Mr Lee leaves Istana for the last time
People line streets to watch as gun carriage takes casket to Parliament
By Charissa Yong, The Straits Times, 26 Mar 2015
OUTSIDE, thronging the roads, the public were waiting. But inside Sri Temasek on the grounds of the Istana, the family of Mr Lee Kuan Yew gathered after sunrise as the private wake for their pa-triarch drew to a close.
Just an hour later, the casket containing Mr Lee would leave the two-storey house for the journey to Parliament House and four days of lying in state.
But for now, in quiet moments away from the public eye, the extended families of Mr Lee and his late wife, Madam Kwa Geok Choo, paid their respects.
After them, Mr Lee's immediate family members stepped forward to say individual goodbyes, all dressed in white shirts and black trousers or long skirts.
The first was younger son Lee Hsien Yang, followed by his wife Lee Suet Fern, and their sons Shengwu, Huanwu and Shaowu.
Mr Lee's daughter Wei Ling, who had lived with her late parents in the family home in Oxley Road, went next.
Last of all came Mr Lee's elder son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, his wife Ho Ching, and children Xiuqi, Yipeng, Hongyi and Haoyi.
Over Monday and Tuesday, they had received and hosted more than 5,200 visitors at the private wake held at the official residence of the Prime Minister in the Istana grounds. Mr Lee died early on Monday at the age of 91.
Too soon, 9am came - the hour when the gun carriage waiting in the driveway outside would carry Mr Lee away.
Inside, the Lee family watched solemnly as a team of white-jacketed pallbearers from the defence services and police draped the Singapore flag over the casket. As the officers - their headgear removed as a mark of respect - carried the casket onto the gun carriage, and the strains of Beethoven's Funeral March No. 1 filled the air, the family filed out of the hall and into the public eye.
Among the group of at least 20 people were grandsons Yipeng and Huanwu bearing a portrait of their grandfather, with Yipeng's left arm resting at times on his cousin's shoulder in solidarity.
The ceremonial procession on foot behind the carriage was led by PM Lee, the chief mourner.
Slowly, slowly, the family trailed the carriage to the beat of a military drum, as it descended the hill, for about 70m.
Mr Lee Hsien Yang and his wife Suet Fern walked hand-in-hand, their heads frequently bowed. Behind them, Mr Lee's grandchildren walked together, hands at their sides. Daughter Wei Ling was not in the procession as she was unwell.
Along the way, through the grounds of the Istana, they passed a military line of honour and representatives from Tanjong Pagar GRC, the constituency where the late Mr Lee was an MP, and the Teck Ghee ward in Ang Mo Kio GRC, where PM Lee is an MP.
The gun carriage then went past the main Istana building, where President Tony Tan Keng Yam and Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong and staff paid their respects, while a bagpiper from the Singapore Gurkha Contingent played Auld Lang Syne.
As the first part of the ceremonial procession ended, still within the grounds of the Istana, the Lee family proceeded separately by vehicle to Parliament House, where Mr Lee's casket will lie in state until 8pm on Saturday.
They were there to receive the casket when it arrived just before 10am, bearing silent witness as it was transferred from the gun carriage to its bier. As the pallbearers removed the national flag from Mr Lee's casket and marched off, the family was ushered forward.
PM Lee stood front and centre, his wife beside him. The grandsons placed Mr Lee's portrait on a pedestal before the casket.
Then, as one, the Lee family bowed once in front of the head of their family before departing.
We brought my father’s body to Parliament House this morning. Was moved by the huge crowds who came. Thank you for queuing so many hours in the hot sun to say goodbye to Mr Lee. - LHL
Posted by Lee Hsien Loong on Wednesday, March 25, 2015
They came simply to say 'Thank you, Mr Lee'
From all walks of life they came, Singaporeans sharing a common grief and message
By Rohit Brijnath And Rachel Au-yong, The Straits Times, 26 Mar 2015
THIS street has never known such silence. This city of perpetual motion, but for a solemn breeze brushing the leaves, is strangely still. This area in Orchard Road, outside the Istana, usually filled with the sound of hissing buses and a thousand conversations is now a mute gathering. Even the phone, that Singapore accessory, does not dare to ring. Remembrance has its own appropriate hush.
