Tribute: Mr Lee Kuan Yew 1923 - 2015

Tribute: Mr Lee Kuan Yew 1923 - 2015

As you all are aware of, this is world wide news, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, one of the oldest residence of Singapore, the holder of NRIC number S0000003E has finally come to rest. The people of his generation, have already went before him and finally, after battling with the natural wear and tear of the human body, he finally has a chance to be at peace and rest.

I'm no traditional blogger, with no ability to write a proper tribute like them, nor poems, nor songs. But what I can do in my own capacity, is what I have always been doing. To give a final review of what kind of person Lee Kuan Yew has shown himself to be. I'm but a layman, but like every other layman Singaporean, this is what I know about him and what I feel about him from all the sources of information around me and the Singapore around me.

Leadership 5/5
Lee Kuan Yew was a person who worked his way up. He didn't start in a position near political power, but as a ordinary lawyer like many Singaporeans today, but he didn't have interest in money, he didn't have interest in fame, but he had interest in Singapore, and in making Singaporeans different from the rest of the world. We are not the traditional country with plenty of resources to get rich by, we are not even the country with plenty of people to utilize. But he made the most of what he could do, going around the entire Singapore to rally support for decisions and to relay confidence when the country was shaken. Look at the people and yourself and think of the aims for money, fame or property we have today, and you will know why we are not like Lee Kuan Yew. At best we want a good life for our families, but for Lee Kuan Yew, he wanted a good life for everybody and he did it.

He knew he had the influencing power to give confidence and direction to the people, and this was what he knew he had to do personally. He was a born and trained leader not through academic studies, but through discipline and the drive to lead. He was a leader who spent as much time on the ground as he spent in strategy making.

There will never be a leader like him, to do both ground work and thought work simultaneously especially if you look at how Lee Kuan Yew started out in the very beginning stages of his political career without a entire entourage to help him.

Speechcraft 5/5
If you listen to his speeches, you will notice something about this man. He speaks his mind without fear, because he knows that if you follow his direction, it will be the right direction. He speaks for his team, and makes good of his promises and is more then willing to be held accountable for them.

He speaks with fire and with emotion, because he feels that the country is as much his as much as it belongs to the people, and he knows he has the right direction to lead Singapore. And he was right. When he speaks, you can see the determination he has and the enthusiasm to make good of his words and he does this while not constantly referring to a script. For people who do speeches or plan to do speeches, if you believe in what you say, you will realise that you don't need a script, because this is your natural direction already. Lee Kuan Yew knew of the direction he would take Singapore, and was convinced and assured as time proved that he was right.

Also, respect to MR Lee Kuan Yew, who though being english educated, made it a point to learn Mandarin, dialects and Malay for the sole purpose of appealing to the crowd he is talking to. This was the sacrifice and mental energy that he expended to make sure he was perfect in speeches, and all his efforts paid off in the end.

Do we have a leader like that today? Do we still speak what is politically correct in fear of offending others? Do we make effort to learn the language of others just so that we can identify better then them? You know the answer to these questions and suffice to say, he deserves respect in the speechcraft arena.

Dedication 5/5
If you haven't, google Lee Kuan Yew's little red box which described the way he carried out his task on a daily basis. I can safely say that if you spend time surfing the net during your work hours, you are far away from how dedicated Lee Kuan Yew was to carrying out his task as a minister of Singapore. This was a person who eat, sleep and breathed Singapore. A person who dedicated almost everything to Singapore and as he famously said, his life for Singapore. A person, who stayed up late and lost sleep to make sure that his people could sleep longer, with peace and security.

You see a person whose his wife rested earlier then him, yet managed to shift his focus to Singapore and his work to keep himself going instead of breaking down benefiting no one.

He was not in it for the money and honestly, there is hardly any news that said Lee Kuan Yew misused or was extravagant in his spendings. He was truly a person who was in politics for the people, and not for himself, because he was dedicated to Singapore and the people and nothing else.

You see a person, that dared to give promises beyond death that although impossible, are strong words that not many of us dare to even imagine, let alone utter out. This was the extent of the dedication he had for Singapore.

Would our leaders today be like that? It's hard to say because none of them are like Lee Kuan Yew who spent nearly 30 years as PM of Singapore, another 14 years as SM of Singapore and 7 years as a mentor to Singapore. He didn't want to stop as long as he thought he could contribute and regardless of whether or not he did especially in his older days, his spirit and drive for Singapore can't be denied.

Foresight 5/5
Mr Lee was a leader in attitude and spirit which is all good and important, but what he also had was foresight to see what the country needed, and to lead the country in the direction to get it. This is a blessing that not many people in the world would have and share, but Singapore had the fortune to be blessed with foresight through Mr Lee and his direction.

