Tribute to Mr Lee Kuan Yew (part 2) - Family man and country man

When I saw the live footage of the gun carriage leaving Istana, I felt a wave of sadness wash over me. This place had been his office and sometimes, private residence for fifty years. And now, he was in leaving Istana for the very last time, in a coffin. The footage focused on his coffin, and as I looked at it, it was hard to cope with the loss.

  This was the guy shouting MERDEKA. This was the guy giving so many wise speeches, giving people a sense of pride that singapore didn't belong to a single community, but to all of us.This was the guy working so hard for decades to transform our country into what it is now. This was the guy fervently speaking to the people at rallies. This was the guy who made SO much sense, be it talking in parliament, or talking to citizens. This was the leader who walked the talk, struck chords with people and rallied them to work together to create a singapore to be proud of, and he was now lying a coffin, never to awake again. Seeing photos of his younger days connecting with other politicians, or giving wise speeches to the massive crowds, I think this made me really sad because I would never get to hear him speak again and he would never get to speak again, except through past videos. There'll NEVER be a man like him again. His death means the passing of an era. He is really gone. But then, a part of me tells me that this is inevitable. 

  We didn't lose Mr Lee Kuan Yew to anything, but to the reality of life. 

  He gained the respect of so many politicians, from late Margaret Thatcher, to Barack Obama, to Chinese leaders, Henry Kissinger, Ban Ki-Moon etc. They were all awed by how he managed to transform Singapore and make it successful in just 50 years. They say it takes 100 years to build a successful nation, and Mr Lee took half of that to change a weak, small country. In the words of Margaret Thatcher,  there was NO PRIME MINISTER she admired more than Lee Kuan Yew and she considered him a beyond outstanding leader. She often diverted her flights to singapore just to be able to speak to Lee Kuan Yew, whom she considered a great friend. 

  I am no fan of Mr Lee, or some diehard patriot. I just feel that it is necessary to recognize him for all that he has done for us. I just feel very strongly that Mr Lee deserves to be honored the best he can be. He is a man of wisdom and wise words, and his speeches are very very charismatic and has so much logic. Listening to his speeches, I am full of respect for Mr Lee Kuan Yew. 

  He put singapore on the world stage as a nation to watch. He took over during tumultuous times but had millions of lives to account for and hence, gritted his teeth and pushed through, no matter how hard it was. Of course, we will never know how hard it was for HIM. If given a chance, I would really loved to have a personal conversation with Mr Lee. I want to ask him:

"What did you see in singapore that made you want to take over? You could be a successful lawyer with your wife and live life of comfort overseas, but you didn't, you chose the hard route, taking over a country struggling for survival, a country which was written off by other countries, deemed HOPELESS, no chance."

  He inspired thousands of people and touched their hearts and impacted their lives, one way or another.

  I respected Mr Lee Kuan Yew in the past, but I didn't really know what he had exactly done, except that he was our 'founding father'. But ever since his death, I am full of respect for Mr Lee Kuan Yew and the documentaries played throughout almost all the channels have helped me gain insight into how Mr Lee rallied the nation and transformed Singapore.

  Mr Lee's dedication to the nation is evident everywhere, the blocks of houses, the clean rivers and waterways we have, the schools we receive our education in, the office buildings helping to generate the economy etc. looking at photos of past and present, I really cannot believe how much we have progressed as a nation. In A GENERATION. 

  I am very sure that my life would be very different if not for you. I probably wouldn't be in such a clean, non-corrupted, prosperous and vibrant country. I would have led a totally different life. YOU, gave the once fledgling nation hope. With a goal in mind, you made a VISION become REALITY

  We owe Mr Lee Kuan Yew a debt of gratitude that cannot be fully REPAID, but can be HONOURED. He has left a lasting legacy with his capable governance and we will always remember Mr Lee Kuan Yew as our founding father. He may be gone, but he will live on in our hearts forever. He will go down in history forever. I hope you has a great life with Mrs Lee in heaven. Rest In Peace, Mr Lee Kuan Yew.

