Singapore says goodbye

Lee Luan Yew, the founding father and first Prime Minster of Singapore died in the middle of the night on Monday morning, throwing Singapore into a week of mourning before his funeral this Sunday.

            Singapore turns 50 this year, so it was quite fitting that the 91 year old who fought for self-government from the British colony, and who later pulled Singapore out of a merger with Malaysia to create the stand alone, successful country that it is today survived to see his country reach such an important milestone.

            He had been in and out of hospital for the past few weeks, and there was actually an accidental announcement last week that he had passed away, but it was on Monday morning that it was made official.

            This morning this coffin was moved from his home to Parliament House, directly next to my office, where members of the public are now queuing for over 8 hours to file past and pay their final respects.

            I watched from our window as the procession made its way through Singapore, but in this heat I am not sure that I will be taking 8 hours out of my working day to visit his coffin. It’s quite incredible to be in Singapore at such a significant point of it’s history but it’s terribly sad to see the local people feel such a significant loss at his passing. I dread to think what London will be like the next time that we have a significant Royal funeral, but it will be pretty close to what's been going on in Singapore for the past few days.