Time flies indeed.
Yesterday marks the 10th anniversary of the passing of our late Minister Mentor, the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew (LKY).
Although the late LKY was a well known, well respected and much loved statesman worldwide, back home in Singapore, few people can claim to know him personally and for the vast majority of Singaporeans, they either knew him only through reading the news or watching him on television, social media and/or saw him speak at rallies in our early years of independence.
Singapore is thriving and prosperous today thanks in large parts to the the foundations that the late LKY and his colleagues laid during our early years be it HDB, PSA, SAFTI, JTC, EDB and many, many more.
We are extremely lucky to have survived when we were most vulnerable and facing huge dangers because we had lion leadership in our early years of independence when the odds were stacked extremely high against us, our neighbours were unfriendly and the British troops were withdrawing….
Every single one of our pioneer ministers was a ‘lion’, so to speak whether the person was LKY, Goh Keng Swee, Hon Sui Sen, S. Rajaratnam, Toh Chin Chye or Lim Kim San etc. Newly independent Singaporeans were a bunch of sheep led by lions.
Today, despite having inherited much, I consider our political leadership to be a mongrel leadership.
In remembrance of the late LKY and so much that he had done for Singapore, I personally hope that his little wish for his house at 38 Oxley Road to be demolished be honoured after his daughter is no longer staying there. And his daughter is no longer staying there!
He had made that so clear on many occasions both in private and in public. It must reflect poorly and shamefully on us as a people if such a reasonable and personal wish of such an outstanding national leader who had contributed and committed a lifetime of service to our nation cannot be granted.
There is seriously no need for whatever Founders Memorial lalala. Building one will be extremely frivolous spending and a waste of our hard-earned money by the pap government.
As long as Singapore continues to grow, be successful, safe, thriving, relevant to the world and opportunities abound for our people, that would be our greatest glowing and living memorial and tributes to our founding generation of pioneer ministers, men and women.
Think.
Simon Lim
