Anyway, this whole issue about fear and respect is just ridiculous.

Is he respected only because he is? Can there be fear if we do not fear him? Problem is, we gave him the respect, likewise with the fear.

And now that we fear, we ascribe that negativity in our emotions to him. Now that he’s doing less, we demand to retract the respect we had once given him.

Adding on to that, we’re judging him based on relativity: how much he has done in the past, and how much less he is doing now (though still much more than every of us)

Think: is that fair to him?

I do not question my love for This Man who built the nation in her early years. Neither do I question anyone’s. I do not place expectations on everyone’s faith towards him as the father of Singapore, but I do hope that we’ll be fair in our judgement of him. Even as the years go by.

I fully agree that we should all, from now on, never try to carry his balls and kowtow to him just because of his stature and status.

Very appropriate, timely and well written article. It strikes a chord inside me. I have been wanting to write such things about him and us (Singaporeans) but you have done it so nicely and superbly for me. Thanks.

This Old Man is now hampering Singapore’s progress to its next height, perhaps due to his personal fear of losing his own legacy or being paranoid of the inevitable downfall of the PAP in the future.

The glaring sad thing is not so much of the Old Man being respected and deferred but the irony of all the top cabinet leaders and member of parliaments keeping quiet about the obvious mistake that he has made regarding our national pledge as just an “aspiration”. This incident shows the cowardice and unthinking behavior of our top leaders who are supposedly very outstanding. It demonstrates a very serious weakness in our system. This is tragic!

Collectively, as a people, we must from now on refrain from giving him too much due respect. We should only accord respect where respect is due and accord deference only when we have considered that it will be good for our country’s future.

In fact, I once admired and respected him especially in the early years but no more during the last 15 years. His high-handedness, that he has again demonstrated, in demolishing a possible up-and-coming challenge to his ideas and the PAP’s archaic modus operandi is the very thing that really puts me off. (Sometimes I wonder whether he feels as though he is the King or Emperor.)

I sincerely believe that his continue presence in the political arena will do the PAP and Singapore more damage than good. I think he should gracefully step out of power and influence now if he truly believed in the good future of Singapore.

I would even go one step further. In order to facilitate a New Singapore to sprout, not only he should totally step down and out of the scene, but also all his close relatives, e.g. sons, daughters, in-laws, etc, should try to steer away from any political influence/power as far as possible.

For the good of Singapore, we should shake off the “ghosts” of the Lee era as early as possible because it has now become a stumbling block. And this is very necessary.

For a start, as you have suggested, we should stop deferring to the Man (including his family members) unnecessarily.

Seriously, it’s common sense that MM Lee has to be respected for the good things that he’s done but not worshiped by the population. Then again, when was common sense a virtue in the Singapore political arena.

Let’s look at the most common argument when it comes to MM Lee – He has allot of wisdom and experiences that can benefit Singapore so he needs to have a cabinate rank. We all accept that as if it were the gospel.

I don’t deny that he has experience and is able to contribute. I say, if he’s still able to contribute to Singapore he should. But I don’t think it’s common sense that he should remain in cabinate. Surely he can do things like write books and give talk shows. He can give lectures as former US Presidents often do or be sent to handle certain diplomatic missions. Given his closeness to the current cabinate, it cannot be common sense to think that he needs to be in the cabinate to give advice to the ministers.

If anything, it speaks poorly of our Ministers that we still MM Lee in the cabinate. It’s something the powers that be should consider.

Kaffein

If not for his political purges, Singapore would be a better place to live in.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20090903/tap-as-singapore-lee-kuan-yew-election-832f4ab.html

“But if we don’t find a good team in the election after that, and the opposition gets a good team together, we are at risk.”

to miss the forest for a tree… :(

can someone tell me that means if their team lousy, they also won’t step down? like a familiar junta…

never think 1st than act, old habits die hard…

MM is cold and lack of compassion, closer to a transformer than a mankind.

But, he is the product of the past, struggled with and out-maneuvered the communists, his tactics might even able to beat the KGB..

In comparison, SM Goh seems a better people’s leader, till the bubble burst when he fell well short of people’s expectation and become a By-product of MM

tang, today’s shit time have his story of making suggestion to american on the chinese who study and work there.

well, as usual!

my sentitment on him 100% same as yours.

Now that i have matured in age and in thought (i hope!), after seeing how power is used to quashed any form of dissent, how differing views are scoffed at publicly, how any form of critiicsm is brought to courts, how pride and self praise is often publcised, how press is silenced, nepotism, how unfair politics have become, etc, etc, if i were to write another essay now on whom i admire most, sorry it would no longer be LKY.

Somehow, there is something that is sorely lacking in him that i find disillusioned over the years and that is compassion.

I think compassion is what make us human in the context of living with others in a society, Without compassion in the heart, i might say that he lost his humnaness despite whatever achievements he may have achieved.

“Your failures should not serve as an extrapolation of the experiences of others.”
>> When you get older, you will understand that life is not about success and failures.

“Take heed. If maturity/wisdom is commensurate with ageing, then we would be seeing a rampant worshipping of geriatrics all around the world. Instead, we end up with stories like “Old folks abandoned by children” or “How to arrest an ageing population”.
>> When I was young, my father was a sailor. I rarely sees him, I barely miss him. He supports the family – but I couldn’t see that, as I was young. I was self-righteous; my view is that he should have find a job here so that he can spend more time with us. I forgot about his interest, his aspiration, what he enjoys most. I learned this as I am exposure to more things in the later stage of my life – time allows all this to happen.

“The young ones must be missing something or perhaps the aged aren’t necessarily wiser for their experiences.”
>> A bit of both perhaps?

“My words will not haunt me because I did not for once proclaim that I’m perfect and infallible. ”
>> In my opinion, you are straying towards Wee Shu Min’s mentality when she wrote the famous quote “get out of my elite uncaring face”. She forgots that there are certain things in life that is beyond control – life experience will teach you that.

“I recognize that I might have flaws. However, I refuse to let them hold siege of me. After all, isn’t life all about striving? We would be better off without crutches, really.”
>> You’re half right. If you write a diary, penned the above today – and make a schedule say 10 years down the road to look at this again – it will have a totally different meaning.