Friday 27 March 2015

they shared same i nterests, and not because they speak the same language. It
was Mr Lee who supported the creation
of the Mosque Building Fund (MBF),
which helped build many mosques that
are magnificent and thriving.
However, no matter how much
funds are collected, it will be useless
if the foundations of harmony are
weak and are not upheld by everyone. Because mosques that will be
built will face protests and those that
have been built will be burned down.
You can see the proof everywhere.
A harmonious, multiracial society
is his most precious legacy that had
helped our progress while protecting
the minorities.
If a harmonious society enables the
minority Muslim community to carry on with their religion peacefully,
Mr Lees system of meritocracy became the benchmark in education and
employment for everyone.
The Malay community should be
proud because they have proven to the
world that their excellence in education and employment did not happen
because there was special treatment
for the minorities. We were able to
achieve our success and compete in
the world-class educational systems
and funds were given to the Malays
to succeed in education. We were successful in our careers because of our
performance and our self-esteem was
safeguarded and is respected by the
other communities.
When I accompanied him to Malaysia, he spoke to a leader who spread
lies about the Malay community in Singapore. He challenged that the Berita
Harian paper is distributed there and
so that everyone can see how prosperous the Singapore Muslim community is in Singapore, and how many of
their children became engineers, became scientists and became doctors. I
(was) so proud to stand beside him on
that day. Clearly, he was proud of our
achievements.
Therefore, it comes to no surprise
the global community and world leaders I have met like Mr Tony Blair and
the Grand Mufti of Egypt Shawki Alam
expressed admiration toward the racial
harmony that is evident in Singapore.
In fact, they were enthusiastic about
the confidence among Muslims, who
would not only perform prayers diligently in the magnificent mosques that
they had built themselves, but they were
also able to integrate easily as Singaporeans who are able to live successfully
in a meritocracy system without any
favouritism. This is the identity of Singapore Muslims that was built by him.
My heart is heavy not only because
Singapore lost a leader. He has created
a name for our small nation in the world.
We, the child of Lee Kuan Yew, as the
father who was the architect of modern
Singapore. Without him we would not
have thought of Mendaki or the MBF.
May the future generations honour
Mr Lees contributions and build on his
legacy (and) beware about instigations
that may separate us Thank you,
Mr Lee, for leaving us a harmonious
nation and identity.

Members of Parliament leaving Parliament House after paying their respects to the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew. Photo: Don Wong

Mr Lee will live in our memories forever

Vikram Nair

Member of Parliament
for Sembawang GRC

I
Mr Lees values
were clear. He
believed in
honest clean
government.
He firmly
believed that
everyone
should be
given equal
opportunities.
He was
also firm in
ensuring
that no
discrimination
should be
shown to
anyone on
account of
differences of
race, language
and religion.

wish to express my deepest condolences to the late Mr Lee Kuan

Yews family.
I deliver this speech with great
sorrow. When I was born in 1978,
MrLee was the Prime Minister. In fact,
MrLee was the Prime Minister from
the time that we got independence.
His achievements are immeasurable.
Many other colonies also gained
independence at about the same
time that Singapore had gained its
independence. Those countries had
larger populations, larger land mass
and more natural resources than
Singapore. However, Singapore, unlike many of these countries, under
MrLees leadership saw outstanding
development.
Now, we are one of the wealthiest
countries in the world. Our per capita
income and gross domestic product are
larger than many other countries. The
main reason for this is Mr Lees policies.
Under Mr Lees rule, Singapore had a
phenomenal growth. However, when he
took over, the people were poor, had low
levels of education and the unemployment rate was high.
Mr Lees government systematical-

ly improved peoples lives. His government built large numbers of Housing

and Development Board flats to house
the people. These flats provided modern housing with water and electricity directly to the people coming from
the kampungs.
He made education affordable (and
almost free) to all Singaporeans and
provided adequate schools for all. As
a result, Singaporeans have joined the
ranks of the best educated people in
the world. More importantly, he created a dynamic environment for economic development. As a result, our
people who were well educated had
well-paying jobs.
Mr Lees values were clear. He believed in honest, clean government. He
firmly believed that everyone should
be given equal opportunities. He was
also firm in ensuring that no discrimination should be shown to anyone on
account of differences of race, language and religion. Indeed, this was
very important for the minority races.
Even though the Indians form only
10 per cent of the population, the Tamil
language remains as one of the official
languages. Mr Lee, under his multi
racial and multi lingual policy, made
a provision in the Constitution to include it as one of the official languages.
Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair,
George H W Bush, Bill Clinton, Helmut

Schmidt and Henry Kissinger many

world leaders have lauded Mr Lee.
They include people such as Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, George H W
Bush, Bill Clinton, Helmut Schmidt
and Henry Kissinger. They praised
him for his vision, tenacity and his
contribution to the rapid development
of Singapore.
It is indeed our fortune that Mr Lee
has been Singapores leader. It is the
duty of the present generation to take
his work forward for the wellbeing
of Singaporeans.
The Singapore Tamil Writers Association commemorated Mr Lees
90th birthday with 90 Tamil poems. I
wish to end my speech by quoting few
lines from one of the poems contained
in the book A Tribute To The Great
Man Lee Kuan Yew 90.
You treated everybody equally
Made Tamil one of the four official
languages
Like a mother caring her child
Who would do such a thing?
You condemned political violence
Hated empty slogans
We celebrate you as an epic hero
and rejoice
May you long live forever and ever
I am sure Mr Lee will live in all our
memories forever. Im sure he will live
in our collective memories for generations to come. Thank you.