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Andrew Loh -
I
remember in the ’80s when I would look forward to each National Day
Rally on television. Lee Kuan Yew was gonna speak and I’d always
found him to be a great orator, someone who enthralls me each time.
I would be glued to the screen listening to every one of his words,
even to the point where if I needed to use the toilet, I would run
there and be back as soon as I can, so that I wouldn’t miss a word
he says.
But to be clear, i was never a fan of his. I just loved
listening to him speak.
Fast forward to 2010 and I can’t even bare to read what he says
anymore.
Most of what he says nowadays is irritating, shallow and most
significantly, condescending. I’ve lost count of the number of
times he has put Singaporeans down with degrading remarks, using
words and analogies including dogs, maids, daft, lazy, ignorant and
more.
While some of his supporters may try and explain that he is just
trying to inspire or urge Singaporeans to be more productive,
competitive and hardworking, I feel it actually is the contrary.
Lee Kuan Yew’s words are borne out of hubris and arrogance. And
with such overwhelming power and authority, he is fast nursing a
society which is fast becoming dysfunctional – just as any father
with such attitudes would.
It breeds deference where there should not be, where even when
he is wrong, no one dares speak up against him. Or when he makes a
declaration, no one – least of all the media – dares question or
challenge his claims.
This is where the danger lies for Singapore.
That after 50 years, we are still under the thumb of one man
who, as with all who stays in power for so long, has become a world
unto himself. And we live in this world of his, warts and all.
Nah, Mr Lee, I do not and will not subscribe to your view that
one should not retire and that one should never stop working.
Instead, I believe, unlike you, that there is more to life than
just feeding the economy beast, or being a cog in your economic
wheel.
Lee Kuan Yew is no sage and if we continue to live and believe
as he does we will all soon find that our lives have become
meaningless. That all we do is this relentless and endless pursuit
of thhis thing called “a brighter future” – a utopian future which
we never seem to be able to reach or arrive at.
This is because there is no such future.
It is the job of politicians like Lee Kuan Yew to make us
believe that there is.
Happinness and satisfaction and contentment is now. It is not in
the future. There is no need to be running after this “brighter
future” because we will never reach it.
It does not exist.
When we are able to see this, we are content with the here and
now. We realise that life is so much more. That at the end of the
day, it is the simple things which makes us happy – family,
friends, helping others, spending time with loved ones.
And we do not need “economic success” in order to be these or to
do these things.
I am happy where I am – and I am no big-time businessman, or a
top civil servant, or a great scholar, or am earning millions.
In fact, I am on the brink of being broke most of the time.
Yet, I am contented. I am happy.
I am most happy when I see my mom. When I speak to my sisters
and see them happy. When I see my nieces and nephews. Or when I
chit chat with my friends.
I am consciously aware of not being a part of this dysfunctional
family of Lee Kuan Yew. Dysfunctional to the point where we become
arrogant, self-centred, back-stabbing, competitive to the point
where we feel it is right and proper to house our foreign workers
in a cemetery, where we pay our maids such a pathetic salary, where
we even reject their request for a single day off per month, where
we hang young boys, where our suicide rates are so high, where we
cut the pay of older workers for no other reason than that they are
old.
And so on and so on.
Singapore is a sad place now. It has become a hotel. Our home
hijacked by one man who sees himself as our “father”. Indeed some
have called him so.
It is pathetic.
I hope Lee Kuan Yew would leave the stage soon.
I no longer admire him or the way he speaks or what he says.
In fact, I am convinced that he is the biggest stumbling block
to Singapore and Singaporeans achieving their full potential.
Lee Kuan Yew to me is no sage.
Indeed, he has become something of a joke to me. A sad relic of
an old man trying to feed his ego by claiming the limelight almost
on a daily basis now.
It is a sad sight indeed.
And now, whenever he comes on the telly, I would turn the telly
off or walk away.
The man is nothing but an ego trip.
