love JBJ

there are few in singapore who come anywhere near JBJ's achievements; london-educated lawyer, magistrate, and member of parliament, and who because he spoke truth to power, was made to lose all his silk and robes, a lone figure amidst singapore's gleaming modernity peddling books, a lone voice soaring above a diffident office crowd, 'make it right! make it right for singapore!'

there are even fewer who have his guts, who understood every word of majulah singapura, who recited the Pledge not as a pledge of dependence, distraction, emptiness. he dared to live out his convictions in a country that convicted those beliefs, and had to face off not only the powerful, but also the powerless who either viewed him with disdain, or dared not look him in the eye. in a country whose illusive prosperity pays due to self-serving millionaire politicians, a contemptuous and condescending ruling class, a disgraceful and propagandistic mass media, and a grovelling citizenry who has to constantly pit itself against itself for bread crumbs, why is there no place for someone like JBJ?

hence the distinction of rarity goes to singapore, a country that reveres the Father and his coins, and that ostracises the true son and his quest to seek out truth, justice, and liberty. and for whom? it is my long-held belief that when a people has never known grace and kindness, and who have been treated solely as a digit in a factory, this very people will treat every other person as harshly, cruelly, as a digit right down to the decimal point. why should there be no place for someone like JBJ?

JBJ could've very simply lived the high life of singapore, schmoozing as district judges do amongst the legal fraternity and high society. but where high society lapped up the riches and the privilege, he left that place to be amongst the people - ordinary citizens like you and i - who can only dream of attaining what he once upon a time had, who can only hope to be able to bring up such fine sons, and not just because they graduated with distinction from cambridge and became a banker and a senior counsel, and one of singapore's finest literary authors. he could've earned millions, but in a sick society like singapore, we made him pay millions. and for what? for speaking up for us. for daring to do what we do not dare to. for being willing to give up all that most of us would never have, not with all the dreams in the world. and how did we embrace JBJ and that place he painstakingly carved out for singaporeans - despite all the odds - just so we could stand firmer and prouder?

when JBJ died, his record was whiter than white, outshining even those supposed men in white. he had no slush funds or secret bank accounts - how to, when he had nowhere and no wish to hide? he had no illicit love affairs - he stayed true to his wife even in the two decades after her death. what JBJ achieved was to be so innocent as to have the privy council of london confirm and condemn our farcical courts, and expose our deplorable politicians as a bunch of cowardly, vindictive, mercenaries. what he achieved was everything the singapore leaders have over the last forty years cajoled singaporeans to; well, almost everything. where he succeeded was everything singapore's leaders desperately had sought to fabricate for themselves.

JBJ died of heart failure; but when he died, it was not just his heart that had failed him.

it is just my conviction that when things are wrong, and if there is anything i can do to put them right, then i should. i think every citizen should feel like that. it is every citizen's duty.

JBJ