23 March 2015,
it was gloomy and rainy in Taipei.
Monday Blue
has never been this dreadful.
The solemn
moment has arrived.
Not that we
are not expecting this day to come, just that the truth always hit us hard.
Singapore's
founding father had “fought
for our independence, built a nation where there was none, and made us proud to
be Singaporeans.”
“Singapore was
his abiding passion,” Prime Minister
Lee Hsien Loong in his national address on the passing of Mr Lee Kuan Yew. “He gave of himself, in full
measure, to Singapore. As he himself put it towards the end of his life: ‘I
have spent my life, so much of it, building up this country. There is nothing
more that I need to do. At the end of the day, what have I got? A successful
Singapore. What have I given up? My life.’ ”
While the
nation comes together to pay respects, there are
some dissenting voices coming from human rights groups,
criticizing Lee's iron-fisted governing style, and hence the need to overcome
the restrictions after Mr Lee's passing. But had it not been his
forward-looking and strict governance, we would not be here today. Under
his leadership, Singapore became an admired international business and
financial center - from Third to the First World in a matter of decades.
Everywhere we turn: from the housing estates, the clean and efficient roads,
the corruption-free system, the schools, the world-class universities, the
hospitals, the safe and green environment, to the good jobs and good quality of
life, Mr Lee oversaw the transformation of Singapore.
A citizen
commented, “As long as you are economically well off, with housing and
food, who cares about the politics? I would much rather live in a country like
this than a place where you have every freedom in the world but you are
hungry.”
For these
years studying and staying abroad, I have seen and been through things I would
not experience in my homeland, and the privileges I get to enjoy back at home
may not apply overseas. All the more I have come to appreciate the little things
in life, and how fortunate we are in Singapore that we take certain things for
granted. It would not have been possible if not for the painstaking efforts of
Mr Lee Kuan Yew and the pioneers in building the nation.
Thank you,
Sir.
On this day,
we have lost the great chief of command,
But we shall
fight on, we shall sail on.
For that is
what keeps us moving forward since fifty years ago.
Majulah
Singapura.