The Singapore spirit in summary

Over the course of the week, amidst juggling two deadlines and a lot of strong emotion from my friends in Singapore, many things have also warmed my heart.

So today I'd just like to immortalise these little beautiful things I've seen in my country. Press coverage will eventually die down and life to go back to normal after tomorrow. But personally, I want to save this space for these things so that whenever I'm feeling cynical and angsty about issues again (like I always was when I update my blog, ooops), I can look back on this and remember the best of our Singapore spirit.

Photo credit to Channel News Asia

Companies and members of the public offering bottled water to the people in the queue, under the scorching sun. The wait had been no shorter than 4 hours for the past few days. 

Companies temporarily suspended their desire for profit and went the distance to make the wait for the people in the queue a little more bearable. 

Photo credit: Channel News Asia

A member of the public offers a hug to PM Lee Hsien Loong. It is such a stark reminder that under the tough exterior of a leader, we're all still human. We all still need encouragement and support at such trying times. And that said, I really admire our PM, for staying strong for the people, meeting foreign delegates and members of the public, the press, despite his loss.

Photo credit: Asia One

A vigil guard gets emotional and cries during his duty, while the vigil orderly wipes his tears off his face. Even for the personnel on duty, we see these small but moving acts of humanity and kindness. 

Photo credit to The Singapore Army

For the past few days, the army, SPF and SCDF did not rest. Apart from ushering, crowd control and vigil guard duties (that even the top brass of the uniformed groups did), army personnel really showed us what it meant to be an army that is for the people. People were queueing into the dead of the night, but these uniformed men were beside the people all the way, handing out food, setting up tents, relieving the discomfort of the public. 

Despite all the complaints we usually had about the services of SMRT and the frequent train breakdowns, Singaporeans were grateful for the extended train services meant to serve the public that wanted to pay their respects at Parliament House. People worked around the clock just so Singaporeans can fulfill their wishes and demonstrate support for each other during these difficult times. :)

I personally don't know Mr Lee Kuan Yew. My knowledge of him is limited to the what I've heard from my parents' generation and what I've read online and in textbooks. To say I was so sad thatcI bawled my eyes out would be pretentious. 

But in Mr Lee, I saw my own father. Unlike LKY, my father was Chinese educated. But like Mr Lee, he is a man with powerful convictions and big dreams. And like the latter, he dedicated a large part of his life to providing for my brother and me. My father is in his fifties and has since mellowed with age, but for a large part of his life he was like LKY- iron-fisted on the outside but a loving father to his children. 

It was why it stung me to see the old footages of Mr Lee in his later years. It pained me to see this once passionate and vigorous man waste away to a helpless, defeated patient on mechanical ventilation. It was a harsh reminder to me to cherish the times I have with my father and ensure he can be healthy and happy at least for the next 30 years.

Yes, I know nothing about history. But grief is personal. I can have my own personal reasons for my grief, so can other Singaporeans. It may sound stupid to you intellectuals but we don't owe you an explanation. We don't have to pass your history test to feel sad over him.

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When I first came to the UK for my undergrad, I saw the stark difference in culture between that of London and that of Singapore. A couple of incidents happened which left me very disappointed in Singaporeans.

But somehow, I always longed to be home. There's nothing here that gave me the same warmth as when I step off the plane at Changi Airport. (Literally and figuratively, of course). 

And now, my faith in Singaporeans is restored. There has been (mostly) nothing but positivity, gratitude, care and consideration for each other. 

But we cannot let this die down after Sunday. We still need people who will say, "We ought to be kind and compassionate towards each other all the time." We need to support and speak up for each other. 

Life will resume as per normal when Monday breaks. We will start an "intellectual discourse"* on where the nation ought to go from here. We will return to our pragmatism, working hard for our grades and careers. But I hope that for many years to come, we will continue to be unreserved in the demonstration of our humanity. 

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*Yes, I'm talking to the "discerning", "critical","Gen-Y" intelleck-zhuers here. The freedom of speech gang. Can I just call you all the "FOS" gang? 

Look, members of the FOS gang, it's perfectly fine if you think being smarter than the average Singaporean makes you "not THAT sad" over Mr Lee's passing. If you want to second-guess his motives for stepping up as a leader. If you think other politicians should be given credit as well. I DON'T CARE what you think about him.

But when you start spitting on my countrymen for wanting to pay their respects to him, or pay their tributes to him on social media, this is where I draw my line.

When you start insinuating people are just being emotional because they know jack-shit about Mr Lee's true legacy, or that they are all fed nonsense by their textbooks, when you start giving such ugly comments about them that I cannot even bear to reproduce on my blog- when emotions are at their peak, then you're a sick prick. (Like my rhyme? I'm being intellectual too!)

And for the record, the mourning Singaporeans telling you professional intelleck-chuers to leave them alone when they are upset is not called "being an asshole".

Forcing your faces onto them and relentlessly kicking, screaming, demanding that they engage you in debate now, RIGHT NOW- THIS is being an asshole. You won't even accept 7 days as a compromise. You won't even hold back temporarily- some of you even successfully made LKY's death become all about you. THIS is being an asshole.

I am not even break-down-and-cry sad over Mr Lee. I didn't go to anyone's FB to personally insult them for "disrepecting" Mr Lee. I'm a civil and reasonable person but if even I am ticked off, maybe the problem is with you, and not the grieving population.

Sorry, when you lack basic human decency, no amount of "intellectual" reasoning will convince me to let you piss all over my fellow Singaporeans.

And since you like debate so much, why don't you all just gather at one corner of Singapore tomorrow and debate each other instead? Debate topic can be... about who is the most intellectual of you all. Sounds good? Fights on.