All life journeys, in the end, are private, even for public men.

At 3.18am last Monday, when most Singaporeans were asleep, Lee Kuan Yew bade farewell to the prosperous and harmonious nation he single-mindedly forged.

At Mandai crematorium, he left this improbable nation he built, after 454,700 people had queued up to 10 hours to send him off.

[quip float="pqright"] At Mandai crematorium, he left this improbable nation he built, after 454,700 people had queued up to 10 hours to send him off. [/quip]

I do not know the first Prime Minister of Singapore personally.

Just like many of my generation, we were treated to second-hand accounts of his life, his impact and his habits by our parents and elders. As a baby of the 1980s, you have some awareness of Lee’s omnipresence – you see Lee on television or his memoirs decorating the bookshelves of homes you visit.

But I was luckier than most.

As a young civil servant, I had the privilege to work for Lee’s long-serving Press Secretary, on several occasions.*

This meant I had the opportunity to witness Lee up-close during public events open for press coverage.

I recall one event in Nov 2010.

Then Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping met Minister Mentor Lee during his official visit to Singapore.

Before any formal meetings between leaders, government officials would provide a short 30 secs to one minute photo opportunity for the media.

Local photographers understood the rules of the game and would depart immediately without the urging of the staffers.

Unfortunately, the Chinese media, known for their aggressiveness, broke the agreed protocol and continued snapping their shots away.

When Lee realised that the Chinese photographers were taking longer than usual, he stared at them and said "够了" (Enough). That probably froze the hearts of many in attendance that day.

That was my only impression of him close-up: a no-nonsense grandfatherly figure who does not condone others breaking the rules, even for a small act like this.

A peacetime generation

I wonder what Lee would have made of my generation – the Gen Xs and Gen Ys, his grandchildren’s generation, a generation that has grown up in material comfort and social stability.

Mixed feelings of trepidation and hope? Lee's grandson, Li Shengwu said that Lee probably viewed our generation “with a mixture of trepidation and hope”, for we are “children of peacetime, unacquainted with the long struggle to make Singapore a modern nation start”.

An anglicised generation that's self-engrossed? As former journalist Cassandra Chew mentioned in her eulogy to Lee, he always had these questions - why this generation is not getting married earlier or planning to have children or whether they spoke their Mother Tongue often enough.

A generation who forgot the painful birth of our nation? Lee's verdict on our generation after GE was that “2011 has seen a generation that does not remember from whence we came”. I wonder whether Lee was referring to the PAP's defeat at Aljunied and how a young opposition politician had apologised to the Muslim community on the behalf of Chinese Singaporeans, for his comments in his book.

Singapore Dream Act 1

Following a one-week silence of “Do not speak ill of the dead”, many criticisms have emerged this week about Lee’s complex legacy.

But these criticisms somehow appear dated – the lack of civil liberties, the curtailing of media freedoms, the injustices of some of our laws.

These criticisms are not fallacious but many of my generation would very much like to move on and look forward. Some of my generation will carry these batons from the older generation, but I think the older generation needs to realise that they have had this debate with Lee's generation.

Economic prosperity in exchange for political freedoms? That was the pioneer and second generation’s social compact with Lee, not ours.

That is “the Singapore Dream, Act 1”, as ex- Straits Times deputy editor Zuraidah Ibrahim aptly puts it in her commentary in Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, “when poor young migrants could land on its shores and build a life from scratch, own a home and place their children and grandchildren on a firm footing”.

Act 2 starts now - after first-world status, what next?

Politics is the art of knowing what is possible here and now. It is focused on whether an idea’s time has come.

In 1950, a 27-year old student from Cambridge University analysed the political situation in colonial Malaya and said that the English-educated were the best placed to assume power from the British and that the ultimate battle would be with the communists.

He (Lee) was proven right.

And the torch has now been passed to our generation to decide Singapore’s future.

We belong to the new generation whose dream of politics and public service is shaped by the death of Lee.

Lee's passing spoke to us and have given voice to a longing, a real hunger to contribute to Singapore, that most had not even imagined before.

[quip float="pqright"] We belong to the new generation whose dream of politics and public service is shaped by the death of Lee. [/quip]

Our generation can appreciate Lee's contributions to Singapore without being constrained by the historical baggage and trauma of the pioneer generation.

The downsides are that we may forget the exceptionalism of our pioneer generation, where being extraordinary is a strategic imperative for a small country like Singapore.

A decade ago, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said this in his inaugural National Rally Speech:

"One critical aspect of rooting Singaporeans here is to empower them, to give them a say in their lives, to make them feel that they can make a difference. If you are in China or in America, you can't do that. One person out of 1.3 billion, can you change China? How many can become like Deng Xiaoping? If you were one person out of nearly 300 million in America, can you become the President and change America? How many people can go on stage and say, "I am John Kerry, I am reporting for duty"? But in Singapore, you can and you must".

Lee has shown that one man with vision and fortitude could make a difference in this world, let alone Singapore.

Lee brand of leadership - his leadership coupled with his imagination - are not only needed in third-world Singapore, but needed even more when we are of first-world status.

What will be Singapore's new narrative in the next 50 years?

An open and inclusive Singapore?**

A free global city of today?***

A home with many peaks of excellence for all?

Time for the next generation of Singaporeans to step up and be counted

[quip float="pqright"] "For Lee Kuan Yew’s most important contribution to Singapore, ‘look all around you’", says former Foreign Minister George Yeo. For Lee Kuan Yew's most important legacy? Look inside you. [/quip]

"For Lee Kuan Yew’s most important contribution to Singapore, ‘look all around you’", says former Foreign Minister George Yeo.

For Lee Kuan Yew's most important legacy? Look inside you.

It's time for us to look inside us and build upon his ideals of a meritocratic, multi-racial and incorruptible Singapore.

It's time for us to take ownership of the country and of the problems, and build tomorrow's Singapore.

*Madam Yeong Yoon Ying was Lee’s Press Secretary since 1993.

**A speech by then DPM Lee Hsien Loong on building a civic society.

***“In medieval times, the future was first to be discerned in the free cities. So the future, with all its uncertainties, is perhaps easiest to be discerned in the free cities of today, and Singapore should aspire to be one such free city," - George Yeo

Top photo from Remembering Lee Kuan Yew Facebook page.

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