LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Family Is Strength

It already spoke very ill of us when we pried and dug with archaeological fervour for every discernible and non-discernible crack and breakdown in the relationships between brother, sister, sister-in-law and cousins of the Lee family.

For a good 2 weeks or so, the press and even the world's press were nothing better than gossipmongers popcorning away at an entertaining soap opera, except that this soap opera was real and brought real pain to real people.

It is now positively EVIL that someone impersonated Lee Wei Ling to sign a petition in support of  Chee Soon Juan. This is a true personal attack aimed at breaking down decades of loving relationships within a family. No one has the right to do that.

If that is not gutter politics, then what is?

Is it not enough that LKY's kids had to share their Dad with 5 million other people?  Are people looking forward to the disintegration of the family too?

It was hard for LHL to reject Singaporeans' insistence on hero-worshipping LKY because LHL represents the people. Fella is caught between his duty as a son and his duty as Head of State. The only thing he can do is COMPROMISE, and we all know that in a compromise, everyone wins (but everyone also loses). This loss is salient to LWL who approaches life without compromise. One must strive to be 100% faithful... 100% good... 100% pure in intentions.

I really like LWL because she so strongly echoes LKY. It is this purist attitude to life and mission that inspires trust.

At the end of the day, that big hoo-ha was simply a tussle between Singaporeans and the Lee family over who are the true children of LKY, and who has the right to own and celebrate his memory (with poor LHL caught in the middle). It is as simple as that and it really is a pity because LKY gave his whole life to us and here we all are, actively seeking to destroy the unity of his family.

Is this any way for Singapreans o repay LKY?

If I were LHL, I would not compromise (see... this is why I like LWL). Singaporeans are so ungrateful and spiteful and gossippopcorny that it just isn't worth sacrificing my family unity for. The unity of my family is not to be damaged. If need be, I would stand in court against the government that I lead to defend my father's last wishes because Singaporeans are not worth the price of family unity.

Singaporeans don't have to be so anxious to claim LKY's memory. Let another PM (after LHL) erect a statue to LKY. Just don't put LHL in a spot. This is worse than being caught between a wife and a mother! Genghis Khan died and was buried in an unmarked tomb in the steppes of Mongolia. His spirit banner is also gone. Yet, there are statues of Genghis Khan everywhere in Mongolia and an entire building to commemorate him hundreds of years later.

There is nothing the Lee family can do to stop Singaporeans from claiming LKY's memory. There are 5 million of us and 9 of them. Duh! Just leave this family to honour their word to LKY and when they pass, we can claim our LKY and commemorate him however we like.

Leave this family its strength.









4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dr Pet,

I absolutely love this piece!

yeah, I agree with that purist approach.
after all, Mr Lee would have wanted all of us to just get on with it (read: work for the good of Spore, uphold the values his generation stood for..) and not bother too much with frills and stuff.

Refreshing piece - kudos!

Petunia Lee said...

Thank you!

geran said...

It is 2.5 million of true blue singaporean. The rest is foreigners and pr

Petunia Lee said...

True. True.