  And here are some of my favorite quotes and sayings by Mr Lee Kuan Yew:

-  SPRUCING up and greening Singapore with trees all over the island was a key economic strategy from Day One, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said. In order to differentiate the country from its larger neighbours, one of his first tasks on becoming Prime Minister was to develop a Garden City with good infrastructure and telecommunications.

- To woo investors from developed countries, 'we had to make this a First World oasis in a Third World region'

- 'you can't just plant a tree and walk away. The tree will die'

- This is my country, this is my life, this is my people. You will trample over us, over our dead bodies. We dug our toes in, and built a nation'

- The tough part was 'to get people to change from Third World to First World behaviour' and this led to 'endless campaigns' to tell people 'not to bring chickens and pigs into high-rise (buildings), not to pee in elevators' and above all 'not to steal the plants'. It took 30 or 40 years, but finally Singapore has reached the stage where its people feel a sense of ownership for the environment. 

- 'Those who believe that when I left the government as Prime Minister, that I have gone into permanent retirement, really should have their heads examined'

Tribute to Mr Lee Kuan Yew (part 1) - Vision to Reality

  Some leaders change for the worst after being elected into power.

  Some leaders flee their country when the going gets tough, when it seems like the end of the country is imminent.

  Some leaders only push policies that they feel will boost their popularity amongst the people, but does no actual good to the country, to the nation, to the citizens, eventually.

  Some leaders, fueled by greed and hunger for power, take to under-the-table money transactions, without a care about their people, only wanting to benefit themselves. 

  I am proud to say, my founding father, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, is none of the above. In fact, he has done so much for this nation and it's people, that we find it hard to repay him. He was a remarkable and extremely capable leader. He never gave in to temptations or bribery even when corruption was rife then. He upheld his integrity and kept to his morals. 

  All his life, he dedicated it to the building of singapore. It is indeed my honor to have him as my founding father, my first prime minister. He transformed singapore, from a small fishing port with hardly any bilateral relations to other countries, to one now respected, prosperous and a thriving metropolitan. 

  He was in-charge of Tanjong Pagar for 6 decades, choosing to represent it as he wanted to fight alongside the trade union workers and be their voices, advocating for better pay and working conditions.

  It makes me proud when I see other politicians, like Obama, Ban Ki-Moon, Tony Abott, Margaret Thatcher and many more say so many wonderful things about Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew. Marveling over the fact that singapore could progress so much under Mr Lee Kuan Yew, about how average incomes increase by 100 times under his rule, by how we became a country with world-class facilities from a barely surviving country just out of Malaysia, without any resources. It was a fight to stay afloat in this entire world. But under Lee Kuan Yew, we made it. He never gave up or ran away, leaving us to fend for ourselves. He told us: I am not here to play somebody else's game. I have a few million lives to account for. Singapore WILL survive. 

  He made many bold promises. People wondered if he could fulfil them. They were skeptical. He told them Singapore would be a metropolis, a global hub in future. They told them not one, not two, but EVERYONE in future would have houses to live in and no longer had to stay in dirty and crowded squatters. He told them we would survive after separation despite having nothing. He was extremely confident of his words. Imagine if HE himself was unsure of our survival and shaken, if he himself wasn't even certain that we would survive, would the PEOPLE believe him? 

  And he made sure he delivered on these promises. All of them. He wasn't NATO - no action talk only.

  He devoted his whole life to building this nation. He never asked for anything in return. We were once just a small red dot on the world map, but he made us a SHINING STAR, a country well-known for its success story of transformation in the modern world. 

  He cried for us when we were forced out of Malaysia. He knew little resources and an economy that was so weak would render us defeated and struggling for survival. He cried. But after it all, he grit his teeth, gathered his team of politicians, set in place law and policies, got the economy working by providing jobs to citizens,  had a citizen armed force to help defend Singapore and tirelessly worked every single day, every waking moment to make Singapore a better nation for generations to come. His efforts paid off. Schools were built, flats were constructed for people, the economy gradually improved, lifes under Mr Lee Kuan Yew improved tremendously. 

