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Tributes to Singapore’s former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew
View(s):Premier Wickremesinghe led Parliament on Tuesday in paying tribute to former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who passed away this week.
A Singaporean national signs a condolence book (seen below too) opened in memory of Lee Kuan Yew in Colombo. Pic by Indika Handuwala
He noted that, along with the development of the economy, the late Singapore leader also stressed on education, health, housing, full employment, pension and retirement benefits for all of Singapore’s citizens.
The Prime Minister added that, in a sense, the Singapore leader was an inheritor of D.S. Senanayake’s vision. “He admired D.S. Senanayake and his Ceylon, and he wanted Singapore to follow that example. While recognising and emphasising the fact that the Chinese were in a majority, Malay was retained as the official language, while Tamil was also recognized. He stressed the need for national unity, a Singapore identity, and he transformed Singapore into a successful trading nation,”Mr Wickremesinghe said.
The Premier added that, the example of Lee Kuan Yew was followed by former President J.R. Jayawardene in Sri Lanka and Deng Xiaoping in China. “The great Chinese economy became possible because of the visit he (Deng Xiaoping) paid to Singapore. Similarly, we became a market economy following in the steps of Singapore,” he said.
Leader of the Opposition, Nimal Siripala De Silva said the late Singapore leader was a lawyer by profession and later became a politician, starting his own political party- the People’s Action Party- in 1954. “He served as Prime minister of Singapore for many years. Though limited in resources, he turned Singapore into one of the strongest economies in the world. He emphasised the fact that it was not possible to rule a country without the support of the people. Some political analysts have questioned how democratic his rule was, but despite these questions, he built a strong economy that served his people well,” Mr De Silva said.
Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa said that the late Singaporean leader ruled his country by example. “He built a country devoid of waste and corruption, and worked with commitment towards his country and is an example for all of us to follow in public life,” he said. The Speaker conveyed the condolences of Parliament to the family of the late leader as well as the people of Singapore.