Long before the gun carriage emerges from the Istana grounds at 9.37am, people are in anxious attendance. Businesswoman Angela Tan, 54, arrives in the darkness at 5.30am. "I didn't get to see him come to the Istana," she says. "So I must see him leave it for the last time or I will regret this all my life." Mr Fikri Omar, 63, has shrugged off tiredness after a night shift as a security guard to be here by 7.20am.
Under a blue sky speckled with clouds, mourning is in the air. Beneath a kind canopy of trees near the gate, where police officers gently marshal foot traffic, a solitary flag flutters behind a barricade. It is a small flag on a stick, the type you might wave at a sporting event or at a parade. Yet, in keeping with the moment, even this one held up by a man in the crowd deliberately flies at half-mast.
When first light comes, the crowd between the Istana and Plaza Singapura is a trickle, then a stream, then a river of a thousand people. Mr Lee Kuan Yew stood for all Singaporeans, now Singaporeans of all races and religions and types and dress come to stand for him. Three sweaty runners arrive, a doctor in scrubs appears, women in wheelchairs make their way through. A monk stops by as does part-time taxi driver Tajuddin Mohd Isa, 39, with his wife and young son in tow. A group sings a song in praise, women carry flowers and others just hold on to a contained grief.
On one side of the Istana gate, under small white tents, are tables to write condolence messages. On the ground, bouquets cover the earth, white lilies wrapped in plastic, yellow carnations in a bunch, all bringing colourful life to a sombre day. Aleusheya Singh, nine, is here to leave her own scribbled message. "I like his policy on bilingualism best because now everyone speaks two languages," she earnestly says. She is late for school but her father is a willing accomplice in this act: perhaps he appreciates this is a history lesson of its own.
A nation reserved in speech and reticent in expressing itself has made an exception these past few days for an exceptional man. Emotion has been expressed widely, but more through quiet gratitude than gushy sentimentality. On the numerous handwritten notes left here - for a man their writers may have never met but whose death they take personally - two words repeatedly stand out: "Thank you."
People want to write what they feel, they want to speak, as if words are their only form of respectful repayment. A city proud of its present and fixated on its future is pausing to remember this man from its past and it is an admiration that is conveyed through every medium.
Mr Robert Lai Tien Kean, 46 and shy, articulates it on a typed note which he hands to reporters, part of which reads: "He was mighty in thought, courageous in decisiveness and swift in action immediately taken."
A child's unbiased opinion is revealed through a drawing of a crayoned figure, below which is scrawled the words: "Mr Lee You Are a Superhero." But most people just mine their memories to talk freely of this man, a nation constructed and a self-esteem built.
Madam Rathika Ravindran, 45, remembers growing up in a kampung in the 1970s. "It used to have just a public toilet out in the open. It was very scary, very smelly. But in no time at all, Singapore has developed so much. I believe we can thank him for that."
Madam Toh Bok Hua, closing in on 70, describes her childhood during the time of Mr Lim Yew Hock, Singapore's second chief minister, when she helped her family sell kueh by the roadside.
"I used to sit on a milk crate - we were illegal hawkers and the policemen would come and we would run." Sometimes, she says, the kueh was kicked into the drain. "They weren't very compassionate then. But then Mr Lee Kuan Yew came along and things changed, and we got a stall to sell kueh."
Then suddenly it is time and the motorcycle engines of the outriders, waiting outside, start to hum. First a police car appears, then the stately gun carriage carrying the flag-draped coffin, and the hush cannot be held any more. For a brief while, grief breaks its chains as if silence is both inappropriate now and unbearable.
The eruption of noise is spontaneous and diverse. A few clap and then the applause rises. A chant of "MM Lee, we love you!" begins, because to some he is still Minister Mentor, and a few join in. From across the street comes the yell "Majulah Singapura!", from behind comes the cry "Grandfather of Singapore". One man says nothing at all: he only bows.
As the gun carriage travels from the shade of the Istana into the sun of the street, citizens offer a digital salute: arms raised with smartphones in hand, filming every second, photographing every movement. Yet through the clicking symphony of cameras can be heard the convulsive sounds of stifled sobs.
