“
You did not die Joshua Benjamin Jeyaratnam.
You just transmuted into a form that allows you to transcend your mortal coil,
and embed your spirit in the hearts of many.
~ edsperience
Singapore lost a truly great man yesterday with the passage of Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam to the next life.
He was the first opposition candidate who got into parliament('81), and
subsequently booted out after re-election in '84 following charges of financial
impropriety related to the collection of party funds - even though the Privy Council
of the United Kingdom, when appealed to by JB, called it a ‘grievous injustice’.
(Lee Kuan Yew, the then PM, and later turned, 'senior minister', and then
turned, 'minister mentor' when the next PM stepped down....positions produced
by their own party when the aforementioned stepped down. The next PM was
Lee Kuan Yew's son, Lee Hsien Loong.)
Their Lordships have to record their deep disquiet that by a series of misjudgments the appellant and his co-accused Wong have suffered a grievous injustice…. The appellant, in addition, has been deprived of his seat in Parliament and disqualified from practising his profession."
Source : Nationmaster
So much for Singapore.
What I’ve always admired about JB is his resolve in the face of all adversity. He never backed down, always objectively focused, and afflicted with a deep sense of commitment to justice and democracy – and I absolutely love his sideboards, his impeccable 'queen's English', and his firm handshake. He was a prime and typical example of that sector of singaporeans – English-speaking, westernised, empathetic, open to new ideas, amongst others – that had once threatened to take the perspectival economy of singapore into the modern age, but which was undermined by the government-led movement against cultural westernization, and its strenuous attempts to maintain singapore as a Chinese-dominated country strongly socialized into not questioning authority, and inevitably circumnavigating the ensuing evils through opportunism, through a host of means. But even with the fruition of the government’s plans in recent years JB never backed down. He stood passionate, firm, resolute, and hypercritical in the face of authoritarianism against all odds and lunged forward in leaps and bounds. I sincerely respect this man as a true son of the proverbial Jewel in the Crown – India. A 'Tomorrow Man'. He will be missed by many, but, I dare say, he will live on in various forms within many of us and stoke the cinders of passion and resolve in the quest to move the ideal of democracy and justice from a myth to a reality.
‘Rest in Peace’? No sir! I dare say that given a chance, JB will be back in the ring doing the age-old battle for democracy and justice.
You did not die Joshua Benjamin Jeyaratnam, you just transmuted into a form that allows you to transcend your mortal coil and embed your spirit in the hearts of many.
OM brother!
Comments
Well said, "You did not die Joshua Benjamin Jeyaratnam, you just transmuted into a form that allows you to transcend your mortal coil and embed your spirit in the hearts of many."
Sorry for the offtopic. This post is for you.
http://shinyhappypeople.vox.com/library/post/if-i-stayed-with-you-ten-lives-it-would-still-be-a-bit.html