TR EMERITUS

Lee Hsien Yang (LHY) has declared himself a political refugee from Singapore, the land of his birth. The land his father and his team had built up. UK is currently the land he seeks protection from. He has gone back to his colonial masters for refuge.

“I sought asylum protection in 2022. The Singapore Government’s attacks against me are in the public record. They prosecuted my son, brought disciplinary proceedings against my wife, and launched a bogus police investigation that has dragged on for years.”

“On the basis of these facts, the UK has determined that I face a well-founded risk of persecution, and cannot safely return to Singapore.”

Well, the optics will divide the minds of Singaporeans, left and right. Perception is everything. The glasses we wear determine what we want to see, and confirm what we want to believe in.

Everyone has a pair, and they vary in degree, literally. Some take the time to do regular check up to keep the lenses in focus on the details that matter. Others prefer lenses that are long due for adjustments because they have already decided on what they want to focus on.

The dark side of success is that you risk a society being divided into those who will not question you and those who will not stop questioning you. Suspicion is the soil that nourishes the later, and devotion is the soil that nurtures the former.

Either extremes risk destabilising society. It’s the difference between dry matches ready to light at the touch of heat and wet matches that stay unlit even in places most humid.

Human nature embraces equality. They are at rest when their neighbours are no better than them. They are restless when they have reasons to compare class and status with their neighbour and suspect special patronage.

Look at the countless numbers of sibling rivalries and you get more than a glimpse of what I mean. It is the same with success, for it is fiercely exclusive. The accumulation of it transforms the leadership to become skittish and protective. It can turn a leader into a nervous wreck.

Status quo is a cursed condition, especially when it has been one-party dominant for more than half a century. It does not fit into our idea of what is frank and fair election or transparent and honest leadership. Perception is infinitely elastic, volatile; reality is grounded, largely unseen.

Like the deep secrets of the Order of the Knight Templars or the exclusive gatherings of King Arthur’s round table knights, there is just something lurking in the cabinet, a secret hidden in political catacombs, as perception goes.

Going back to LHY, for context, he is what you would call an all-rounder. He would have been the perfect son of Singapore.

He is a scholar. He studied in the best universities (Cambridge and Stanford). At a commanding height, he led SingTel as CEO, Fraser and Neave as non-executive director, and CAAS as its chairman. And to top that all up, he was a brigadier general.

Schools, army and workplace, you name it, LHY has done it all and scored a perfect 10.

He could have retired more than comfortably embracing what the status quo had enabled him to achieve. But after a passing and a death wish denied, he and his sister left a place of perpetual rest to a place of perpetual unrest.

Alas, he lacked nothing, but one. It’s what money cannot buy. Neither status nor titles can bankroll. He will struggle to find peace again.

Whether he is running away from his ghosts or from a brother he thinks has an axe to grind, I suppose every year he will be watching the NDP from afar (he will still be with family though). And he would recall a time the place of his birth was his home. A safe refuge. It has given him so much.

Now, the only person left is someone he deeply distrusts. To him, his home is now no more than a dry empty husk.

Michael Han