Emotions run high at funeral service

SINGAPORE — For more than two hours yesterday (March 29), some 2,200 guests who attended the State Funeral Service at the University Cultural Centre (UCC) listened in rapt attention as speaker after speaker, led by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, recounted the legacy and life of Mr Lee Kuan Yew.

For many in the audience, however, emotions ran high, and the stately, solemn ceremony was punctuated throughout by muffled sobs.

But there were moments of laughter, too, when mirthful episodes of the life of Singapore’s founding Prime Minister were recounted, as well as standing ovations for several among the 10 people who delivered eulogies.

The guests at the event, including members of the late Mr Lee’s family, President Tony Tan Keng Yam, Cabinet ministers and members of the judiciary, began arriving around noon. Foreign dignitaries who were present included Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Prime Ministers Tony Abbott, Shinzo Abe and Narendra Modi of Australia, Japan and India, and former United States President Bill Clinton.

Proceedings at the funeral service began around 1:50 pm, when the gun carriage carrying the state flag-draped casket of Mr Lee rounded the main foyer at the UCC, and 48 miltary policemen who formed a Line of Honour inverted their weapons and bowed their heads as it passed them. Called “Resting on Arms Reversed”, this posture represented the highest form of respect the Armed Forces can pay to the deceased.

As the coffin was carried into the UCC, the mournful strains of “Dead March from Saul” rang out, played by the SAF Military Band. PM Lee and his family followed the casket, along with 16 pall bearers led by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Mr Lim Swee Say, NTUC Secretary-General and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office.

At precisely 2.05 pm, the casket was brought into the UCC Hall, while the Singapore Symphony Orchestra played Bach’s “Air” from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major.

The eulogy portion of the service was brought to an end by Mr Lee Hsien Yang, Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s youngest child. After he delivered a heartfelt ode to his father’s many qualities, the ceremony took on a more formal and sombre tone.

PM Lee and President Tan laid wreaths on either side of the casket, and many in the audience began tearing when the lights were dimmed and a lone bugler played out the strains of the Last Post from a balcony.

This was followed by a minute of silence - an opportunity for Singaporeans across the country to join the funeral proceedings. Tens of thousands everywhere, from Changi Airport to coffeeshops in the heartland to MRT stations, observed the moment.

After this, the bugler sounded The Rouse - a symbolic call back to duty after respect has been paid - and, hand on heart, the guests recited the Pledge, followed by a stirring rendition of the Majulah Singapura.

As the casket was carried out of the UCC before its final journey to Mandai Crematorium, many in the crowd wept silently.

Standing at the front of the hall, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean raised his right arm in salute, a poignant gesture of farewell to a man whose eye for detail and obsession with all things Singapore extended to persuading a young Mr Teo to make the Republic of Singapore Navy a career choice.