Remembering President Ong Teng Cheong (d. 8 February 2002)
Source: National Archives Singapore
On this day in 2002, Ong Teng Cheong, the fifth person to hold the office of the Presidency in Singapore, dies from lymphoma. He was 66.
With his passing, Singaporeans were united in collective grief.
His personal humility and common touch were well-remembered and well-documented.
Lest we lionised him, there was no doubt that he carried out his distinction as a public servant with distinction.
His was a life of service to Singapore and all Singaporeans, regardless of their affiliations.
This was best encapsulated in a speech that Mr Ong gave during the hustings in 1993.
"Some people still ask whether my long previous association with the PAP will stop me from acting independently. The answer is no. My loyalty is first and foremost, to the people of Singapore. It has always been so, and will always remain so."
Grief is the price of love, and love, in turn, leaves a memory no one can take away from us, Singaporeans.
Source: Mothership.sg
We move on, and we don’t go around grieving all the time, but the grief is still there and always will be.
In ebbs and flows, it will strike us again, often when we least expect it.
In death we idealise [and idolise]. After all, we all need an exemplary example in our lives, a rag-to-riches story, an avenue to express our desire to rise above the banal – President Ong was such an exemplary.
The death of Mr Ong Teng Cheong, a state funeral or the lack of it, are stark reminders that norms and traditions in death are a subset of the living attempting to ascribe meaning to the life of our loved ones, as Singaporeans pause and confront our own challenges in present circumstances, our mortalities included.
The dead has, in fact, survived their own death.
Unfortunately, today, his death and many others, including that of the late Dr Toh Chin Chye and Lim Chin Siong, pioneers in our quest of a national identity, seem to have been forgotten, and Singapore is poorer by that.
The enfranchisement of death in the public sphere unites as well as divides a local community, a society and a nation. As a nation, we need to tread carefully.
The agenda of the living must not undermine the memories, legacies and contributions of the dead, lest we lose a national anchor in our collective identity and lives.
It is now imperative that we, as a nation, establish norms and traditions that will reflect the Singapore way of honouring our best sons and daughters who have passed away, that are dignified, restrained and express the gratitude and sense of loss of the nation.
Singapore needs a living manual of death, and Singaporeans have the duty to script it. In fact, this could very well be the best way we honour and remember the life of our loved ones – in thought, deed and death.
Singapore’s future must be built upon a vocabulary of grief that is an integral part of our national language of dying and death.
Today, President Ong lives on beautifully in our lives.
Singapore is a grieving nation. Grieving may run counter to the narratives of perpetual growth and the maximisation of progress that has defined Singapore since 1965.
But it is equally important as progress, growth and asset enhancement, if not, more important.
Given a choice between grief and nothingness, it is our hope that Singapore will choose grief.
Memory is a way of holding on to the people we love, the values we stand for and people we never want to lose.
The development of Singapore, in the coming years, should be watered by our tears.
Top image: Chua Mia Tee
