[stephenkhoo]

http://singstatistician.blogspot.com/201...erine.html

Wednesday, 25 May 2011
Hon Sui Sen's daughter chides Catherine Lim


Catherine Lim wrote an insightful blog posting on how Mr Lee Kuan Yew, despite the many achievements in the early part of his career, slowly became irrelevant and disliked by Singaporeans ( http://catherinelim.sg/2011/05/17/the-ge...reme-irony ).


This blog posting has drawn a chiding reply from Joan Hon, the daughter of Hon Sui Sen (http://www.sammyboy.com/showthread.php?9...herine-Lim ).

Like Catherine Lim, Joan Hon is a writer. Through her father, Joan Hon knows Lee Kuan Yew and counts herself as a close family friend of the Lees. She recounts how she was there in the last days of Mrs Lee. She addresses PM Lee as “Loong” and calls Lee Wei Ling “Ling Ling”.

In a part of her reply where she was not scolding Catherine Lim, Joan Hon wrote:

I sense now he is tired of everything, without his wife, even politics. It is time to step back. Will he be out of the picture completely? No, his opinion will still be sought and he will give it for what it is worth.


There are worse things in life he had suffered without having to worry about one GRC ward being lost. And if Loong can act as he thinks, and can promise to aim to corrent deficiencies, and thus swing votes for himself, he is doing all right. Time to put himself out to pasture. I don’t think he feels much sorrow leaving the picture.

Prior to GE 2011, there were widespread rumors that Lee Kuan Yew was not going to be standing for GE 2011. Mr Lee has a history of heart problems. Since his wife passed on, he has been in and out of hospital with alarming frequency. Whenever he appears in public, he has a security detail of two men ready to catch him should he fall. If you look closely at his eye bags, you will see a purplish tinge, often covered by heavy make up. For a person with a history of heart problems, this is not a good sign. When he surprisingly decided to run in GE 2011, Tanjong Pagar was left uncontested by the key Opposition parties. This was because many of the more sensible senior Opposition leaders knew the state of his health and did not want to drive an old man to desperation.

I do not believe that Mr Lee is oblivious to the hole Singapore is now in because of 20 years of bad policy making. I think it must be a huge source of disappointment that despite having all of the advantages that money can buy, the PAP that followed his generation has failed to deliver the superior government that was the hallmark of the original men and women who founded the PAP.

In the past, the PAP brand used to be associated with excellence, foresight and service to the Singapore people.

Today the PAP brand is associated with arrogance, policy failures, unjustified Minister salaries and unfair electoral practices.

It is therefore small wonder that in the past, PAP rallies used to look like this:


Today they look like this:


The Opposition (WP) rallies on the other hand look like this:



One of the more memorable quotes from Mr Lee is

Even from my sick bed, even if you are going to lower me into the grave and I feel something is going wrong, I will get up.

When Mr Lee said those words in 1988, he was probably thinking about the scenario of an Opposition government leading Singapore to ruin. It would be the greatest of ironies if the government that leads Singapore to ruin is a PAP government which has lost its ideals and lost its way.

After Note
Shortly after I completed writing this posting, a second email from Joan Hon emerged ( http://www.sammyboy.com/showthread.php?9...y-and-more ).

In that email, Joan Hon clarified that she was against many of the things that the PAP had done. It is an interesting read as it shows that the original 1st generation PAP leaders like Hon Sui Sen saw quite clearly the danger of where the PAP was headed.

Joan Hon spoke up against Catherine Lim's article as she felt it was unduly harsh on Lee Kuan Yew. I don't think Catherine Lim's article was unduly harsh. I however understand Joan Hon's defensiveness given some of the things which have been written about Lee Kuan Yew on the Internet.

In writing about our political leaders, being disrepectful and mean does not win anyone over to your point of view. I think that it is much better to be light hearted and poke gentle fun at them. If you are able to laugh, even the biggest problem seems a bit smaller.