OPINION: The Legacy of Lee Kuan Yew, by Chong Kai Xiong and Seelan Palay, March 2015

1. "I should be rich if I receive a dollar each time I hear that Lee Kuan Yew's rule was necessary for Singapore's economic development and survival, and that we should somehow be thankful for it. It's during times like these I feel so terribly lonely among friends and family.

"But I should be thankful that I never had to personally suffer Lee's cruelty and humiliation like the scores of brave, principled, nameless individuals he smeared, imprisoned, tortured and broke under the guise of nation building. Whose persons and all that they stood for this materialistic, self-absorbed society relegates to the trash heap of history. If I should mourn at this moment, I mourn for all of them. If Lee is an example, he is an example of what I shall never do or support.

"If our well-being and affluence today required Lee's sacrificial lambs, then fuck it. I'd rather be poor than to trample on others" [by Chong Kai Xiong, and shared on Facebook by Seelan Palay].

2. "Ultimately, Lee Kuan Yew's most unpardonable failure is the crass betrayal of the ideal which launched the People's Action Party into political orbit - that of an equal, multiracial, democratic society which would banish from its midst, for ever and a day, invidious notions of ethnic or religious majorities or minorities. In Singapore there would be no majorities and minorities. There would only be Singaporeans. This was the flaming aspiration on which Lee rode to power on the crest of revolutionary fervour. 

"Today he has defiled the social atmosphere of Singapore with the sordid evil of ethno-centrism, which he had vowed to eradicate, in my company and in that of countless other comrades in the common struggle against colonialism, communalism, and communism" [by Devan Nair].

3. "If some of you are interested in writing eulogies and praise for a racist, sexist, classist, Islamophobic, homophobic, bigoted dictator who has destroyed and humiliated the lives and families of well-meaning Singaporeans like JB Jeyaretnam, Vincent Cheng, Chee Soon Juan, Said Zahari, Chia Thye Poh and hundreds more ― Go ahead. I am not keen to betray my values, insult my intelligence, or especially spit on the grave of JBJ and all the sacrifices he has made for us, and has never seen justice for" [by Seelan Palay, 23/3/2015, used with his kind written permission].

4. "From a "condolence" letter sent by Lee Kuan Yew's son, PM Lee Hsien Loong to JB Jeyaretnam's sons after his passing.
"Dear Kenneth and Philip Jeyaretnam,

Dr Chee Soon Juan and Dr Kieran James

I was sad to learn that your father, Mr Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, has passed away. Mr JB Jeyaretnam was a Member of Parliament for Anson constituency from 1981 till 1986, and a Non-Constituency Member of Parliament from 1997 till 2001. He used to engage in heated debates in the House. Perhaps it was because he and the PAP never saw eye to eye on any major political issue and he sought by all means to demolish the PAP and our system of government. Unfortunately, this helped neither to build up a constructive opposition nor our Parliamentary tradition" [posted on Facebook by Seelan Palay].