AFP
The wife of Singapore’s founding leader Lee Kuan Yew was given a heroine’s funeral on Wednesday after a public outpouring of sympathy for one of Asia’s most influential political families.
The body of Kwa Geok Choo, who died at 89 on Saturday after a long illness, was transported to a suburban crematorium on a ceremonial gun carriage normally used for state and military funerals.
“This honour is in recognition of her exceptional and unique contributions to Singapore for more than five decades, beginning before Singapore became independent,” said a government statement.
Kwa’s son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 58, presided over two days of public mourning at the Istana state complex where more than 14,000 visitors including foreign envoys paid their respects, according to local media.
Admirers hailed Kwa as the “mother of the country” in condolence messages posted on websites and urged her 87-year-old husband, who was in hospital for a chest infection when her wife died at home, to take care of his health.
Lee Kuan Yew served as prime minister from 1959 to 1990, while Lee Hsien Loong has been prime minister since 2004.
Kwa, once one of Singapore’s most prominent lawyers, was portrayed in local media as an exemplary woman who quietly assisted her husband during the most difficult periods of Singapore’s history.
Despite stepping down in 1990, Lee Kuan Yew still wields power as an adviser to the cabinet and global ambassador for Singapore.
Hundreds of people waited for a view of the funeral cortege as it left the Istana’s main gate on Wednesday for Mandai crematorium on the edge of a tree-lined reservoir in northern Singapore.
“I want to send her off,” said one of the mourners, 65-year-old housewife Seow Ah Seoh. “She took great care of both her job and her family.”
Shi Fa Rong, 53, an abbot at a Buddhist temple, said “I want to pay my last respects to her and I just want to wish MM Lee to get well soon,” referring to Lee Kuan Yew’s special cabinet title, “Minister Mentor.”