Life’s lessons from Lee Kuan Yew

My heart sank when I heard of the death of Mr Lee Kuan Yew. His life’s lessons, vision and strategic thinking in foreign and domestic policies, and his contributions have provided valuable insights from which we can learn.

With his iron-fisted policies, he was a feared leader, but was highly respected and spoke with great confidence. With his tree-planting day and the Singapore River clean-up from 1977 to 1987, he made the country clean and green.

He used capable men in Cabinet — Mr Goh Keng Swee to run economic policies and Mr S Rajaratnam to run foreign policy — ran an efficient, corruption-free government and made friends with other countries so they could recognise our sovereignty.

He was into lifelong learning and upgrading himself, continuing to work even in old age and keeping abreast of the latest developments in Singapore. He also made our educational system a bilingual journey. He was a role model as a doting father and loving husband, and a selfless leader who showed his successors the ropes. He knew the important tasks that needed to be done.

Finally, he had resilience and never gave up on his vision of a prosperous Singapore. As we approach our golden jubilee in August, it would be good to reflect on how we have come far.

Without Mr Lee’s guidance and his lieutenants walking in his footsteps, where would have been the progress and success of our nation? Their hard work and perseverance will not be in vain.

It should be recorded in our hearts and minds, in schools through character and citizenship education, in libraries through a corner for learning more about our founding fathers and in ministries through articles of these men.