LEE KUAN YEW - Deserving Of Respect?

[arthur]

http://therealsingapore.com/content/lee-...ng-respect

The recent rumors of his passing away has made me sit up and think, do we really hate him or his party recent years policies?
Can we say honestly to ourselves that without him, will SG be as prosperous as it is now? If other leaders at his time of era, adopted a less draconian ruling methodology, will SG succeed as much as it is now?
Individual eras require individual ways of leadership and we can't discount his methods being effective yet hard-hitting.

What worries me isn't of his passing away, but of what consequences his demise would have onto SG political elites and consequently, its business elites?

Are we going to see a united PAP or a fragmented one? Political upheavals occur often when a strongman or founder died.

SG50 is to be celebrated this year, and is also a reflection that we are still a young nation. We have no cultural identity of ourselves, no strong sense of nationhood that is capable of binding us to restart our nation should serious crisis really strike.
The sense of nationhood that fester in other nations with longer historical timeline have their share of suffering, wartime, revolution beside moment of glories.

Our opposition parties are definitely not ready to take on any leadership roles.
The fortune of having such a strong dominant party over several decades has reared its misfortune that reflects insufficient preparation of any alternative parties equally capable of getting candidates up to task of nationhood leadership.

Throughout decades, SG has scored high among international ranking of having a political stable country which is conducive of attracting MNCs rooting here.
But we had never scored high in having a political matured economy that is resilient enough to withstand any shocks in political leadership change.

We do not know for the simple fact we never had the chance to experience and test our nation's resilience.

And thus, we must thread ourselves ever more carefully come what may in the coming years.

Perhaps this would the first step in the course that will shape the Singapore's political system maturing process.

Perhaps this will also finally be the moment where we will ignite our sense of nationhood belonging.

Have a healthy and prosperous life, Mr Lee.