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Friday, March 12, 2010

I Miss Lee Kuan Yew

I'm getting rather tired of this George NEO Jack YEO business. Who cares about Jack's penis anyway? After this post, I'll go back to plants and babies. I'm too old for all this hoo-ha. After all, the years remaining to a shrivelled up menopausal woman aren't many. So why bother?

But I miss LKY. Don't you?

Now THAT was a truly kind man. At age 18 years, I read Proust, a French novelist. I remember nothing else of what he wrote but this lesson. True kindness is not in someone's momentary empathy and emotional pity for a beggar who puts out a hand. True kindness is in that no nonsense nun with eyes of cold steel and no time to stop for hugs. Why? Because that nun is busy about organising people and food and jobs for the poor. Her actions are kind though her demeanour is not.

And that is what LKY did for us. The man was a warrior, and went about his business with an air that communicated "Don't mess with me or I'll mess you up." I learnt the word "knuckledusters" from LKY. That man was blunt (some people say low EQ but hey... you can't please everyone). That man was bossy. Gee... he won't even let you talk out of turn if he was thinking important thoughts. And phones don't ring around LKY. They whimper once. Is all. Today, we label him (rather unfairly I think) an autocrat.

But in everything he said and everything he did, he sought to make a better life for EVERY Singaporean. It didn't matter whether you attend his church (I dunno if LKY goes to church). It didn't matter if you were a Hakka community leader. It didn't matter if you were his friend or his family. He tried to look after everyone. LKY did not confuse friendship with his political role. He told the Hakka community leaders that they would get no special treatment because he had to look out for Singapore's interests first. He told the Chinese that they would get no special treatment because Singapore must come first... and Singapore has Indians, Malays and Others. Gee... the man even told his KIDS that they wouldn't get special treatment because Singapore comes first! As a parent, I know that is very hard to do.

LKY put Singapore FIRST! He looked after EVERYONE of us. He and his colleagues were KIND to us. Like the busy nun with no time for hugs, LKY didn't LOOK kind, but he was. Homes were built. Children were educated. People walked around at night safely. ME... I was educated. ME! A female.

LKY was (is) a man, but he looked after women too. George Yeo is man too. He has never had an old but amazingly unwrinkled penis thrust at him in a Times bookstore framed by the pages of a Garfield comic, when he was a 15 year old girl wearing a school uniform. He has never been cornered in wintertime (dressed in shapeless pullover and baggy jeans), on a train by an old Vietnam war veteran proposing to pay for a room in some bed bugged hotel. And let me tell you that I wasn't even pretty!! Boys my age looked through me. I was just young and I seemed like I was gullible enough to be easy meat.

No... George Yeo would never have experienced all that... and so in his world view, it is unimportant. Young women like that don't exist. You can't look after people whose existence you do not acknowledge. LKY left a towering legacy to George Yeo which the latter squandered in a single blogpost acknowledging and supporting the actions of a deceitful actor/director. This is Barings Bank brought down, except that it isn't reserves of money we are talking about, but reserves of high reputation and rock solid trust in the PAP.

LKY did not have to parade himself on FaceBook and give the public a moment by moment account of his life à la Paris Hilton, to develop a friendship with Singaporeans. Yesterday, for the first time, I googled and found George Yeo's Facebook account. He has 4000 over friends. 4000+ is too much for a private person unless his friendship is cheap. Gee... how many of those 4000+ people are truly George Yeo's friends?

4000+ is not enough for a Minister because LKY has millions of friends (no Facebook acount though...). Millions of Singaporeans and many others who aren't Singaporeans are LKY's friends. I think of LKY as my friend... even if LKY doesn't acknowledge me as his friend. If LKY asked me for a favour, I would try to help. He doesn't know me, but I am his friend.

Do you know why I am LKY's friend? Because he acknowledged my existence and looked out for me the girl-who-became-a-woman. Do you know why Indians and Malays and Others are LKY's friend? Because he acknowledged their existence and looked out for them too. Do you know why Christians, Buddhists etc... are LKY's friend? Because he acknowledged all religions and looked out for them.

George Yeo should stand up and honour LKY's legacy. Acknowledge that Singapore has women (some who are wronged wives and molested girls) and look out for us. What business is it of yours to counsel a wife to stay with her husband? It is her choice and her choice alone. You do not know her pain. You know only the man's pain and can only represent that.

Don't try so hard to look kind on Facebook.

Be truly kind instead.

And you will have more friends than 4000. And take a leaf out of Khaw Boon Wan's book. He has developed a vision and a mission for his blog. He is master of his own blog and is clear what he wants to achieve there. It is not a blog of his personal travails. He doesn't share his blog with entertainers and others irrelevant to his portfolio. Mr Khaw does not entertain. He does his level best to uphold his health portfolio and is courageous when he gets flak for it. When he puts his foot in his mouth he comes out to clarify his position... eyes straightforward and bright.

Lee Kuan Yew, I do so very much wish to have you back again, and as I write this tears puddle on my desk. If there were a way to make you young... a youth elixir of some sort to give you energy and vigour... You did promise that even from your grave, you would spring up to the defense of Singapore, if you saw a threat to all that you built. Here is a threat from within Sir. Come back.

12 comments:

aaaniu said...

