Remembering our founding father: One year ago and one year later

29th March 2015 was the state funeral of Mr Lee Kuan Yew.

One year ago a nation was united through the death of our founding father Lee Kuan Yew.

One year later a nation is divided over the way we remember him.

Let's have some proportion in our perspectives.

Allow us, at this time of the year, the privilege of indulging in the memory of our nation's father, Mr Lee Kuan Yew. After all, it was JUST A YEAR AGO that he left us and for many Singaporeans, the pain is still as fresh as yesterday.

He may not be our dad by blood ties, but we regard him as family nonetheless for the impact that he has made on our lives and he is our nation's dad.

If some of our expressions appear to be excessive it's because it was only a while ago that he left us.

With the passage of time, our expressions will become less exuberant and more reflective because far more important than the man are the values that he stood for and that is what we want to remember him for and to perpetuate those values. Then and only then will there be an enduring Singapore.

Not every expression of our memory of Mr Lee Kuan Yew will or must benefit the country or Singaporeans. Each of us remembers him in our own way. Some have chosen to come together to make a collective effort to remember Mr Lee.

Having an avenue for people to express their memory of Mr Lee is uplifting to the human spirit.

A portrait of Mr Lee may not benefit Singapore or Singaporeans who look at the finished work. But to those who came together to produce the portrait, the benefits to them will be their shared moments and thoughts, thoughts of the man and the lessons they learned from him reinforcing the values they learn from him, their teamwork, the expression of their artistic talents and the friendships they forged in the process and more.

One can choose to see the efforts as a sincere public expression of our love, admiration and respect for Mr Lee or one can choose to see it as glorification or adulation of the man,

There are numerous artists who also paint portraits of Mr Lee - oil painting, water colour paintings, on rice grains, fabric etc. Some are exhibited in art galleries. Do we find fault with these artwork and call it 'glorification' of the man or excessive expressions? Maybe every artist should stop making portraits of Mr Lee?

Then there are those who make much of people laying flowers at portraits of Mr Lee.

Some people think this constitutes worship. Really? Don't Christians also lay flowers every year at the tomb of their loved ones who have passed away? They call it 'in loving memory'. Loving memory. They aren't worshipping their loved ones.

The act of laying flowers just become more pronounced in this instance because there are many who did it. But then, it's probably because many people love him. So when you see so many people doing it, it's like a sound that has been magnified many times over. Does that turn an act of loving memory into worship?

We are a culturally diverse society, so we can expect people to remember Mr Lee in different ways.

You've got this HUGE Kranji War Memorial and the tombstones of soldiers who died fighting the war, and every year you commemorate their death and call them your 'WAR HEROES'.

Then one man did not die in the war but lived to give his life to build this country for you and to give you and your children better lives, and hope for the future, and you are so scared that he would become a 'hero'. And you start to worry when children call him their superhero.

Suddenly it becomes so wrong for someone to be your hero.

Please. As long as you understand that he is not a god and you don't pray to him, he can be your hero. A hero is someone you look up to, someone you would like to emulate. So you can look up to him and emulate him......i.e what he stood for that makes him a hero.

We do not worship Mr Lee. We love, respect and admire Mr Lee and draw much inspiration from his writings and his words.

And we are determined to do our duty to ourselves and to Singapore by remembering the man and all that he stood for, to perpetuate those values in our memory of him.....for an enduring Singapore.

And we would like to do it in a manner that unites Singaporeans.

Photo: Portrait of Mr and Mrs Lee by renowned artist Tan Swie Hian.