What's next, Singapore?

I had left my opinions and comments in various reads:

• "What LKY's death tells us about the culture of Singapore" in LIFT blog (link);
• Attested to similar kinship to state-controlled media propaganda (link); and
•  Writings about my stand that we need to attribute LKY's contributions and not some fishing village story (link)

After which I feel I have been on trial - lambasted by 'good-natured' friends, online readers and LKY mourners.

Like it or not, LKY had always been a person whose statements can be conflicting direct and peppered with 'contradictions'.
 
He challenged the Western ideology, their 'free-speech' media, the current norms and his own people - the citizens. There are already countless examples and stories of how he dealt with each category and made a 'mockery' of them and 'put spurs into their hides'. I need not rehash them.

LKY is a person whom you can trust to pull a team together to fulfil a vision or objective. Or he can tear them apart when he feels the members are over-shadowing his objectives, or are too 'cuddly' with each other and 'sitting on their laurels'. An example is the SIA Alpha team. Nuff said.

He is that kind of leader - invoking a response from us, both inspiring that commands an unquestionable forte in leadership and vision, and yet in that same person to instill 'fear' and awe at the same time, and always making one feel 'at the edge of seat' in front of him. I would really dislike to have to conduct an interview him.

LKY has indeed left a strong legacy - to invoke a challenge or invite a dispute in our mental realms strong enough for us to take a snapshot of our current standing today and prepare us that today's norm can be a past in near future.

But truth be told in all my writings and comments, never once did I discredit LKY nor did I put him in a bad light.

In fact I accredited him to Singapore's success when he took over independence, provided a hard-stance required in that era, enforced sanitation, hygiene and compulsory education. I really liked the no-nonsense punishment of drug trafficking and holding firearms policies.

I just put a true perspective of LKY - what he did and what he did NOT do. Was that a crime? Is this dissent or disrespect? To do otherwise in my opinion is actually to discredit him.

To put it more broadly - do we have a 'herd' and 'group-think' mentality, hiding behind respect and social norms? If not why all these 'quirky' and somewhat angst/angry responses from people all over - from friends to online media readers.

You don't have to agree with what I said or read my blog or validate my comments. This is the beauty of social media. In fact I see more pro-LKY or pro-PAP supporters scrounging the anti-establishment sites and chiding commentors for  their disrespect and reminding them they were nothing if not for LKY.

No wonder Jeraldine Phneah was aghast with the furious comments in her blog (link). I kinda felt like her - on trial for voicing my perspective.

And for Amos Yee's viral video (link), if he really rejoiced over LKY's death, what is it to you? Not that I supported his rejoicing and it is 'distasteful' for the matter - to gloat over someone's death. But please people, look beyond the ramblings and see the underlying message - he is either joking, or he's f*king pissed with LKY.

Do you ever think that LKY is capable of 'evil' - like imprisoning innocent people and wasting decades of their lives to secure his power? Did you just cringed? What if you were one of the children of these political detainees - would you respect LKY for what he has done to your father, robbing him years of his life?

Get a perspective, people.

The MAN of the moment has left his legacy - his words of wisdom (challenging, albeit sometimes contradicting and conflicting) and his visible contributions in a progressive Singapore in terms of peace, prosperity and entrenched values. That era is gone unfortunately.

Do we throw our support for the sake of a legacy or past establishment, or do we progress forward for the best people to lead Singapore?

The more important question is what's next, Singapore, post-LKY?