This post does not have a political agenda. Neither is it about rightfulness and wrongfulness. The agenda of this post is simply for us to reflect. And yes, we are going to talk about Mr. Lee Kuan Yew.

First of all, I know many of us, especially the younger generation, do not like the methods that were employed in the past. That's fine, because I don't either. But that's not the point.

When you participate in the debate of what is the right way of doing things, then either you love your country a lot, or you are a selfish individual who is too self-absorbed in your set of ideals. And because I am not interested in the latter, let's just take it that you are the former.

To begin, here are some food for thoughts.

We should always base our actions on the circumstances that surround us. In the past, Mr. Lee did what he did because, with his current state of mind and information, that was the best way of handling things. The question for us to ponder upon is, if we were to do the things in the past with our method, would we have the same Singapore that we do today? Did we, maybe in our harsh belief in our ideals, forget that we were a small place with no money, no education, no resources and surrounded by, if not water, neighbours that were very different from us? Essentially, we had nothing. So once again, considering how different things were in the the past, can our current ideals succeed in achieving the same as his did?

We should always appreciate the things around us. The fact that we are able sit down in comfort and criticize the past happenings is the result of the very thing that we are criticizing. With this, the pertinent question now becomes, while we criticize the ways that things are handled in the past, how willing are we to give up our current state of comfort for our ideals?

The main point is, while we are critical of the methods of Mr. Lee, do we deny that he spent his life trying to make our country a better place; a man who had unwavering will for Singapore to succeed since he started his quest in politics? If you do not, then I strongly urge that even if you cannot love way things were done, you could at least respect the man and his love for our country, just as we, too, love our country.

Of course, while we celebrate the life of a man who strived for nothing short of the best for his country, it does not mean that we have to subscribe to his methods of doing things. As mentioned, we should always change with the circumstance; because it was the best in the past does not automatically make it the best today. But this topic remains for the future.

So thank you Mr. Lee, I wouldn't be who I am and have what I have today without your sacrifice.