SINGAPORE, March 30 – Separation from Malaysia was Lee Kuan Yew’s greatest “moment of anguish”, but it also proved to be the turning point in Singapore’s fortunes, said his son and the island republic’s current prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong.
Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding prime minister championed independence for Singapore through ‘Merger with Malaya’, to form a new Federation of Malaysia.
“He worked tirelessly to bring this about, and succeeded.
“Unfortunately, soon afterwards the merger failed, and we were expelled from Malaysia,” Hsien Loong said in his eulogy during his father’s state funeral service Sunday.
From the ashes of separation, he said Kuan Yew built a nation.
He said the easiest thing to do would have been to appeal to Chinese voters alone.
Singapore would not be based on race, language or religion, but on fundamental values
multi-racialism, equality, meritocracy, integrity and rule of law.
Kuan Yew had declared: This is not a country that belongs to any single community; it belongs to all of us.
Hsien Loong said Kuan Yew insisted on keeping the mother tongues, even as English became the common working language.
Above all, he said Kuan Yew was a fighter.
In crises, he said when all seemed hopeless, Kuan Yew was ferocious, endlessly resourceful, firm in his resolve and steadfast in advancing his cause.
“Because he never wavered, we didn t falter. Because he fought, we took courage and fought with him, and prevailed.
“Thus, Mr Lee took Singapore from Third World to First,” noted Hsien Loong.
– BERNAMA
