For the
past few days I have had to keep my emotions in check.
I didn’t
expect the passing of Mr Lee Kuan Yew would have affected me so much. I tried
to analyze, but it is all futile. I have lived long enough to know that when it
is time to feel I should just feel, don’t try to understand.
Singapore
holds a very special place in my heart. I had the privilege to live much of my
life in Singapore, it is a wonderful country. I studied and worked there for
close to fifteen years, and made some lifelong friends.
Today I know many of them are mourning a great loss.
I saw the queues of people to pay their last respect to
their great leader. I called a friend, no I whatsupped her, a cool-headed PhD
and she couldn’t contain her emotions. I would have envied her and her fellow countrymen,
that they could have a leader they so adore, if not for the fact that I myself
had been privileged to live under the influence of the great man for a long
time.
A great loss indeed. On his stage, he was peerless. But I am
sure that Singapore will move on to greater heights, even without their
founding prime minister. Let’s not forget that Mr Lee’s legacy started with a
loss. It was so to him, so much so he cried on television.
Kicked out of the Federation, with a million mouths to feed,
on an island state practically with no resources. And those who kicked him out
must have thought: good riddance of a troublesome people.
But God is a father to the orphans the needy the oppressed.
He will make sure that they have the last laugh.
I read in John 2, the morning of the passing of Mr Lee but not
yet hearing the news, a verse that captivated me:
Everybody I know
begins with their finest wines and after the guests have had their fill brings
in the cheap stuff. But you’ve saved the best till now! (John 2:10, MSG)
Look at the country Mr Lee built. Success is an
understatement.
I don’t want to argue about Mr Lee’s religious inclination,
but it couldn’t be clearer to me: he is God’s gift to Singapore, the Moses of
his generation.
As in 1965, so in 2015, the Redeemer can turn a loss to
gain.
The end of a chapter for Singapore? Maybe, but their Joshua
is already here.
