Singapore, March 29: Thousands of Singaporeans braved torrential rains today for a final farewell to the country's founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, whose funeral drew a long list of leaders and dignitaries from across the globe.
Lee's coffin was paraded through the rain-soaked streets to the National University of Singapore, where the funeral service was held ahead of a private cremation. The route of the procession incorporated symbols from Lee's career, passing by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau - a tribute to Lee's reputation for incorruptibility - and two of the country's oldest government-backed housing developments in a nation with one of the world's highest rates of homeownership.
As the coffin passed, crowds shouted: "Lee Kuan Yew! We love you!" To allow more people to see, spectators in the front line closed their umbrellas as the procession passed, despite the pouring rain.
"This has been a dark week for Singapore," Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore's Prime Minister and Lee's eldest son, said in a nationally televised speech. "That light that has guided us all these years has been extinguished."
The Prime Minister eulogised his father, who died last Monday at 91, as "a straight talker" who "never shied away from hard truths".
He gave his eulogy in a mix of English, Malay and Mandarin Chinese, three of the official languages of the city-state.
During that long rule, he transformed Singapore into one of the wealthiest and least corrupt nations in Asia. His hugely successful "Singapore model" was sometimes criticised as soft authoritarianism and included centralised power, clean government and economic liberalism along with the suppression of political opposition and strict limits on free speech.
Former US President Bill Clinton was in the audience, as was the former American secretary of state Henry Kissinger, who called Lee "a close personal friend". Also in attendance were Prime Minister Tony Abbott of Australia; the British first secretary of state, William Hague; Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia; Vice-President Li Yuanchao of China; Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India; Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and President Park Geun-hye of South Korea.
The number of prominent guests at the funeral was outsized for the city-state, a reflection of Lee's role as an adviser to world leaders and a statesman.
"Despite being small, Singapore's voice is heard, and we enjoy far more influence on the world stage than we have any reason to expect," his son said in the eulogy.
The funeral capped a week of public grieving that included a large turnout at Parliament, where his body was displayed for four days and where many people waited up to 10 hours to see him.
"I may not agree with all his policies, but I do need to salute this one man," said Priscilla Neo, 42, a stay-at-home mother. Neo described the former Prime Minister as someone "who truly breathed, ate, slept, and thought about Singapore and its citizens".N
