Al Jazeera: Singaporeans Pay Last Respects to Lee Kuan Yew
March 29, 2015
Thousands of Singaporeans wait in long lines to pay their last respects to the country's former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, whose body was lying in state at the Parliament. (Credit: Dene-Hern Chen)
(I spent the week of Lee Kuan Yew's death – and funeral – speaking to dozens of mourners. While I did not write the story that went up on Al Jazeera, some of my interviews made it in, and are listed below.)
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"This is the only chance I have to say goodbye. It's the last time we can send him off," Pauline Chan, 55, told Al Jazeera. "Rain or storm, I knew I just had to stand there. I missed the chance to visit him at the Parliament House, and it was weighing on my mind."
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Another Singaporean, Chin Eoh Kahn, 55, told Al Jazeera: "We all owe him. I am from the generation between his time and the next, and I feel like we have worked together with him to make Singapore what it is today."
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"I am really surprised [by the turnout]," Mufidah Muhamat Bakri told Al Jazeera on Saturday. "There are many people who disagree with his policies and how he ruled the nation, but they still pay their respects."
"People may not agree with him but that does not mean that they must hold a grudge and we know that he did the best he could. People want to acknowledge that," she said.