upon.

So thank you Lee Kuan Yew, for giving me and my family an enviable place in this world. May we Singaporeans continue your legacy so you will forever rest in peace.