My Tribute to our Founding Father, Mr Lee Kuan Yew

My company gave us time off from 3pm onwards to pay our last respect to Mr Lee Kua Yew at the Parliament House on Thursday and Friday. 

My colis and I reckoned it's a wiser choice to go on Thursday even though it would means feeling really tired to go back to work on Friday. We can;t really gauge what's the waiting hour as it keeps on changing back then. But all is worth it just to bid goodbye to Mr LKY.

The queue started from Padang on Thursday. But before we reached the actual queue, the crowd was too overwhelming and everyone has to loop several rounds around the war memorial park (opposite Suntec) just to get to the actual Suntec. 

I was separated with 2 of my other coli when there's this sudden road opening to the opposite road heading to Padang (a definitely much shorter way). It was a one time thingy to solve the bottleneck at the under pass to cross over to join the queue. 

The crowd heading towards Padang. Once you know you manage to cross, it's like you are really near to the Padang.

2 of my colis managed to cross over first and the rest of us tried waiting to see whether are they going to open the barricade for us to cross over.

At the end of the day, no one wishes to climb down and up that underpass. However, the official started announcing they will not open this barricade again and asked us to proceed to the underpass. It was suddenly smooth 'traffic' at the underpass and all the way up. Seems like the sudden decision to open up the barricade clears the bottleneck. 

We were in Padang within the next half hour and constantly moving all the way till we reached there. We were greeted with drinks/biscuits along the way. There were mobile toilets too and of cause we heard people asking the volunteers what's the estimated waiting time. I remember hearing another 4-5 hours once we were in Padang. They too were unsure what's the situation and what we can do is to keep moving on.

We were being directed to join in the queue at those 'tents' set up by our army  guys over the night. They were infact still setting up more when we were there so as to cater to even more people. 

The whole Padang was a holding area for everyone. They shifted people tents by tents to move out from the Padang and carry on walking to the Parliament House. It was really unclear and we only figured that out at the end of everything.

Throughout the whole queuing journey,  I didn't hear any complains even though there's full of uncertainties. I was the lucky one to join the 'tent' that was already quite packed. We did asked the volunteer on duty which tent to join and they simply replied any. We saw people from other tent's kept moving but just not ours. Soon after we kept moving and moving and the next thing we know we were out of Padang. 

The sun were starting to set and it was much cooling as compared to earlier on. Everyone was quiet, taking photos of the scenery they passed by. There were constant movement with on and offs stopping.

Soon enough, we saw this white tent and the volunteers there greeted us and assure us that we are really reaching. 

We walked and wrote our condolences card. We thought there's only one dropping point for the cards and we went to stop beside the box just to write finish. They assure us there's more boxes infront and told us to continue walking and write.

Done!

I find my handwritting too ugly so I went to the tribute center near my house the very next day to do another tribute again. More about that later on..

After all the bag scanning, we were getting nearer and nearer to the Parliament house.

One last shot outside before we get in..

Once you're in there, the volunteer signal to us with his hands to asked us to get into rows of 2. Everyone was cooperative and it was total silence. 

I took a bow and said my last goodbye to our founding father before leaving. It was a moment filled of gratitude and sadness. 

Throughout the 3.5 hours of queuing, I've seen how people from all walks of life coming together to pay tribute to our founding father. Parents with their kids in prams, elderies, pregnant ladies whom all by right have the right to the priority queue. Most of them didn't even ask where's the priority queue and just join in with the rest of them till they reach Padang area and were redirected to the priority queue. Totally no complains and anything to pay the last respect to Mr LKY.

A heartwarming day which I will remember for the rest of my life.

Though I may have paid my tribute to Mr LKY at the parliament house, that didn't deter me from going to nearest tribute site which was located just opposite my house to pay tribute again. This time round, to properly write down my heartfelt gratitude. I went there the next day after work.

The elderly volunteer has been there for quite sometime just to ensure everyone is in order. A staff from the CC came out to offer him a bottle of water and he didn't want to take it at first. But they push it to him telling him the whole thing might end at 10pm.

Really thankful to all the volunteers out there be it at the Padang or community tribute sites.

And so I wrote a proper tribute to him this time round. As I was penning down my last tribute to him, I also took the time to look through all the condolences card people have made for him. So heartwarming indeed.

There wasn't any video screening at there since it was just a small site but the amount of people who have went there to pen down their tribute was more than what I expected. 

Few days back when I first passed by after it was set up, there wasn't any gifts and etc. Just a few days the whole place was filled with flowers, cards and etc. Even the tribute book which I wrote in was fully written and there wasn't much space left. 

I totally didn't expect it in a new town where not much people are staying yet. Some might prefer going to larger tribute sites but I guess at the end of the day, we just want to say thank you to our founding father.

I have been catching up with all the shows regarding Mr LKY's contribution on the TV lately. His words were really full of insight. I'll be camping infront of the television tml just to watch his last journey with us.

Pardon for the solemn posting this whole week as I just want to write down my feelings and thoughts. Something which I will definitely pass it on to the future generation, to let them know this great man who had did so much for Singapore. #rememberingLKY #ripLKY #thankyouLKY