A tear trails down a woman's cheek and old men wipe their tear-stained spectacles. A photographer simply weeps and works. Only the soldiers in the following trucks, young men on duty, rigid in their seats, disguise any loss with stoicism. A once-silent street is now just a sad one.
Some have waited for hours but, in just over a minute, the funeral cortege has passed. It winds its dignified way to Parliament House where cries of "Lee Kuan Yew!" will rent the air. Here, outside the Istana, buses reclaim the street and noise returns to the morning. Their leader has gone and people begin to disperse. Many of them presumably returning to work. Just as Mr Lee would have liked it.
Huge crowds to bid Mr Lee farewell
Nearly 40,000 had paid respects by last night and more continued through the night
By Zakir Hussain, Deputy Political Editor, The Straits Times, 26 Mar 2015
THOUSANDS braved the sun and waited patiently in line for over eight hours in queues that snaked 3km along various streets around Parliament in order to file past the nation's founding Prime Minister as he lies in state.
It was a scene never before seen in Singapore, and the overwhelming response prompted government officials to extend visiting times not once, but twice, just hours after the casket bearing Mr Lee Kuan Yew's body arrived at Parliament House.
Instead of getting to pay their respects for 10 hours a day, till Saturday evening, visitors will now be allowed to do so round the clock till Saturday evening.
Also, starting 7am today, the queue to enter Parliament will start at the Padang.
Mr Lee, who was Prime Minister from 1959 to 1990, died on Monday, aged 91.
By the time the first ordinary visitors were allowed into Parliament shortly after 10am, several thousand people had formed queues behind them, across and along the Singapore River and outside the Supreme Court.
They waited for hours in the sweltering sun, and as their numbers grew, the state funeral organising committee extended visiting hours till midnight.
Inside Parliament House, ushers asked visitors to file past the casket rather than form up groups before bowing, to try to speed up the flow.
Members of the public were also advised not to join the queue then. But the notice made little difference as the lines kept growing, and soon after, visiting times were again extended, this time to round the clock, until 8pm on Saturday.
One line extended for some 3km along the banks of the Singapore River and nearby streets by mid-afternoon, with an estimated waiting time of eight hours.
Few left the queue, and operators of coffee shops and cafes along the line pitched in voluntarily to distribute bottled water to those in line.
Last night, the queues to enter Parliament remained long, but the waiting time had gone down to three hours at midnight.
Over 37,000 visitors had paid their last respects by 10pm.
Public transport operators SMRT and SBS Transit extended train services and 41 feeder bus services past normal hours to operate round the clock last night, with many more expected to pay their respects overnight.
The Land Transport Authority will also work with them to monitor demand and see whether to extend operating hours for the next two nights.
Once inside Parliament House, many visitors teared up readily as they paid their last respects to a man they had hardly or never met, but who they said they were forever grateful to for the standard of living and opportunities they enjoy today.
Among those who arrived early was business owner Lorraine Low Diaz, 37, who came with her mother and six-year-old son at 8.30am and waited four hours to pay her respects to Mr Lee.
"I really appreciated the bilingual education I got here only when I travelled overseas," she said. "Four hours of waiting in the queue is nothing in exchange for Mr Lee's years of toil on our behalf. I'd camp here for a week if that's what it took to pay my last respects to him."
Mr Mohammed Fareed, 38, director of training company PowerEdge, came with six of his staff members with a banner that read: "Without your leadership and policies, SMEs like us would not have existed and we are reminded that the harmony and prosperity that we have, had been engineered by your passion to build a better Singapore."
Many also began queueing up after lunch, among them former healthcare support officer Nalaayini Thambiah, 65, who was asked to join a shorter queue for the elderly. She said of Mr Lee: "He made sure everyone had a home and that we were multiracial. As a minority, I never felt disadvantaged. I watch the news about conflicts overseas and I am relieved I was born here."
Bosses gave employees the day off or organised trips to pay tribute, shop owners closed their shutters for the day so they could visit, and a number of Malaysians even drove down from Kuala Lumpur to file past a man many said they did not know personally, but who they admired and respected for leading Singapore "from Third World to First".
