- Joined
- Dec 30, 2010
- Messages
- 12,730
- Points
- 113
(28 Mar, NYT) – Thousands of people gathered in Singapore on Saturday to bid farewell to former leader Lee Kuan Yew in an unprecedented wave of sympathy after authorities had to temporarily suspend queues overnight to manage surging crowds.
The waiting time to enter Singapore’s Parliament House where Lee’s body was laying in state was as long as 6 hours just before midday on Saturday, a rare sight in a city where public gatherings are tightly controlled.
Mourners walked by Lee’s coffin, draped with a Singaporean flag and flanked by five uniformed military officers, in silence. Many bowed. Some saluted. Others sobbed.
“In our lifetime this is probably the only person who will garner this kind of respect from everyone, so I think it’s something that we should do,” said Ho Shaw Ming as he waited in line.
Lee, Singapore’s first prime minister, died on Monday at the age of 91.
He is credited with transforming the city-state from a British colonial outpost into one of the world’s wealthiest nations, with a strong, pervasive role for the state and little patience for dissent.
…
With elections expected as early as later this year, it was unclear whether the wave of support for the country’s founder would generate more votes for Lee’s People’s Action Party (PAP), which has ruled Singapore since independence.
Income inequality, resentment over immigration and expensive housing were among the issues which knocked the PAP’s share of the vote down to 60 percent from 67 percent in elections four years ago.
“Don’t expect sympathy votes for the PAP on account of the late Mr Lee,” said Eugene Tan, associate professor of law at the Singapore Management University.
“The PAP instead has the unenviable task of unequivocally showing that they are noble and worthy successors to the late Mr Lee and his founding generation of leaders.”
More in http://mobile.nytimes.com/reuters/2015/03/28/us/28reuters-singapore-lee-tributes.html
The waiting time to enter Singapore’s Parliament House where Lee’s body was laying in state was as long as 6 hours just before midday on Saturday, a rare sight in a city where public gatherings are tightly controlled.
Mourners walked by Lee’s coffin, draped with a Singaporean flag and flanked by five uniformed military officers, in silence. Many bowed. Some saluted. Others sobbed.
“In our lifetime this is probably the only person who will garner this kind of respect from everyone, so I think it’s something that we should do,” said Ho Shaw Ming as he waited in line.
Lee, Singapore’s first prime minister, died on Monday at the age of 91.
He is credited with transforming the city-state from a British colonial outpost into one of the world’s wealthiest nations, with a strong, pervasive role for the state and little patience for dissent.
…
With elections expected as early as later this year, it was unclear whether the wave of support for the country’s founder would generate more votes for Lee’s People’s Action Party (PAP), which has ruled Singapore since independence.
Income inequality, resentment over immigration and expensive housing were among the issues which knocked the PAP’s share of the vote down to 60 percent from 67 percent in elections four years ago.
“Don’t expect sympathy votes for the PAP on account of the late Mr Lee,” said Eugene Tan, associate professor of law at the Singapore Management University.
“The PAP instead has the unenviable task of unequivocally showing that they are noble and worthy successors to the late Mr Lee and his founding generation of leaders.”
More in http://mobile.nytimes.com/reuters/2015/03/28/us/28reuters-singapore-lee-tributes.html
