Happy Birthday

Today is LKY's 90th Birthday. For the past few days there has been lots of tributes in the papers on his achievements in transforming Singapore.

Though I am not like the LKY-adoring "grateful old" of my parents' generation (having been influenced by the critiques of the Gen X and Gen Y), just 2 things which drew my attention lately have made me sufficiently appreciative for all he has done for our country.

First is a mundane report that the Malaysian Government is relaunching an effort to spruce up Kuala Lumpur's Klang River. The article describes how unbearably filthy and smelly the river is that even pedestrians avoid taking the footpath along its banks. When I read that I instantly recalled how 50 years ago I used to suffer the stench when accompanying my mother to the Central Market at KL. My sister's school was also located at the Old Klang Road which was parallel to the Klang River meandering from Port Klang to KL. In my childhood memory the brown waters of the river which seemed to stretch forever was a landmark when visiting my sister's school. I can't believe that 50 years forward, the conditions of the river is unchanged if not worse, having been described as "between critical and bad" by Gareth Jones of Wessex Water, a UK based company. Can you imagine if Singapore has the fortune of such a river, it would have been made into a tourist hub of miles of alfresco dining and water sports. Looking out from any building along our Singapore River is enough to make one proud and grateful.

My daughter just met up with a college friend who is a Malaysian working in KL. Though we read in the papers about the frequent crimes in Malaysia, it only strikes you as very real and rampant when heard first hand from the locals. The girl narrated several incidents that happened to friends and relatives eg being slashed on the neck when opening the car door just parked outside a condo, another needing a cornea transplant when the car's front screen was smashed before his very eyes and robbers who wait no time to cause grievous hurt. Hearing all these accounts make me postpone my trip to KL, something which I often used to do to reminisce my childhood. Now KL seems to me a lawless city, a cowboy town without a sheriff.

I used KL to compare with Singapore because it is very real for me, ie. I could have ended up in KL if alternative decisions were made some decades ago. It also pains me to see how conditions have deteriorated in this idyllic town of my memories. No one would have envisaged how vastly different the 2 countries have become. It just takes one visionary man to make the difference and in the lives of many.