On The 25 Mar 2015, I made an effort to take a trip to J link, the nearest place I could go to offer my condolences for Mr. Lee (since I do not have the time to visit parliament house to pay my respect.
I reached the place around 1810hours. I queued up to get a small black ribbon ( the crowd was pretty small at that time ( probably all gone to parliament house??). it took me one minute to walk in and pay my respect to the elderly, and the other 10 minutes or so watching TV (about The Struggles Mr. Lee faced during the early days of Singapore ), the content was relatively similar to watch I saw on Channel 8 . lastly , I left a note thanking Mr. Lee for his contribution in one of the memorial books and left .
The word I have been thinking is the word “Legacy “, or to be precise, the Legacy Mr. Lee left behind. There were people believing that without LKY, Singapore world have perished or had remained as a fishing Village. Although LKY done a great deal for Singapore), but to say Singapore cannot survive without one particular man is simply weird. Fortunately (or otherwise), history don’t repeat itself, thus there’s no way we can know how far Singapore can progress if Mr. Lee wasn’t the PM, Will it get worse? Or will it gets better? Only GOD knows. Nevertheless, I still felt very fortunate to have Mr. Lee on the Helm as PM.
After a long week of mourning, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew finally left us. The deeds he has done, whether good or bad, had become history. The more important part is what Legacy did LKY left behind. There is a Chinese saying, 人死留名，豹死留皮, when a man dies, what kind of spirit or virtues does he leave behind??
1) Anti corruption campaign, I found this part as the best merit I see in Mr. Lee which is lacking in many country leaders. In many countries, a country that cannot go forward or probably even goes backward in the result of corruption. Mr. Lee is able to stand by his anti – corruption stance and even walk it (by refusing millions of dollars of bribes in the early 1960s). This is exactly why Singapore is able to prosper due to the right ethics being brought in way from the start.
2) Racial harmony, Mr. Lee was right to promote racial harmony (whether he exactly walk the talk is rather controversial), as we see in riots in other countries due to racial intolerance. Our HDB policy had integrated certain amount of Chinese, Malays and Indians, allowing us to understand each others beliefs. As a Chinese, I was rather grateful to LKY initiated policy that I come to know more about Malays and Indians
3) Cheap housing for the public. This is another plus point for MR Lee in his early years. People at that time can afford to buy a house and fully pay for the installments in less than 10 years. Although this is mainly the credit of Mr. Lee’s colleague (Mr. Lim Kim San), but it is also Mr. Lee credit for using the right people. Unfortunately nowadays, people need to do installments up to 50 years for buy a house probably the same or smaller than the house in the 70s.
4) Sacrificial for public spirit. During the early days, LKY was selfless, and had helped a lot of people (particular the labor Unions in the late 1950s and early 1960s). he and his cabinet ministers are doing a lot for the low salaries they are getting and people are giving them support ( by voting in Pap for many years). But things start to change, when Mr. Lee started to enrich himself with high pay raise over the years, resentment gradually increase as well. The reason behind the pay raise given by Mr. Lee is that High salary will entice more talent to join public service. I cannot say if this sentence is wrong, but when we look at the substance of the ministers nowadays (and the kind of mistakes they make); I seriously doubt Mr. Lee’s belief. While the salaries is in Millions, but PM Lee (junior) had found more difficulties getting talent. I seriously think high salaries erode public spirit.
Policy making wise, it’s hard to say whether it is a plus point for Mr. Lee (or a minus one). I sincerely believe Mr. Lee intention is good at the time when decision was made, but rather when side effects came in ( example of 2 children policy ), Mr. lee failed to acknowledge his part of the mistake . The privatisation issue, the GRC systems etc are some policy we found hard to consume.
I was also baffled when Mr. Lee mentions “what wrong with making more money “(on the COE issue). Is Singapore fast becoming a company rather then a nation? When Mr. Lee’s opinion that aljunied resident will need to repent for 5 years (when they voted Workers party) that several people that I know was pretty upset for. Isn’t election about voting a better party?
On the final thought, although Mr. Lee made some mistake here and there, but I believe his good legacy had indeed propel Singapore to the state we have now
Looking forward, I hope the government would strive to improve on the good legacy and amend those not so well. So that Singapore could move ahead together as a nation, and lives made more affordable for all Singaporeans
讲到自已，日子还是一样吧。多五天就是
春敏生日(四月三日)，大概不能送她礼物了，只能在心中祝福她，希望她婚姻美满，早生贵子吧
什麽都要看放得下，一个人也要很开心
当天早上，我们吃了早餐，便载车(花了20月的晟 day licence)前往博物馆 (主要是看李光耀记念馆，如果不去看的话，超过6月28日就结束了。) 到博物馆已是十点十五分，总以为会很大的地方，结果走了10分钟就走完了。其他的地方也实在没有什麽展览可以看的。只有新加坡700年的展览比较有东西看。进去走了30分钟，体会到新加坡的成就得来不易。都是先辈们努力的结果。让我更学会感恩。通过李光耀的展览，他教导了我们(新加坡人)学习自立根生，学会克苦耐劳的精神。这次的行程不算白来吧。本来还想去花柏山走一下，但外面开始下雨，不得已只好打消念头。这次的carpark 竟然要7.50 元(1010-1210)，感觉贵了好一些。
之后，我们去到 garden by the bay。之前有和朋友去过，但并没有真正的走到。
这一次比较会用时间去走走。因此第一个感觉是那里能走的地方可真不小，感觉一天是走不完的。之前有下大雨，但我们走的时候，雨已经变小了，天气也很凉。
我们一路走到金沙城。一路的风景都不错吧。那些花钱的地方，我们都没有进去看。但我二姨有进赌场看一下(我和母亲在外面等)。那里的商店大多卖的都是名牌货，不是我们小市民买的起的，只能 window shopping 了。走到1530分才回到原来的地方(走到脚酸)，才发现其实有接览服务(只需2元)，下次有机会可以坐接览巴士吧。
之后，和我二姨去游车河一下，才去东南西北吃晚餐(第一次吃佛跳牆)，之后才载我二姨去车站，结束一天的旅行。
回想一天的旅行，感觉还好吧。新加坡也有些地方没有走过，或许就该花时间(自已) 走走。只要学得到东西，就不用一直希望去到很远的地方(旅行)。我生日也这样的方式去旅行(去植物圆？)。現在的我，看完「北京」的旅行书，多兩天要改看「东京」的旅行书了。感覺旅行就足夠了
一个人也要很开心
慧臺
