It has been an emotional and unforgettable past week.
Since the announcement of founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s death on Monday, there has been an outpouring of tributes and messages online. People started flocking to the tribute centres (which sprung up very quickly) and the media released their special tribute edition to LKY. My mum bought 2 Lianhe Zaobaos (‘one is to be kept in pristine condition’) and 1 Straits Times one. Radio stations in Singapore stopped broadcasting their usual programmes. A week of mourning had begun.
On Wednesday, Mr Lee’s body was moved to Parliament House for lying-in-state. When the ceremony was taking place, I was stuck in class, but I couldn’t help but watch the CNA livestream on my iPad mini (and so did my other classmates). It was historic… we could always re-read the notes after that. Chelsea and I had agreed to visit Parliament House after our classes end, only to find out that the queue had stretched out to 8 hours. By the time we reached at 5pm, the queue would have ended only at 1am. Fortunately they extended the hours to 24 hours, initially for the first day and subsequently up till yesterday.
We went anyway. I didn’t really have time any other day and I felt it was way more meaningful to queue for this than having waited 6 hours in Times Square to countdown to a ‘New Year’s Day’ – a decidedly arbitrary date. Clearly many others felt that queuing was worth it – the queue never subsided after the doors to Parliament House were open. Since we queued on the first day, we started our queue just beyond Liang Court, which then stretched to Clarke Quay, u-turning towards Hong Lim Park (where we saw Minister Gan Kim Yong) and then to Raffles Place, before reaching Fullerton and then Old Parliament House, then finally Parliament House.
It took us 4 hrs and 45 minutes to get in to pay our last respects. We stood all the way – this was before the more systematic system put in place at the Padang in subsequent days. Along the way, the free flow of water was greatly appreciated. The nation feels united – everyone wanted to help everyone else pay their respects to our founding father.
In some ways I was glad to have been part of the queue on the first day. Sure, it was long and unwieldy, but despite being ‘spontaneous’ (i.e, the route the queue followed was not planned, it just popped up) it was a meaningful route to reflect on what Lee Kuan Yew has done for our country. Walking along the Singapore River was particularly memorable for me – I cannot imagine a dirty river there in the CBD, having not witnessed it for myself, but archival footage showed otherwise. The river really embodies his spirit and his hard work.
Subsequently the rest of my family went to Parliament House. My parents went at 1am that night, Hui Chee went at 6am before class started (and was captured on TV), and the rest of my siblings at 9:30pm on Friday (where they waited in line for 9 hours). They slept in the Padang.
I was also glad to have brought my maternal grandma to Parliament House on Saturday morning. She later told me that it would be one of her regrets if she did not go down to pay her respects, after watching all the TV footage and thinking about the past. She would know, as someone in the pioneer generation. She has been through that period of unrest and growth. If young Singaporeans can feel so much grief towards the death of LKY, I cannot feel how saddened the pioneer generation must feel. It breaks my heart to see so many elderly folk paying their last respects at Parliament House.
The most poignant one for me is the vigil guard tearing, and the aide wiping his tears for him because he was in position.
Yesterday, Chelsea and I went to the National Museum of Singapore to see the LKY memoriam exhibition. It was not a big exhibition, but many were there anyway. A lot of families with young kids.
Today, however, is the most memorable one yet. After paying our respects to my maternal grandfather for the Qing Ming festival, my family and cousins (decked in black) headed down towards Shenton Way hoping to catch the funeral procession. As we exited the MCE to Maxwell Road, the rain was very heavy. The rain clouds were so low, they were obscuring the tops of many skyscrapers. I’ve never seen the CBD like this.
As we approached Maxwell, we saw the large crowds already assembled there, umbrellas open, in the rain. At that point the rain was not super heavy yet and I managed to catch a photo. We managed to find a carpark lot and went towards the Maxwell/Shenton Way junction. The rain was super heavy at that time, and by the time we got there I was fully drenched. We didn’t have enough umbrellas and I used the car’s sun reflector screen to shield myself (which didn’t work so well).
We waited underneath a covered walkway outside OUE Downtown 2 and watched the livestream on YouTube. My dad correctly figured that they would close the road when the time approaches – that’s when we could line the road and spend less time in the rain. Once the traffic police stopped vehicles along Maxwell, everyone knew and rushed to the road. We were quite near the front.
Of course, the road was closed in advance and I’m not sure how long we waited in the pouring rain. As I got drenched (again) I started to shiver a little and remembered PM Lee Hsien Loong recalling the 1968 NDP in one of his national day rally speeches, talking about the heavy rain then, and how everyone stayed on.
I looked around me then and that was exactly what I saw. 47 years on, nothing has changed.
We then saw one of the Air Force F-16s fly above us, and I’m quietly glad that the Air Force is still able to pay its tribute despite the bad weather.
Singapore flags were given out and soon Lee Kuan Yew’s cortège went past us. The good thing about the weather is that the feared ‘digital tribute’ is no longer an issue – people didn’t really have the ability to wave the Singapore flag and hold an umbrella simultaneously – all the more better. Footage that was recorded showed large numbers of Singaporeans along the roads in ponchos or with their umbrellas, with Singapore flags to honour Lee Kuan Yew, not smartphones. It feels so much more correct this way.
‘Lee Kuan Yew, Lee Kuan Yew’, the crowd cheered in the rain. Umbrellas were taken off – we were all wet anyway. And when the entire procession went past, we left quietly.
The rain lightened considerably just a few minutes later. It almost felt pre-planned, as though we – Singaporeans – were tested on our dedication to our founding PM. The long hours in the hot sun and sleepless nights, just to give a final bow at Parliament House. And now, heavy, heavy rain to see him off. We did it.
Ultimately, 100,000 people lined the streets today despite the wet weather. 454,687 people visited Parliament House over 70 hours (way above my initial estimates of around 300,000 when queuing at Hong Lim) – that’s just shy of half a million people. And more than a million visited community tribute sites around the island. It speaks volumes of the respect Singaporeans – and people all over the world, too – have for our founding prime minister.
It all ends today. By now, Lee Kuan Yew’s body would have been cremated, and life goes on. It has been a sad week, but it has also been an exceptional week, one where everyone could see and feel the Singapore spirit, and a week of gratitude and honour. It adds that important perspective of reflection for this year’s SG50 celebrations for all Singaporeans.
Lee Kuan Yew has said this quote which, I think, marks a fitting end to this week, and more importantly, a start to the next chapter of the Singapore story.
Thirty years ago, my colleagues, younger and more dreamy eyed, settled the words of our pledge. We did not focus our minds on our navels or we would have missed the rainbow in the sky. We pursued that rainbow and that was how we came to build today’s Singapore.
For the young, let me tell you the sky has turned brighter. There’s a glorious rainbow that beckons those with the spirit of adventure. And there are rich findings at the end of the rainbow. To the young and to the not-so-old, I say, look at that horizon, follow that rainbow, go ride it.
The sky has cleared, and it’s time to muster our spirit of adventure, to find and follow that rainbow.
Thank you Mr Lee.
Swee Life 