He saw the importance of the English and Chinese language, and thanks to him, we are now able to go compete and gain economically from both powers of the world to the extent where westerners are amazed at our grasp of English and Chinese welcome us as we converse in their familiar language.

He knew what steps he had to take to lead to the economic prosperity of Singapore and this is evidenced in the Singapore you see today that stemmed from the good direction that he set right at the get go. Even more commendable was that he did this without the natural resources that other countries have.

He never forgot the importance of being green, and thus we do not have a grey urban country, but a country that has its pockets of greenery that do bring some calm to the hectic lives we live in today that will be enjoyed by us and the generation to come.

No one today has been proven to have seen as far as Mr Lee has and has created a country that is comfortable to live in whileunder his charge. And let us also remember, Mr Lee did this without the help of computers or simulations which is an even more insurmountable feat and I am doubtful anyone can do this anymore in this modern age.

Personal Touch 4.5/5
When you look at the crowds of people who are visiting him as he lay upon his state rest, you see people from all walks of life, all ages, all races, coming together as one to bid him farewell. You see the elderly, the people who directly benefited from the decisions of Lee Kuan Yew,  making their way to the city (a place that the old won't really find a reason to be in) just to say their final farewells, with tears in their eyes. They can personally testify to how their lives were changed and are grateful because the lives of their children and grand children are better, because of his sacrifice. You hear the stories from the people whom he fought for while as a lawyer, right from the start, before he started his fight for all Singaporeans. He didn't aim for GDP growth for GDP growth sake, but he aimed to give us Singaporeans a good life, a standard of living above that of the world and this resulted in the GDP growth during his time as the Prime Minister. He was a down to earth minister from the get go, and the people of his time all knew this.

When you look at Lee Kuan Yew, you don't see only a minister or a politician, giving speeches and meeting dignitaries, but you see husband and a father, living and bringing up his family the only way he knows how, which is by giving his best. He is not just some person high up, but a human who loves, just like you and me and finally he may rest, together with his wife, ashes to be mixed together, for as long as time permits.

Credits to Ashley

The only thing he lacked out of necessity, was to be gracious to people who may or may not (but in his opinion may) had the motive to harm Singapore all the way to the end which might have been a impossible task when the country he had worked so hard to achieve and build was at stake. But let's face it, Lee Kuan Yew is only human, just like all of us.

You can't hear of dedication on the personal level like him today. To esteem and remember all the moments with his wife, with ZERO issues that plague politicians all over the world today such as scandals and corruption.

Spectacle 5/5
There will never be someone else like him whose achievements are recognized all over the world even by people of stature and authority. There will never be any chance to make a difference as big as him in Singapore, because we have already travelled the entire path from 3rd to 1st world and are already in front of the pack. There is no longer as large a developmental gap left in this world for Singapore to bridge as we grew exponentially faster to catch up with the front. There will never again be someone, who can touch the hearts of the Singaporean people, uniting them regardless of race, language or religion to respect even if they did not agree, with the direction LKY took us.There will never be anyone else, as synonymous to Singapore as Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of modern Singapore.

Overall 

Leadership: 5 (A leader who led by example, coming from the bottom up)
Speechcraft: 5 (A persuasive man who spoke his mind and walked his talk)
Dedication: 5 (A person who gave up everything for his people, including his life)
Foresight: 5 (A person who made Singapore the way it is, respected by the world)
Personal Touch: 4.5 (A person who was a father and husband and taught us how to be a good father and husband too)
Spectacle: 5 (A person who is likely the only one in the world with such an achievement of bringing up a country like Singapore, from 3rd to 1st world.)

Overall: 4.9 (There's no doubt about it. Lee Kuan Yew will be remembered in Singapore as the person who led and gave the direction for the development of the country and more importantly, succeeded. He did this from the bottom up, starting with small feats that garnered him respect, worked with all sorts of people to push his agenda, handled setbacks and made personnel sacrifices, all for the country that he loved and the people of that country Singapore. There will be no one like him but rightly so, because there is no one with his leadership, speechcraft, dedication and foresight, matched with his personal touches that made him so human to the people he served. Singaporeans have much to appreciate and be grateful for and the best way to do this is to serve with the spirit that Lee Kuan Yew has served, to the best of our abilities. Majulah Singapura!)

RIP : LKY

Disclaimer: This post is written with information obtained from the net and research and are accurate to the best of the author's knowledge. There is no intent to offend any party, political or otherwise. The author merely wishes to pen down his tribute, at this significant juncture of Singapore's history, to Lee Kuan Yew in the most appropriate way that he knows how to and has the utmost respect for the accomplishments of Mr Lee