The first to pay their respects had begun waiting outside Parliament House in the wee hours of the morning. Mr Edward Ho, 39, area manager of a healthcare company, in fact came by at 11pm with his cousin, but officials were still setting up barricades, so they walked around and returned at 3am to start queueing.
He had a 1pm flight to Cambodia for a business trip, and wanted to pay his last respects, he said.
By the time the sun rose, several thousand workers, students and others had also lined Orchard Road, Bras Basah Road and North Bridge Road to catch a glimpse of the funeral procession bearing Mr Lee's casket from the Istana to Parliament House.
Shortly after 9am, a ceremonial gun carriage carried the casket in a brief foot procession from Sri Temasek, the official residence of the prime minister, led by PM Lee Hsien Loong and his wife Ho Ching, and family members.
The procession then drove past the Istana building where President Tony Tan Keng Yam and Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong paid their respects and a bagpiper from the Singapore Gurkha Contingent played Auld Lang Syne.
The gun carriage then travelled past the streets to Parliament, where many shouted "Lee Kuan Yew" and "thank you" as it entered the Parliament driveway.
There, the Chief of Defence, Commissioner of Police, and Speaker of Parliament, as well as PM Lee and family members, received the casket.
Key dignitaries who paid their respects yesterday included Asean secretary-general Le Luong Minh, who said Mr Lee's vision made Singapore a modern, vibrant country and saw him play an important role in the formation of the regional grouping in 1967.
Sultan Ibrahim of Johor and Sultan Muhammad of Kelantan also paid their respects.
In the afternoon, PM Lee also visited several of those waiting in line, to thank people for coming and waiting patiently.
"The mood was sorrowful but not downcast. We are in good spirits!" PM Lee said on Facebook.
Minister for Social and Family Development Chan Chun Sing also visited well-wishers, and said in a Facebook post he was touched to see the entire nation united in this moment, and coming together to help others in line.
"Mr Lee would have been proud to see how Singaporeans come together to care for each other," he said.
Today, Parliament will hold a special sitting at 4pm where MPs will pay tribute to Mr Lee's contributions to Singapore.
Visitors can continue to pay respects during the sitting, which is open only to invited guests.
LYING IN STATE
Silent farewell, broken by sobs
Members of the public queue for hours to pay their last respects
By Tham Yuen-C, The Straits Times, 26 Mar 2015
PEOPLE queued for as long as five hours yesterday morning to pay their last respects to Mr Lee Kuan Yew at Parliament House.
But inside the hall where his casket lay, they had just minutes to say their goodbyes.
An unexpected surge close to lunchtime meant that organisers had to keep a tighter rein on time.
This later prompted a change in the hours people could go to Parliament to pay their respects. They can now do so any time, day or night, until Saturday, when the gates will close at 8pm.
Yesterday's early birds, some of whom started queueing before daybreak, entered the hall in groups to pay homage to Singapore's first Prime Minister, who died on Monday at age 91.
Ordinary Singaporeans, contingents of schoolchildren and representatives of ministries, self-help organisations and uniformed groups were able to stand about 4m from the casket and bow. Although they could not see Mr Lee's body, many were overcome with emotion and tears rolled down their cheeks.
The older folk were particularly overwhelmed, as quiet sobbing filled the hall.
Some dignitaries had more time and could walk right up to the casket.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his wife, Ms Ho Ching, emerged from an adjacent room on occasion to receive some of the guests and later even went outside to greet those who were waiting in the queue.
As the crowd built up outside, those in the line who entered the hall from around 1.30pm were asked to pick up the pace when they filed past the casket.
By this time, the queues stretched around Clarke Quay and the surrounding areas, including Raffles Place and Fort Canning.
Among those in the queue were Malaysian Au Kean Hoe, 61, who flew in yesterday morning from Kuala Lumpur specially to pay his respects, and legal executive Vivi Erina, 31, who started queueing from UOB Building at about 10.30am and waited four hours. The firm she works at, Clifford Law, gave its staff time off to go to Parliament House.
