“You’re from Singapore? Lee Kuan Yew’s country?”
The African man I was introduced to shuffled his feet back and forth, shaking his head in awe before uttering, “Wow.”
Here in Uganda, people on the streets often called out to us with animated chants of “MZUNGU (foreigner)!”, “CHINA! KOREA! YOU FROM NORTH OR SOUTH?”
When I first arrived, I hardly expected anyone to know where I was from geographically, much less the names of my country’s leaders.
“How do you know Lee Kuan Yew?” I asked curiously.
“Of course I know. You know our neighbor Rwanda? It is so far ahead of us, even after the genocide… They are called ‘the Singapore of Africa’ because they are so successful.”
He paused with a sigh before continuing, ” Back in history, Uganda and Singapore was at the same level in so many ways. But look what happened to your country, because of Lee Kuan Yew.“
It stunned me.
There I was, in the dirt roads of Africa, listening to an African man telling me about the greatness of my country, halfway across the world, because of one man.
“Our country is where it is because of corruption, even though we have so much land, people, resources… I know Singapore started with nothing. But you had good leaders. You had Lee Kuan Yew. That’s why Singapore is what Singapore is today. Am I right?”
He threw me back into the time when I was 12 years old, leading my school as Head Prefect in the National Pledge, even though I was still malaysian by birth back then. My parents always told me, they moved to Singapore because we would have better opportunities. In a meritocratic society, they said the sky was the limit.
I am part of today’s complaining generation- perfectionistic and yet always, asking for more. Yet, living in a land now faraway from home, having a firsthand taste of what Singapore still could have been without the leaders we had, helps me understand the magnitude of gratitude we can have each day for our nation, and the gravity of loss we suffer today.
Train breakdowns may make the news occasionally, but we have an elegant public transport infrastructure, a far cry from boda-bodas (motorcycle taxis) weaving over dirt roads filled with pot-holes, and considered one of the best in the world. Our HDB flat estates may be deemed too organized for some of us, but our inclusive homes and communities in our heartlands are our source of pride, a far cry from the tin shacks, mud sheds and cement blocks which are the homes of majority of people here. Our poor and “sandwiched middle-class” may be affected by existing gaps in healthcare and housing policies (and yes, we must never stop advocating for the marginalized in our society) but no one in Singapore today has had to continue seeing the face of poverty the way it looked like decades ago, or what it looks like, here.
Back home, I take the train everywhere, timed to a T to reach work on time- time never needs to be factored in for a tyre, punctured mercilessly by treacherous roads. Back home, I work with a team of passionate colleagues, whose aim is to make Singapore a healthier country, with more affordable health screening, more accessible healthier food choices, more subsidy packages for the needy- I never need to worry my newborn will be left to die because of a lack of hospital facilities, like at an emergency here 2 weeks ago. Back home, I am given opportunities to grow, and to excel, regardless of my race, language or religion.
I was the given the chance to be a medical doctor because of the very national values I led my school to recite at age 12, even when I did not understand them fully- the values which were so deeply ingrained into our land to pulse it into excellence.
I am given the chance today to contribute meaningfully beyond the shores of Singapore as a medical missionary, because of the education and opportunities Singapore provided for so many of us. Life would have been different if my parents had not migrated.
Back home, I never need to worry about water cuts and power cuts, daylight crimes or thefts at night.
Our city may not be perfect, and it will always face critique. But it is what it is because of a man willing to take on the world, against the odds, to make Singapore, a tiny red dot on the world map, a name worth remembering and knowing, all around the world, even in a tiny village in the heart of Africa.
You are dearly missed.