  He was often critisized for ruling Singapore with an iron fist, with so many laws in place, like fines for seemingly minute things like littering. Imagine a country without law. Imagine if you walk on the streets one day and see rubbish strewn all over. Is this the kind of country YOU want to live in? Yes he was strict with laws. If he had not done so, would anyone put Mr Lee in high regard? Imagine OUR country without strict fines, and now ask yourself, is this the country YOU want to live in, with no law and order? Ultimately, these laws benefit us indirectly, one way or another. He had good reasons for his strict laws.

  Yes his policies were not always well-liked. But that's what a politician have to face. No matter how good the policy sounds, there would be two sides to the reactions, good and bad. Mr Lee Kuan Yew never made policies he felt would boost his popularity or gain him more votes. Instead, the basis of his policies were always to ensure the people would benefit from his policies and that eventually, this country would grow, prosper and succeed. And we have to be grateful for that. Imagine a politician only making policies based on how it would help him gain popularity and favour from the people. Such politicians are destined to fail. 

E.g. the government granted some couples to have a third child, but how do they determine if one is ready for another child? Through the income tax paid. This way, those who could pay taxes were allowed to have a third child. This set us apart from other countries. Instead of totally banning a third child, our government gave it to those who could afford it. This way, our population wouldn't be affected that greatly either. And those who could afford to keep a third child, was allowed to. It wasn't a total unfair ALL-BAN kind of thing. 

  He sent a message that singapore, albeit a small little country, was not to be underestimated. He made sure other countries knew that singapore was no pushover. In the Michael Fay incident, he never relented to letting Fay go scot-free after vandalizing singapore property, even when US president Bill Clinton stepped in and demanded Lee Kuan Yew to set Fay free. Lee Kuan Yew put his foot down and was firm, punishing Michael Fay by caning anyway. Imagine if Mr Lee had just relented and let Fay go, what message was he sending? Mr Lee's message was clear as day: 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do'. Just because we were small and weak, it didn't mean we would condone such acts, much less be SUBMISSIVE to global superpowers just because we were small and defenceless. 

  He was always humble and never ashamed or afraid to learn even in old age. Even at 90, he had a string of tuitions. Why, you may ask? He's already retired! He could just rest and relax, no need to involve himself in politics anymore! But he believed in lifelong learning. The first thing Lee did when he took over was build a defense force. As such, Lee turned to Israel and Switzerland for examples of how a small country should go about defending itself. The next think he did was ensure the safety and security of the country and provide a stable legal system.

DID YOU KNOW : Lee Kuan Yew had dyslexia, which made it more difficult for him to learn to read, spell and process words than for other people. Nevertheless, he still succeeded in speaking four languages fluently – picking up the Chinese dialects Mandarin and Hokkien in his thirties due to the fact that his formal education when he was younger had covered only English and Malay.

  Mr Lee Kuan Yew often raised key questions in parliament, questioning policies and always seeking to  improve policies. When everyone was flustered about how SARS would affect corporations and businesses, Mr Lee raised a question which touched the hearts of many: "what about the lives of taxi drivers?" taxi drivers relied on passengers to make a living but hardly anyone wanted to move around Singapore or even step OUT of their houses. He was macro AND micro in thinking. Besides thinking about how to improve businesses in corporations which had suffered because of outbreak of SARS, he thought for the common man in singapore, like taxi drivers whose incomes relied heavily upon the availability of commuters.  

  He had foresight. Incredible amounts of it. He chose English as the first language for singaporeans to learn. Why? English was almost a universal language in the world, and if we didn't learn English, we would have fewer opportunities if we wanted to go abroad to study / work and cooperation with the world wouLD be greatly hampered. He introduced bilingualism. Yes, you and I often complain we hate learning a second language, Mandarin. But imagine where we would be without mandarin. Mr Lee knew China was a rising country, and should Singaporeans ever want to expand businesses into China or travel to China for educational purposes, we would always have an ADVANTAGE. It was all foresight Mr Lee had for this nation and its people. Ultimately he only wanted to see us benefit. To him, language was the key to cultural self-identity, and he didn't want singaporeans to be so westernised to the point of losing their roots.

