Lee Kuan Yew’s daughter thinks that all the homages a year after his death is a bit too much

As the overly done tributes, honours and commemorations for Lee Kuan Yew fizzled out (luckily we had this Chrome extension on), it seems like the icon’s daughter herself thinks it’s all a bit too much. 

On Good Friday — a day after the first anniversary of her father’s death — Dr Lee Wei Ling wrote a post on her Facebook page, stating that he would have cringed at all the hero worship. She had winced in response to an art installation featuring Lee Kuan Yew’s face outlined by 4,887 Singapore flag erasers — and noted how her father would not approve of “excessive, unnatural displays of emotion”. 

“Perhaps we should allow some space for sentiment for those who feel last year’s events that took place immediately after Papa’s death were not enough to honour Papa,” said Lee, noting how even Winston Churchill’s death anniversary commemoration took place 50 years after his funeral. 

“Yes, it is good that we remember history,” she noted. “But it would be even better if we honour Lee Kuan Yew by working for the well-being of Singapore and Singaporeans.” 

Not all agreed with the founding prime minister’s daughter however, and the most public one came in the form of The Straits Times‘ assistant sports editor Chia Han Keong. In response to Lee’s article — which went unpublished by The Straits Times (weird because they always jump on anything she says) — Chia called her out as an “un-fun sourpuss” and tells her to be glad “we don’t spit on your dad’s grave”. Fightin’ words, bro. 

Amidst the flak that clearly followed — this was Lee Kuan Yew’s own daughter he was vilifying after all — Chia took down his post, citing that it might have been too strongly worded, and that his views was not representative of his company.