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Business News/ News / World/  Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding father, dies at 91
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Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding father, dies at 91

Lee's body will lie in state at Parliament House from Wednesday after a private family wake on Monday and Tuesday

Lee Kuan Yew crafted a legacy of encouraging foreign investment, averting corruption and emphasizing discipline, efficiency and interracial harmony. Photo: AFPPremium
Lee Kuan Yew crafted a legacy of encouraging foreign investment, averting corruption and emphasizing discipline, efficiency and interracial harmony. Photo: AFP

Singapore: Singapore declared a week-long period of national mourning following the death of Lee Kuan Yew, its first Prime Minister, as state flags flew at half mast and radio stations broadcast some of his most famous comments.

Lee’s body will lie in state at Parliament House from Wednesday after a private family wake on Monday and Tuesday, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement. The state funeral service on 29 March will be followed by a private cremation ceremony.

Lee, the Cambridge University-trained lawyer who led the nation from 1959 to 1990, crafted a legacy of encouraging foreign investment, averting corruption and emphasizing discipline, efficiency and interracial harmony. His elder son, Lee Hsien Loong, has been Prime Minister since 2004.

“To many Singaporeans, and indeed others too, Lee Kuan Yew was Singapore," the current Prime Minister said in a televised address on Monday hours after his father’s death. “There won’t be another man like him."

Among those who will attend the funeral service are Lee’s family, friends and staff, Singapore President Tony Tan, cabinet ministers, members of Parliament and senior civil servants, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

Lee died at 3:18am on Monday at the age of 91. He was hospitalized in the intensive care unit of Singapore General Hospital near the city-state’s downtown on 5 February to treat severe pneumonia, where he was sedated and put on mechanical ventilation.

Private wake

The private wake will be held at Sri Temasek, the Prime Minister’s official residence, and where Lee and his wife Kwa Geok Choo once spent time with their three children.

Kwa, who died in 2010, was accorded the honour of making her final voyage on a ceremonial gun carriage to her funeral service.

Mediacorp Pte, which is owned by Temasek Holdings Pte, Singapore’s state investment company, said regular television and radio programming will make way for special coverage over the next seven days. The Straits Times, Singapore’s most widely read newspaper, changed the masthead on its website to gray.

“I have spent my life, so much of it, building up this country," the younger Lee quoted his father saying toward the end of his life. “There’s nothing more that I need to do."

“At the end of the day, what have I got? A successful Singapore. What have I given up? My life." Bloomberg

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Published: 23 Mar 2015, 08:03 AM IST
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