  An example of exactly how devoted he was to Singapore's development was the story of the red box. If you haven't heard of it, Mr Lee always carried around with him a red box, in it contained anything from communications with foreign leaders, observations that a tree in the Istana grounds was ailing, speech drafts, observations about the financial crisis, and even notes about rubbish seen in the Singapore river eg even when he was in the car, when he saw trees in poor conditions, he would note it down and put the note inside his box, reminding himself that he had to do something about it. What really touched my heart were 2 stories :

1) Mr Lee just had an operation and when he woke up, the first thing he wanted was the red box. Nurses said patients his age would have preferred to rest after an operation. Whats more, he had retired from politics already and had no reason to continue working so hard. He was 90. His devotion and love for Singapore is evident in this example, whereby he was constantly thinking of ways to improve our country. 

2) Mr Lee was in hospital for chest infection in 2010 when his wife died. After paying his respects, he took a stroll along singapore river alone to mourn. Then, he saw a piece of trash floating on the water, and signalled for his secretary to take a photo of it and put the photo in his red box, so he could think of ways to make our country cleaner. Even when he was mourning. Even when Mrs Lee was lying in state.

  He pushed for charitable initiatives, like Lee Kuan Yew scholarship award, which helped countless numbers of students pursue higher education despite having financial difficulty. Many thanked Mr Lee for his policy of meritocracy too. He set up Mendaki, a self-help subsidy group for Malays who were financially weak, to receive help from such foundations. 

  Also, he took part in his own initiatives, walking the talk. One of his widely-known initiatives was the mass clean-up of Singapore River. He recognized that the river was the vital bloodline of singapore and that it was extremely polluted, hence there was a clean-up campaign. Mr Lee said: “It should be a way of life to keep the water clean. To keep every stream, culvert and rivulet, free from pollution."

"The Ministry of Environment should make it a target: In 10 years let us have fishing in the Singapore River and Kallang River. It can be done," he added. Indeed, in 10 years, the state of the river has improved tremendously. 

  

  

Cafe hopping x orchard shopping pt. 1!! (super late post)

  Hello guys!! Super eggcited to share with you cafe hopping and shopping adventure yesterday !!! Met Wei Lin, Therese and Valerie at a holland V at 11am. :-) they gave me my advanced Christmas and birthday presents hehehe thank you you guys rock my sockz RLLY grateful CUZ you guys are so sweet !!! 

  We went to Gastronomia first for light lunch and all. The food, though RLLY overpriced, is worth paying for I guess CUZ it's damn good. We had 2 pizzas - smoked salmon and mushroom !!! Both were each around 8 bucks. I bought chocolate-dipped peppermint flavoured meringues and cheesy berry crumble. :-) the berry dessert was 6.20 for an average-sized cup and the meringues were 8 bucks. I LOVE peppermint and normally the meringues I come across are basically just colored ones and not flavoured, besides being sweet. Hence when I saw their Christmas special peppermint chocolate meringues I got RLLY happy and bought them. Truly, they don't disappoint the taste buds hehehe !!! And the berry dessert was good too but a bit too cheesy for me :-) overall it was $$$ well spent ; ) I wanted to try their chocolate cakes or CRODOS / CRONUTS but I was super full already. Do check out their CRODOS (mix of crossaunts and donuts) CUZ it has very good reviews :  ) 

  And they sell SLABS of meringues with flavoured like cookies & creme, lemon, cranberry strawberry, chocolate etc which is super cool HAHAHA it RLLY is like a slab priced at 5 bucks !!! They sold salted toffee snowman macaroons which were rather huge and cost 11 bucks!! Tho I RLLYwanted to try it but I had already spent quite a lot just at one cafe so no : ( their cakes and desserts look RLLY appetizing hehehe :-) they sold cupcakes too but since we were heading to a Plain Vanilla later on we decided to skip the cupcakes. Then we went outside of Gastronomia to take Polaroid pictures !!! I especially like the one with Wei Lin which Therese took CUZ lighting V NICE and background super pretty too !!!! :-) 

