Sunday, April 10, 2016

LWL: The dishonorable son


The eldest son and PM responded to her sister telling the world he is deeply saddened by her remarks. It is easy to understand where the PM is coming from but his sister LWL is harder to understand and I fear most will miss her point. If not for my background in the Gospel, I would not have understood either.

Yep, the eldest son ought to have done differently. He obviously did understand his late father but did otherwise. Here is my read of the whole thing.


This is a scene from the Nativity story. King Herod the evil, paranoid and selfish king is getting his yearly forgiveness by transferring his sins to the bull which would be killed in his place. My point?

When we remember LKY, we must choose how to remember him. You cannot publicly remember him in all ways although in private how you do it is up to you. I fear on the first anniversary of his passing we had chosen the equivalent of remembering him like King Hero had although we are not evil like this king.

Just as God desires obedience more than sacrifice, He seeks the circumcision of the heart rather than the organ. That was precisely LWL point. It would have been in keeping with the memory and spirit of the late LKY to keep it really low profile and then in the second anniversary patted ourselves we understood what LKY would have liked for us to do and we had done and continue to. We needn't wait half a century like the Brits did for Winston Churchill. That is why LWL is so upset with her brother the PM. Out of political expediency he had caved to what the people want, a leader far less strong than his father or even his younger sister. He should never allowed the remembrance to be a bottom up effort but those who knew LKY most intimately should interpret the man to the masses who mostly do the know the man and in fact only begun to a year ago. This is an opportunity to lead than to be led. I was disappointed the PM chose to be led and I didn't know how to express my view until LWL came along and wrote her piece and the exchanges thereafter.

I need to continue a little bit more. This does not make LWL a more suitable leader than her brother because as LKY remarked the daughter well and good takes after him but unfortunately to the extremes. There is an impracticality to the good doctor tremendous courage which makes her unsuitable to lead us. She doesn't know how and when to compromise when that is called for.

It is not my place to judge the PM but I can understand why his sister called him a "dishonorable son". You have to remember your late father right. My little contribution is to explain at least those who are Gospel believers why.

Update: April 13, 4:30pm


Kudos from the publisher of The Independent. Read it here.

Thumbs up!


5 comments:

  1. Give the benefit of the doubt that LWL knows her brother more than anyone else( or at least a handful who are really close to him to know his ways). Hence, her assessment of her brother carries a lot of weight. Next, for those who read into her thoughts, I think that you should find fundamental differences between them in values and philosophically. The contention thus lies in these differences.

    She is doing the nation a favour by speaking from her conscience( let's not muddled her voice with the much abused free speech) as a somewhat public figure.

    If like some had wished that they kept their "spat" within family, it will be to our lost.

    Walk in the light and we shall have true fellowship(suspicion and doubts dispersed)

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    1. Thanks for your comment.

      One thing I am certain about LWL is her love for her late father and what is the right and best way to show that love. Unfortunately it had meant quarreling in public. In other words, like LKY she had ranked the national interest above her family's. If the family looked bad in the process, so be it. She is the closest to how her father might have responded were he able to reach out to us from the beyond. The only discount is that her father would be less extreme and insistent than her. However the reality is we can only guess but certainly the govt failed to abide by the spirit of what GCT also thought it had done.

      For what LWL has done she suffers being misunderstood by many in our society because most people are not capable of grasping the subtle and symbolic. What is intangible today will be tangible tomorrow and then it would be too late for Singapore. Those who advised the family to keep the spat indoors do not understand that this goes beyond the family. It is all about Singapore.

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  2. i dont care about the bro and sis spat.
    if it's not lky's family, i woud just turn the page.
    but your last sentence is right pengyu, it should all be spore's as far as anything lky is concerned even 38 oxley's should also be spore's..thats how i feel.

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  3. If I may reproduce the chat log with my friend which explain the same thing without the use of religion which I feel will help more readers understand this.

    [21:01, 11/4/2016] FRIEND: LKY will be deeply saddened by this whole issue.This is what foreign media love. Washing dirty linens in public. And the last family we expect to hear all these is from is from Lee family��.Now putting LHL is a difficult and embarrassing position.
    [21:01, 11/4/2016] FRIEND: Yet LHL need to make his stand
    [21:02, 11/4/2016] FRIEND: That LWL - what's wrong with her.
    Now calling her brother ''dishonourable son ' .Think thats a bit too much... ��
    [21:06, 11/4/2016] ME: The point is subtle and hidden, very difficult to explain. LWL is not wrong but she will lose because the public don't understand the deeper meaning to all these. She is like her late father but too extreme as her father said. Note that GCT is with her but chose to keep quiet because he is savvier and understood all these. I might not go as far as her to call LHL dishonorable but there is too much convenient politics rather than values and principle involved here.
    [21:08, 11/4/2016] ME: This blog post tries to explain another point of view: http://blogging4myself.blogspot.sg/2016/04/lwl-dishonorable-son.html
    [21:13, 11/4/2016] ME: Oh, read the comments too. I found that they clarify the post. The author didn't bother too much to make things easier to follow.
    [21:14, 11/4/2016] ME: The point seems to be from the sister to the brother is
    [21:15, 11/4/2016] ME: why didn't the PM stop all these over the top commemoration? He could have. Instead he caved to the ground and ministers.
    [21:16, 11/4/2016] ME: The sister already proved if we could communicate with LKY across the grave he would have disapproved of all these. LHL should know better and yet went ahead? Why? To me the PM is much weaker than his father and sister.
    [21:16, 11/4/2016] ME: and why was LKY so insistent on such matters? Because it has to do with the long term survival of SG. LKY wants substance and not form especially if the form gets int the way of substance.
    [21:18, 11/4/2016] ME: Like what the post seems to use the analogy from Christianity to explain i.e., to sacrifice animals is form and not substance. To live blameless and good lives is not form and substance. When we commemorate LKY one year later, it was too much form and no substance. Therefore it was bad.
    [21:19, 11/4/2016] ME: And LWL failed to appreciate that the public wouldn't understand her reasons. Only a minority of thoughtful people would.
    [21:20, 11/4/2016] ME: That is why the comments was useful. It explained that if this were simply a family matter it would be kept as such but the daughter saw it as beyond family to a national issue.
    [21:22, 11/4/2016] FRIEND: Tks for insightful sharing��
    [21:23, 11/4/2016] ME: Sadly LWL is going to pay a big price because the public by and large cannot appreciate her. I am amazed at her audacity and courage.
    [21:28, 11/4/2016] FRIEND: Think her strong willed character is such other response dont really affect her.
    [21:29, 11/4/2016] FRIEND: She goes for the 'right' than 'popular'.
    [21:29, 11/4/2016] ME: Yep, but she is still human with feelings. She just decided to go ahead regardless of the price.
    [21:30, 11/4/2016] ME: For her sacrifice, I hope she finally manage to get the message out in a way more people understand. I think my summary is clearer than the blog post. May be I should just rehash it as a comment for that blog post eh?

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    1. Thank you for making this post more accessible. Indeed I blog for myself and family only. Perhaps I should have written this up better.

      I missed LKY's foresight and now I missed his courage as well which fortunately his daughter has in spades.

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