Continue to work hard for a better tomorrow: PM Lee
By Lim Yan Liang, The Straits Times, 26 Mar 2015
FORMER Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew had taken Singapore from Third World to First, but the work is not done yet, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last night at a ceremony to pay tribute to the late leader.
While Singapore has surmounted many challenges and should rightly celebrate its golden jubilee this year, Singaporeans need to keep on working hard to honour the memory of Mr Lee, said the Prime Minister.
"We are sad, we are sorrowful, our founding father has left us.
"But he has prepared us for this day, because he knew that to build well, Singapore must stand long after he's gone. And he has been preparing for that for many, many years."
PM Lee was speaking in both English and Mandarin to 2,500 residents and grassroots leaders of Ang Mo Kio GRC, for which he is an MP, and Sengkang West.
In urging people to work hard for a better tomorrow, he quoted Sun Yat-Sen, father of modern China, who said: "The revolution has not yet succeeded, comrades, let us give our best efforts."
Similarly, as Singapore celebrates its golden jubilee this year, he asked in Mandarin: "But are we a success? Not yet. Is there still much to be done? Of course."
He added: "We still need to work hard so tomorrow will be better, and our children will have a brighter future. If we work hard together, I think this little red dot can become a brilliant, bright little red dot."
PM Lee thanked Singaporeans for their love and support for his father: "Speaking as his son, speaking on behalf of his family, to you and to all the many others who have expressed their sentiments, their sorrow, their love over the last few days, I say, thank you."
Thousands continue to stream into tribute centres
One resident tells of how she had received help in applying for a flat
By Miranda Yeo, The Straits Times, 26 Mar 2015
WHEN Madam Ramairthan Muthukrishnan's house and provision shop in Kampong Eunos had to make way for new Housing Board flats some 40 years ago, she and her husband were caught in the lurch.
They had married in a traditional Indian wedding ceremony and did not get an official marriage certificate. This meant that they could not apply for a new flat.
Desperate, they sought help from former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew during a Meet-the-People Session.
"Mr Lee understood that it was embarrassing for us to apply with the Registry of Marriages because we were already married with children," the 73-year-old said.
"He told us not to worry and wrote a letter for us, so we could apply for a four-room flat in Hougang."
Mr Lee also helped the family get financial aid to tide them over the period.
"I feel like I have lost a father," she said, with tears in her eyes.
She was among the thousands who continued to stream into community tribute centres yesterday to pay their respects to Mr Lee, who died on Monday morning. He was 91.
Long queues formed at tribute sites such as those in Tanjong Pagar and Kovan, as residents waited in line to write condolence notes.
Madam Chen Xin Ying, 66, was one of those at Kovan Hub Tribute Centre. She fondly recalled her earliest meeting with Mr Lee in her family's kampung near Bukit Timah Hill.
She visited the tribute centre with her husband and her granddaughter, who had just finished school that afternoon.
"I was about 10 years old then, and he was visiting all the kampung to get to know the situation in each and every one of them," said Madam Chen.
"I remember that his way of speaking was very forceful and powerful."
She also remembered staying up late on the night of the 1955 elections to hear the results of the Tanjong Pagar seat that Mr Lee was contesting.
"My entire family leapt in excitement on hearing PAP had won the seat. It was just so important to us because it was Mr Lee Kuan Yew's victory," she said.
Over at Tanjong Pagar, there were residents like Ms Daisy Yew, 51, who works in a hotel.
She was not always a fan of Mr Lee's leadership.
"In the past, I thought he was a dictator; I couldn't understand what he was doing," she said, referring to Mr Lee's resorting to detentions without trial under the Internal Security Act.
But she said a year of overseas travel in her late 20s opened her eyes.
"You see that the facilities in other countries are built for the elite and not the masses; you also realise just how safe it is here," she said.
"And you know he made those tough decisions for the good of the people."
Mr Lee's last trip to Parliament today
Public can pay last respects while body is lying in state
By Zakir Hussain Deputy Political Editor, The Straits Times, 25 Mar 2015
THE casket of Singapore's founding father, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, will be moved from the Istana to Parliament House this morning for the start of four days of lying in state, with thousands expected to pay their respects to the former prime minister.
