Dear Editor,
Amidst the sharp controversies and dull, brittle evasions surrounding the royal lifestyles of the grasping political greedy in this country, an old man died far away. President Obama eulogized him as “a giant of history.” I could not have said it better, for Lee Kuan Yew was all of that, and then some more.
This particular giant had a straight and narrow approach to living, when it came to stockpiling through the rapacious accumulation of riches and trophies of power. Like a house. For him, there was no loud, garish testimony to the financially gruesome, or the ethically putrid. No, he was content to return to the same simple, humble home that he had had before assuming his long period in office. He was a man, a leader who looked to see how he could lift the lot of his people, instead of searching and calculating and lusting for what he could seize for himself. And he could have. Local leaders, and others, can learn from the example of a Lee Kuan Yew.
Detractors might say accurately that he jailed opponents. I say that it was a different time, which was addressed by different measures. It was so different that coups and elected government re-engineering were part of the normalizing process. Think of where society would be today, if both still obtained.
Last, it is certain that Lee Kuan Yew enjoyed a state pension. It is highly likely that it would have been of the most basic variety. Remember that word – basic.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
