SINGAPORE: The Founders’ Memorial notwithstanding, there is already a memorial to the first Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kwan Yew.
Mr Lee, on the other hand, had been known to say that he had no wish for a monument dedicated solely to himself.
In Parliament on April 13, 2015, however, his son, now Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, called to honour his father but said that his father had been conscious that he had been part of a team that worked together to build the city-state.
“One idea that has been suggested is to have a memorial for all of the founding fathers, perhaps coupled with an exhibition gallery to honour their legacy and educate future generations.
Indeed, Mr Lee himself had thought that there was value in such a memorial,” he said. The project broke ground last month and is set to open in 2028.
The Business Standard reported two days after Mr Lee’s death on March 23, 2015, that many Chinese were coming to Mr Lee’s ancestral home in droves to pay homage to him.
The report said that the village is located 500 kilometres away from Guangzhou “in search of a glimpse” into his life.
It described the ancestral home as made of brick and wood, having been constructed in the traditional Chinese style in 1884 by Mr Lee’s great-grandfather, Li Muwen, with his earnings from Singapore.
The home was called Zhonghandi.
It also noted that the Lee family descended from the Hakka, a subgroup of China’s Han community, and came to Singapore in the middle of the 18th century.
Local authorities refurbished the home and its surroundings between 2007 and 2008.
Exhibitions of the Lee family tree, Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s family and political accomplishments, and an introduction to Mr Lee Kuan Yew were also set up within the structure.
In 2016, the year after Mr Lee passed away, authorities in Dabu County in Guangdong said that his ancestral home would be turned into a tourist attraction.
Hong Kong’s Wen Wei Po daily reported at the time that the site would become an international rural tourist destination that incorporated Chinese Hakka cultural characteristics.
A total of 40 million yuan, then equivalent to S$8.8 million, was allocated for the endeavor. Constructing the site had begun the previous year, and the first phase, Lee Kuan Yew Memorial Hall, was set for completion by the end of 2016. /TISG
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