  We headed to Plain Vanilla for cupcakes mmmMMMMmm. This was my second time going hehehe but as long as I drop by Holland V or Tiong Bahru I would definitely go buy them CUZ they are amazing????!??! I bought red velvet and white chocolate peppermint !!! :-) then we headed to Craft Bakery & Cafe for a drink. Heard their coffees are their speciality but I didn't feel like having coffee so I had sparkling sweet orange juice which was OVERPRICED at 5 bucks for a small bottle :( I finished my water and got super thirsty so I bought the juice CUZ even their mineral sparkling water is priced almost the same lmao so of course it's more worth it to get the fizzy juice. Had our cupcakes there too !! The white chocolate peppermint one was white chocolate frosting (the texture isn't cream like Twelve Cupcakes and personally I like the granulated frosting kind) !! The frosting was RLLY good and the cupcake had a tinge of peppermint which wasn't too overwhelming :-) The red velvet one was RLLY good CUZ its like their classic there and I super love their cheese frosting !! its not too cheesy and overpowering CUZ I hate stuff with too much cheese in there.

  Headed to Orchard after that and then I met Nic CUZ we had to do christmas shopping yay !! Next part in another blog post CUZ if not everything combined will be too long! :-) 

> LOOK OUT FOR THE NEXT BLOG POST ; ) <

___ this was during the hols HAHAHAH its a super late post srry!!

Christmas Wonderland !!!!

  Went with my parents to Christmas Wonderland @ Gardens By The Bay 2 days ago!! :-) the admission to gardens but the bay is free but to enter the flower dome there's an admission price of 12 bucks, but there's a package for cloud forest and flower dome which costs 20 bucks damndamndamn however we didn't have time to visit both so we went flower dome only!

  It was RLLY RLLY HOT so when we entered flower dome, it was like a respite from the heat bc it was super cooling ( but then it became RLLY cold after a while ) !!!! We took many photos and the flowers there were RLLY PREETZ there were hibiscus, daisies and many more. There was this candy factory which cheated my feelings bc I thought it was a legit candy shop but it was just some decoration structure thing you couldn't even go into the 'shop' :-(

 after that we rested a while inside the flower dome but it got V cold. The place was quite huge so after we were done we headed for dinner @ Bakerzin! I had this creamy smoked salmon penne but I was too hungry so no photos hehe sorry. It wasn't evEN SMOKED SALMON IT WAS LIKE cooked salmon what ;29238{*<,!}*{}^,!£~|={€..! My dad had carbonara while my mum had this Christmas set consisting of iced mocha, a small cake and miso cod fish!!

  The lights at night were RLLY RLLY SUPER GORGEOUS WTF???

  We took the OCBC skyway which was 5 bucks per person. It was pretty scary at times bc it was quite high up @ 22 meters and the bridge was swaying ever so slightly when the wind blew and the bridge was only suspended by strong ropes connected to the top of the Supertree Gr0ve! But the view from atop was amazing bc there were lights fr all the structures and there was a Christmas market below so everything was pretty much lighted!! :-)

 the view of MBS, Esplanade and the Flyer was spectacular too!! 1!1!1! When we made our way down, we went to some RLLY BRIGHT AND LIGHTED structure and waited for abt 10 minutes for the snow HAHAHAH. Basically it's just foam and it was V V choking aft a whiLE. 

Went to some tents bc Isetan was having some Christmas novelty gift sales + there was Japanese food there too!! Ice cream for 5 buckSSSS RLLY EXPENSIVE THO and some Sapporo ramen and all. Got 2 sets of DIY Diamond Art hehehe and a RLLY SUPER CUTE korean tumblr !!!!!! The drawings on the tumblr v cute and casual street-style like and very korean-ish. It's the kind you can bring out w/o having to be laughed at for being childish despite the drawings and design lmao.

  Went to the European-style markets aft that basically just a lot of small 'huts' where people sell food, bags,Yankee candles ( wtf I want ehh ) and many other stuff!! Saw the Travelling C.O.W ( chef on wheels ) @ the Christmas market and they sold food like truffle Mac and cheese balls, chocolate coated apples, candied apples etc. wanted to try the cheese ballzzz but was super full so I tried candied apples!!! It was V swEET but when the syrup finally melted and I could actually chew on the apple, it was RLLY juicy and yummy !!!!!! It was 5 bucks tho kinda RLLY expensive but it was so gooooood ehehehe!!

  Great day at Christmas Wonderland yezzz and thank you for reading this !!! :-) will write another time ; )