Visiting Parliament House

Friday afternoon

We made the walk from Bugis to the Padang where we joined the queue to visit the Parliament House where Mr Lee Kuan Yew was lying in state.

We had not been in such a crowd since that time in Taipei post-New Year celebrations (many years ago) which saw the public transit system overwhelmed and unable to cater to the hordes of people leaving the celebrations areas. We were literally trapped in a whole mass of non-moving bodies then.

The difference was that this crowd was very, very orderly and well-organised by the military, police and other personnel on duty. What apparently started as an organic queue on the first day, became a formalised queue by the next. We were apparently part of 290,000 people who visited as of yesterday (Friday) and they had to close the queue sometime in the night because the estimated queuing hours by then was more than 10 hours. And even then people queued to be able to join the actual queue.

We spent 4 hours in the queue before we got to pay our respects. While long, nobody complained (well, not outwardly. What we key into our phones is another matter :P), perhaps because of the context of who we were visiting and perhaps because expectations were set that it would be a long wait.

… if anyone has the right to complain about Singapore, it is the Singaporeans. This right, they have exercised as though it were the Second Amendment and they were Americans. According to Mr Lee, the Singaporean is a “champion grumbler”. He said this in 1977, so citizens have been practising for at least 38 years. – By gum, the West is wrong about Singapore, The Business Times

So anyway, I spent the time sending photo updates to friends who compared the routes and asked questions. Umbrellas, food and drinks were provided freely. When we finally reached the last leg of our queue, there was a cheer and life-saving chilled Red Bull drinks were handed out.

We are simple people, so we always thought a simple heartfelt Thank you will suffice for a tribute. But that four hours waiting with nothing more than the sun to worry about gave me the leisure to think about writing something more than a simple two-word “Thank you” on the card I was given.

That done, we continued on to the hall where our Founding Father was lying in state. Walk in, bow, walk out again. It was such a fleeting moment, it felt a tad insignificant compared to the big wait. Yet the whole process is probably one of the rare few events where one can feel tangibly the heartbeat of the nation and the respect for the man.

… Mostly, we are impressed beyond words, by our fellow countrymen who came and bond together, and the unspoken heroes who provided drinks, cakes, bread, flowers and more along the queues. We are amazed by the quiet queues that just kept forming, and the quiet resilience displayed through a simple action like this. We are impressed by the seemingly seamless arrangements made by the authorities, and the amount of work and sleepless nights for those on duty.

We are touched by the love, care, respect and the wonderful “Singapore Spirit” displayed by Singaporeans, in this difficult time. A spirit we never really knew existed until now.

We did not practise this, nor did we choreograph this. It is just so simply…Singapore.

We have always been searching and asking about the Singaporean identity. This is it.

Fifty years ago, a man brought us together as one united people.
Fifty years later, he brought us together again, and we stand united as a nation.

– Yvonne Ng

  
As I walked with Donna that morning before we went to the Parliament House, she sniffed diligently among the Trumpet tree flowers fallen from the branches overhead. It seems the Trumpet Trees are making a habit of flowering this time of the year. The blossoms, fallen from the trees strewn about the pathways of life, largely unnoticed by the passerby, are very much a seasonal reminder of Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s legacy.

Thank you, Mr Lee.

Phoneography challenge – Samsung Note 4 native camera. Snapseed and Moldiv.