S

ingapore was the third country I had the privilege of visiting during my childhood. I visited in 1977.

I was seven at the time and together with my parents and sisters were on the way home to Indonesia after residing in the UK for two years. We took the Qantas flight from London to Singapore and had to wait for a day before another flight to Jakarta.

The free day allowed us to explore the city and a particular incident left an indelible impression on me.

Before landing in Singapore, my father had warned us that if we littered in Singapore then we would be fined. At a certain place in the city (I can'€™t remember the name of the place), I threw a candy wrapper into a trash can.

Since it was such a light wrapper, it did not go straight into the bin but landed on the ground. I remember vividly that people sitting nearby, watching me, turned from smiling to being stern.

For me, years later, that particular incident proved to me that Lee Kuan Yew and his team consistently worked hard from 1959 to change the third-world pattern of thinking of Singaporeans to the first world, especially in Southeast Asia. Indonesia still has a long way to go to get on a par with that kind of thinking.

May your efforts not be forgotten, Lee Kuan Yew. You persevered for the well-being of Singapore until the end.

Audrey Caron Rumamby
Depok, West Java