Just now i was going to say that i
read everything LKY wrote
and
almost everything written about him that's available in
my library in Oz lol
Leaving Home, Mother
[1]
But oh the demands you
make
on us
Singaporeans!
Since you didn’t choose
us
but we chose you
(most of us, at any
rate
and we will have that
choice)
your demands shall be
commands.
They shall be
observed:
the school’s daily
litany
five mornings
saluting
five stars and a
crescent;
our young men shall bear
arms
to deter unnamed
enemies;
we shall accept as
treasonable
strikes not in the national
interest;
Southeast
Asia’s cleanest
city
shall be Asia’s cleanest
city;
we shall enlarge the
airport
for the Jumbos
and develop
Sentosa
but only for the
tourists;
our already low
birthrate
shall further
decline;
the world’s second busiest
port
shall become the world’s
busiest port;
we shall keep our hair
short,
we shall continue to view
Art
as an adjunct to
Culture
serving
politics.
And me? Knowing
you
Knowing you demand acts,
not gestures,
I chose a medium not so
cool
to spread your message
hot
from the repetition and
elaboration
of your likewise
leaders.
After two years, hoarse
with belief
reeling from the nearness
of you
Supersonic
Singapore
I thought it best to opt
out awhile
the better to view you from
afar.
[1] J.
Minchin, No Man Is An Island: A
Study of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew (North Sydney: Allen &
Unwin, 1986), 238, quoting Robert Yeo, And Napalm Does Not Help
(1977), 24-25.
