Singaporeans Journey Home to Farewell Lee Kuan Yew - Wall Street Journal

March 29, 2015 4:54 a.m. ET

SINGAPORE—Between trips to Myanmar and Thailand, Choong Luen Lien stopped for 24 hours in his home country, Singapore, to honor its founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, who died last Monday.

"I'm not sentimental by nature, but I felt that coming back to pay my last respects to Lee Kuan Yew was something personally important to me," said Mr. Lien, a 37-year old consultant who lives in Shanghai, China. "Much as we vote when we are overseas, this is part of what it means to be Singaporean."

Mr. Lien joined many other overseas Singaporeans who made long, and sometimes inconvenient, journeys home in the past week, taking days off to join their country in commemorating the life and achievements of its first prime minister. Some came from as far away as New York, London and Sri Lanka.

During the week, about 450,000 people queued for hours to catch a glimpse of Mr. Lee's coffin at Parliament, requiring organizers to extend the visiting hours several times.

Though not a Singaporean yet, Siddharth George, 26, a permanent resident who grew up in the city-state, flew back from New Delhi, in India, where he now works. On Sunday, he was among the thousands lining the 15.4 kilometer (9.6 mile) route of Mr. Lee's funeral procession, standing in the pouring rain.

"I just felt I had to be here," said Mr. George. "I don't have a great personal attachment to Lee Kuan Yew, and he's not a nice guy in the historic sense of the word, but this is the biggest event that has happened here since independence in 1965—I had to be home."

Expatriates also took part. Standing by a stretch of road in the central business district, across from skyscrapers that are home to banks and multinational corporations, a young Dutch couple, who both work in finance, waved Singaporean flags. They said their adopted city has provided them with economic opportunities they wouldn't have enjoyed in Europe.

A Japanese father who works for a trading firm held his 4-year-old daughter's hand in the pouring rain, explaining that he came to pay his respects to the man who built the city he now calls home.

Kezia Hartono, a Jakarta-born homemaker, and her Singaporean husband, Tommy Mulyadi Djayaputra, held umbrellas over their two children as Mr. Lee's coffin passed by Sunday.

"I may not be Singaporean, but I am very touched reading the history of Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew," said 41-year old Ms. Hartono, as raindrops and tears fell on her face. "I am very touched by [Mr. Lee's] willingness to sacrifice everything for his country. I know my children can have a better future here because of him."

Write to Shibani Mahtani at shibani.mahtani@wsj.com

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