Passing of an era

I awoke in a fluster on Monday morning, 4.30AM. It was pitch dark and raining lightly outside. My breathing was heavy and I was disoriented. It took me a while to focus and get back to bed. However, my sleep was disturbed and as dawn approached, I gingerly got off the bed, unable to bear the inexplicable sense of heaviness.

Then as I began reading the flurry of messages off my phone, I realized Mr Lee Kuan Yew had passed on. For the next several minutes, I knelt by myself in the living room in the tranquility of the morning, praying and trying to sort out what it was that I felt. My eyes teared as I lifted my prayer. 

Like many Singaporeans, my family and I joined the queue to pay or final respect to Mr Lee at the Parliament House. No queue was too long, no sun was too hot, no rain was too heavy, no wait was too inconvenient for the man who dedicated more than 60 years of his life to build this country we call home.

As the week of mourning went on, I was pensive - taking in all the eulogies that poured forth from near and far, from friends and strangers; observing the groundswell of emotion from supporters and detractors alike. It was heartrending in many ways, and I was struggling to put to words the depth of emotion that was stirring inside.

I saw the Singapore spirit revived - the camaraderie that galvanized the nation when it was birthed in the 60s. I saw a people who cared, and thought beyond themselves. I saw the determination that made Singapore great.

I also saw Mr Lee's unfinished work - the unsightly trail of empty bottles and packaging when the trash bin is not far away. I saw people joining the priority queue who were neither old nor handicapped. 

But what worried me most, was the unthankfulness I saw. In mild cases, it was a casting of doubt on the nature of Mr Lee's achievements and motivations, not so much a denial of Mr Lee's contributions. In other cases, it was beyond contempt and disdain - as exemplified by the incredibly haughty Amos Yee - which brings to mind Apostle Paul's warning that in the end times, we will find people who will be lovers of themselves, boastful, proud, blasphemers, ungrateful, slanderers, without self-control, reckless, and swollen with self-conceit. Yet there are many Amos Yees, just less vitriolic.

Make no mistake about it - many young people, who have barely lived life and known suffering, do what they do, and say what they say, because their parents have either imbued this hatred or simply failed to guide them. While some pity Amos Yee's parents for having an offspring as him, I do not pity them as much as I pity him - for he is a product of his environment.

As Mr Lee's wake comes to a close, I begin to realize that what saddens me, is the ending of an era - an era where men lived for a cause. In that era, men were greater because of the vision they carried. 

In that era, it was not a fight for the material things of this world as much as it was a battle of ideology, a battle for the minds of men. It was about the organization of society - whether Marxism, Communism, Socialism, or Democracy. It was a fight for human equality - to advance irregardless of race, language or religion. It was a fight for truth - to see it materialized in society. 

In that era, it was romantic. It was a time of living dangerously. It was the era of Churchill, Hitler, Stalin, Gandhi, Nehru, Sukarno, Ho Chi Minh, Mao Tse Dong, Pol Pot, Mandela - all these people, even if history has judged them as villains, they lived with a cause. 

That era is passing and coming to a close. An era where men fought for what they held to be truth, where they fought for their values and vision. That era is now passing. What do we fight for today? What is the purpose of our labor? If our labor and our energies are directed to mere material gain, we would have lost it.

I am saddened by the departure of a great man, but perhaps more so, I am saddened that an era is passing and coming to a close - an era where men could be greater because they fought not for greater wealth but for higher truths, hard as they may be.

May we continue to fight for truth, to strive for righteousness, with the same tenacity and passion as Mr Lee's.