In the highest honour accorded to a leader, the State flag will be draped over the casket, with the crescent and stars lying over the head and close to the heart of Mr Lee, who died on Monday, aged 91. Eight officers will then transfer the casket onto a gun carriage.
A ceremonial foot procession will be led by Mr Lee's elder son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and his wife, Ms Ho Ching; daughter Lee Wei Ling; younger son Lee Hsien Yang and his wife, Ms Lim Suet Fern; and seven grandchildren, for about 70m.
The gun carriage procession will travel the 2km route from Orchard Road to Parliament House, passing through Bras Basah Road and North Bridge Road.
The Chief of Defence Force, Commissioner of Police, Speaker of Parliament, as well as PM Lee and the family will then receive the casket before it is transferred onto the bier for the lying in state.
Members of the public can pay their respects from 10am to 8pm from today to Saturday.
Queues will start at the promenade along the Singapore River, next to Parliament House.
Condolence cards will also be available for well-wishers to pen tributes, and those with flowers may lay them at condolence boards along the promenade.
Yesterday, some 4,000 visitors paid their respects at Sri Temasek, the official residence of the Prime Minister in the Istana grounds, where a private wake had been held since Monday.
PM Lee was also presented with a new orchid, named the Aranda Lee Kuan Yew, by NParks chief executive Kenneth Er and National Orchid Gardens nursery manager David Lim.
Outside the Istana gates in Orchard Road, more than 21,000 people turned up to leave flowers and cards, and pen messages in Malay, Mandarin, Tamil and English on condolence cards that were then displayed on memorial boards.
President Tony Tan Keng Yam dropped by at around 12.30pm to thank well-wishers, and PM Lee stepped out briefly at around 2pm to view the messages and thank those who were there.
Businessman R. Veerappan, 54, who left a Singapore flag and a condolence message from his family, said: "I brought the flag here because the flag only means something today, thanks to the country that Mr Lee built."
Mr Jailani Sanwor signed a condolence card in Malay with the message: "May God have mercy on his soul and place him among the ranks of the righteous."
Some could not hold back tears, like student Wong Si Min, 17, who had to be consoled by a friend. "I've never met Mr Lee but learnt about him through history classes. He is a role model and we wouldn't have a comfortable life without Mr Lee," she said.
Thousands of well-wishers also turned up at 10 community sites set up by the People's Association across Singapore. Another eight tribute sites will be operating from today.
Many expressed thanks to Mr Lee for shaping various aspects of life in Singapore, from the healthcare system to well-looked-after public housing estates.
Grassroots leader Jefferson Neo, who was at a Choa Chu Kang tribute site, recalled how he was a Secondary 2 student in 1976 when Mr Lee came to his school, Tiong Bahru Secondary, as part of the Keep Singapore Clean campaign and demonstrated leadership by example.
"He visited the school, and not only that, he picked up a broom and swept alongside us students as well," he said.
Former opposition MP Chiam See Tong said Mr Lee always took a strategic, long-term view of Singapore and added: "He will live on in history, remaining for future generations the symbol of Singapore's success. His absence from our 50th National Day Parade later this year will be particularly poignant to us."
Two key organisations Mr Lee set up and shaped - the People's Association and the National Trades Union Congress - held ceremonies to honour Mr Lee at their headquarters.
Tributes continued to pour in from world leaders, and United States President Barack Obama spoke with PM Lee to express his condolences.
The White House said: "The President recognised founding Prime Minister Lee's remarkable leadership and lasting contributions, not just to Singapore's development, but also to the region's dynamism."
The state funeral for Mr Lee will be held on Sunday afternoon.
Last night, PM Lee posted a photo of Sri Temasek on Facebook saying: "We never lived here, but my parents spent many happy evenings here with the children and grandchildren. Tomorrow, my father's body will leave Sri Temasek for the last time."
He added: "On behalf of my family, I would like to thank all who have paid their last respects to my father, whether at Sri Temasek, at the tribute centres all over the island or online."
Sri Temasek tonight. It is the official residence of the PM. We never lived here, but my parents spent many happy...
Posted by Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday, March 24, 2015