Health of Singapore’s former PM Lee worsens
Print Edition
THE health of independent Singapore’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew has worsened, the government said yesterday as one of the foremost figures of 20th century Asia continued to battle severe pneumonia.
The 91-year-old, widely credited with transforming the city-state into one of Asia’s wealthiest economies, has been in Singapore General Hospital for more than six weeks and is on life support.
“Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s condition has worsened,” the office of his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said in a terse statement.
The government said earlier he was critically ill.
Floral tributes and cards have begun piling up outside the hospital as locals show their affection for the ailing leader.
“I cannot bear just sitting at home and listening to the news, not being able to do anything,” retiree Phua Siew Lian, 88, said as she set a bouquet of sunflowers at a designated spot outside the hospital building.
Independence leader
Lee was prime minister from 1959, when colonial ruler Britain granted Singapore self-rule, to 1990. He led Singapore to independence in 1965 after a brief and stormy union with Malaysia.
His deteriorating health has cast a pall over preparations for the city-state’s 50th anniversary of independence on August 9, an event known as “SG50.”
The prime minister posted the health bulletin on his Facebook page and was immediately flooded with messages of support for him and his father.
He visited a community center where residents offered tributes and encouragement for the patriarch to fight on.
“Dear Papa, Hope you get better!” he wrote on a banner.
Lee stepped down in 1990 in favor of his deputy Goh Chok Tong, who in turn handed the reins to Lee’s eldest child Lee Hsien Loong in 2004.
The People’s Action Party, which was co-founded by the elder Lee, has won every election since 1959 and currently holds 80 of the 87 seats in parliament.
In a book published in 2013, Lee said he was feeling weaker by the day and wanted a quick death. He rapidly began to look feeble after his wife of 63 years, Kwa Geok Choo, died in 2010, and in the past two years has rarely appeared in public.
Lee has signed a legal document telling doctors not to use any life-sustaining treatment if he can’t be resuscitated.
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