Good thing the man is not dead yet, otherwise he will be flipping on his grave.Like father like son.

j.huang said...

nonsense. george yeo in no way support's jack neo's actions. he says he supports "them", the family.

Anonymous said...

1) u r emotionally overwrought by this Jack Neo saga. Why? Look deeper into yourself.

2) George Yeo isn't my fav minister but he has a right to say what he says.

3) Khaw BW isn't my fav minister either and I don't buy much of what he says, even tho he's a Buddhist.

4) Agree with you in most aspects re LKY but not sure he really did all women a favour with the Women's Charter. That cut the ground from under many women who loved at the wrong time of their partners' life and gave men a good excuse for being unable to fulfill their promise to make them their "wife".

Petunia Lee said...

j.huang - If that is true, then all George has to do is come out and say that Jack Neo's actions were wrong.

George should clarify, not hide behind nameless faceless people like you.

Come on George. Come out and make an unequivocal statement that what Jack did was wrong!

Speak out FOR the wife and the teens and the mistress just as you spoke out for Jack.

Petunia Lee said...

Auntie Lucia, I have a lot of respect for you and I love your blog. This thing is not personal. I've never been a wronged wife, nor ever fallen prey to any of the lechers. However, I think someone needs to speak up for a population of teens who don't speak up for themselves.

It is not personal, except that I know what it feels like as a bewildered teen to be indecently propositioned.

George Yeo cannot declare explicit support for an adulterer without balancing it with some hint of consideration for the teens, the young women, the wife etc...

It is merely asking him to explicitly say "Jack was wrong." Not difficult.

Petunia Lee said...

Auntie Lucia - I am also overwrought because I sprung to the defence of the PAP every time my entire life when people criticise. Feel stupid now.

Petunia Lee said...

And oh... Auntie Lucia, would you be kind enough to explain that part on the Women's Charter? I don't understand you...

Anonymous said...

Very good post, to sum up LKY's true value, and not face value as most teens and young adults see these days.

And anyone who supports Jack Neo by not condemning his actions, probably has or almost came by a 'Jack Neo' scenario himself, and in the process casting his own values in doubt. Tell me that this statement is wrong please, I challenge anyone.

ritchierich said...

hi, your 'i miss lky' , i absolutely agree. he and team were genuine and real men and doers. jurong was conceptionalised and up and running in a matter of months. toapayoh comprising of at least 20 to30 blks of flats were up even before youcould finish uttering'jack robinson'.today, we have this new bloke -just to built afew blks-have to study the demand and, if it's ok, they'll need at least 3 years to complete-by which time the aspiring flat owners,will be sick and tired of waitng- and when their get the flat ,they won't be or want to be ,grateful.they better pull up their socks and don't be overly smug as the last general election result at gy,s grc ,registered a narrow win margin of 52 to 48 approx. you can imagine what will be the result this time round if he further entangles himself with this jn character- so my support on your call to gy to come out again and say something.

Anonymous said...

Hi Petunia: How very nice of you to pay such a compliment to me and my blog. Thanks so much.

U make me feel a tad bad to have been so disagreeable with you over JN. But I happen to believe that if his wife has 4given him, who r 3rd, 4th, 6th parties etc to do a song and dance on her behalf. Unless adultery has now become a crime in S'pore!

As for the young lady/ladies who were willing/conniving partners, I'm sure they know how to take care of themselves, whatever their age, so long as they weren't below the age of legal consent when the liaison/s began.

This said, I'll not make further comment on JN's indiscretions, as more twittering on the subject will affect his wife n family even more than him, I dare say.

Now to the Women's Charter. Maybe u r too young to remember that be4 it's arrival, anyone who co-habited could be considered man and wife, so long as families and friends on both sides recognised it as such.

After the Charter, only those who have been to the ROM (unless u are Muslim) are considered man and wife.

So, too bad if the man you have been living with decides to ROM a Jenny come lately. Too bad for those who fall for a man who has already been to ROM with someone else.

Not so be4 the Women's Charter. You could become secondary wives and be recognised in law as such, with all the benefits of inheritance etc for yourself and your offspring.

Until very recently (think a few weeks ago?), illegitimate children have a darn hard time getting recognised in a late father's estate.

In the end, the cynical consider the Women's Charter something of a Casonova's Charter.

While it protects the woman whom a man ROMs, it does a complete disfavour to all those women he romances.

One good thing about the Women's Charter, I believe, is that it makes more women aim for financial independence because there's no financial security any more from a man outside of marriage (or inside for that matter, as shown by recent measures by Parliament to ensure ex-spouses maintain families they have abandoned).

Lastly, Petunia, I wish i've got green fingers like you: then I'll fill my balcony with pots of basil to satisfy my never ending cravings for the herb in my food!

Petunia Lee said...

Auntie Lucia - Thanks for your educational sharing on the Women's Charter. You are right... I am too young for all that.

No need to feel bad about disagreeing at all. It seems a very reasonable point of disagreement. I'm not saying JN's wife was wrong to stand by him, I'm just saying that a thought should be spared for those who were harassed.

I have plenty of basil. You want a pot?

Anonymous said...

Thank you Pet for offer of a whole pot of basil but I'd better not accept, as I've got no green fingers; so most likely just eat what's the pot. Have been given pots of the herb be4 but they all die off...