Singaporeans were left in tears and the entire nation was in deep mourning as their founding father and first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, known for his fierce leadership, lost the battle to pneumonia and passed away on Monday morning.
Singapore’s stalwart leader Lee, who had been battling severe pneumonia since last six weeks, “passed away peacefully” at 3:18 am on Monday in Singapore’s General Hospital, the PMO office said. He was 91-years-old.
Lee’s death has sent Singaporeans into gloom, as a queue of wailing Singaporeans arrived at the hospital to pay tributes to the founding father of the nation.
An aggrieved son and the nation’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong fought tears and overwhelming emotions as he spoke about his father’s death in a televised address.
Speaking in Malay, Mandarin and English, the prime minister said Lee built a nation and gave Singaporeans a proud national identity.
“”He fought for our independence, built a nation where there was none, and made us proud to be Singaporeans. We won’t see another man like him,” he said.
“To many Singaporeans, and indeed others too, Lee Kuan Yew was Singapore,” he said.
The Singapore government has declared seven days of national mourning and flags will fly at half-staff on state buildings. A national holiday has not been declared and daily life in this pragmatically commercial city of vaulting glass towers and broad immaculate streets continues to bustle.
At the hospital where Lee spent the last weeks of his life, 55-year-old Maligah Thangaveloo cried as she clasped her hands in prayer before a sprawling array of flowers and cards left by Singaporeans. Calling Lee “father,” she recalled shaking hands with him as a nine-year-old when he visited her school.
Lee commanded immense respect, and sometimes fear, from Singaporeans, who this year will celebrate the country’s 50th anniversary of independence. He led multiracial Singapore with an iron grip for more than three decades until 1990, and is credited with transforming the resource poor island into a wealthy bustling financial hub with low crime and almost zero corruption.
President Barack Obama called Lee a “visionary” in a statement, saying he was “deeply saddened” to learn of his death. Obama, who met Lee during a visit to Singapore in 2009, said his “remarkable” leadership helped build one of the most prosperous countries in the world.
He said Singapore’s success meant that Lee’s counsel was sought by political leaders around the world. Lee was also “hugely important in helping me reformulate our policy of rebalancing to the Asia Pacific,” Obama said.
