Office workers in the financial district buy special edition local newspapers which feature the life of the late Lee Kuan Yew, yesterday in Singapore
Singapore mourned longtime leader Lee Kuan Yew with raw emotion and a blanket of relentlessly positive coverage on its tightly scripted state television yesterday, mythologizing a man who was as respected as he was feared.
The government announced that Lee, 91, “passed away peacefully” several hours before dawn at Singapore General Hospital. The increasingly frail elder statesman was hospitalized in early February with severe pneumonia.
State TV broke away from its regular programming with a rolling hagiographic tribute to Lee’s life and achievements. In a live broadcast, one of its reporters called the death the “awful and dreaded” news. Effusive tributes flowed in from world leaders, including President Barack Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A self-proclaimed authoritarian who saw the world in stark realist terms, Lee commanded respect from Singaporeans, who this year will celebrate the country’s 50th anniversary of independence. He led multiracial Singapore with an iron grip for more than three decades until 1990, and is credited with transforming the resource-poor island into a wealthy finance and trade entrepot with low crime and little corruption.
Singapore’s government has declared seven days of national mourning, and flags will fly at half-staff on state buildings. A national holiday has not been declared, and daily life in this pragmatically commercial city of vaulting glass towers and broad, immaculate streets continues to bustle.
Still, there were tears and a deep sense of loss among Singaporeans who lionize Lee for his role in creating an oasis of stability in a region saddled with corruption, political violence and poverty. Many feel he provided them with a roof over their heads by creating a system of state-subsidized housing where the majority of Singaporeans live.
“He’s my idol,” said 55-year-old homemaker Lua Su Yean, standing near the sprawling display of flowers and cards left by Singaporeans at the hospital where Lee spent the last weeks of his life.
She said her “heart dropped” on hearing the news and got her husband to drive her to the hospital.
“He’s done such great things and there’s nothing bad I can say about him,” she said. “My children grew up listening to my stories about him, and my grandchildren as well.”
Lee’s son, current Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, struggled to hold back tears in a televised address.
Speaking in Malay, Mandarin and English, the prime minister said Lee built a nation and gave Singaporeans a proud identity.
“We won’t see another man like him. To many Singaporeans, and indeed others too, Lee Kuan Yew was Singapore,” he said.
The hearse carrying Lee’s body arrived not long after midday at the Istana government compound, where many in a crowd of several hundred people shouted “Mr. Lee Kuan Yew” and shed tears.
Under Lee and his successors, Singapore was known around the world for its strict social order, including a ban on chewing gum, restrictions on free speech, a practice of bankrupting political opponents with defamation lawsuits, and canings for crimes some countries would rule as minor. In recent years, it has become socially more liberal, and the fragmented political opposition made gains in Singapore’s last elections in 2011.
After stepping down as prime minister, Lee remained part of the Cabinet and an influential figure in Singapore and Asia.
His legacy is regarded within Singapore and abroad as substantial, but there also is recognition that a toll was exacted.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said Lee’s “tremendous” role in Singapore’s economic development is beyond doubt. “But it also came at a significant cost for human rights, and today’s restricted freedom of expression, self-censorship and stunted multi-party democracy,” he said.
There were also dissenting voices in Singapore.
“This man has put in certain structures which are certainly illiberal, anti-democratic, and his passing does not mean that they no longer survive,” said blogger Alex Au. “Effort is still needed to dismantle them.”
Tributes from world leaders highlighted Lee’s achievements.
Obama called Lee a “visionary,” saying in a statement that he was “deeply saddened” to learn of his death. Obama, who met Lee during a visit to Singapore in 2009, said his “remarkable” leadership helped build one of the most prosperous countries. Lee also was “hugely important in helping me reformulate our policy of rebalancing to the Asia Pacific,” Obama said.
Neighboring Malaysia, with which Singapore has had occasionally testy relations, said Lee’s achievements were great and his legacy assured. “Malaysia is committed to the future of our relationship with Singapore,” said Prime Minister Najib Razak. China’s Xi said Lee was a “strategist and politician widely respected by international society.”
A private wake for the Lee family was taking place yesterday and today at Sri Temasek, the prime minister’s official residence in the lush tropical grounds of the Istana compound. After that, Lee will lie in state at parliament. A state funeral is set for Sunday.
The government set up condolence boards at Parliament House and Istana and a website called Remembering Lee Kuan Yew, where people can leave messages. Stephen Wright and Jeanette Tan, Singapore, AP
quote box: lee kuan yew’s sharp words on the world, himself
Lee Kuan Yew, the autocratic founder of modern Singapore who died yesterday, never shrank from expressing his views bluntly. He was known as much for his tough talk as a pithy turn of phrase in campaign speeches, press interviews and parliamentary debates. Here are some of his oft-quoted comments:
Repression, sir, is a habit that grows. I am told it is like making love — it is always easier the second time! (Addressing colonial-era prime minister David Marshall as an opposition Peoples’ Action Party member in the Singapore Legislative Assembly, Oct. 4, 1956)
Whoever governs Singapore must have that iron in him. Or give it up. This is not a game of cards. This is your life and mine. I’ve spent a whole lifetime building this and as long as I’m in charge, nobody is going to knock it down. (Speech at a rally in Raffles Place, Singapore in 1980)
You call me a dictator. You are entitled to call me whatever you like, but that doesn’t make me one . . . do I need to be a dictator when I can win, hands down? (Quoted in an interview with the New York Times at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, 1999)
I have never been over concerned or obsessed with opinion polls or popularity polls. I think a leader who is, is a weak leader. Between being loved and being feared, I have always believed Machiavelli was right. If nobody is afraid of me, I’m meaningless. (“The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew,” 1998)
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