Added: Feb 4, 2012

From: 154thmedia2012

Duration: 3:27

SINGAPORE: Members of the public have started paying their respects to the late Dr Toh Chin Chye who died at the age of 90 on Friday. Dr Toh was the founding chairman of the People's Action Party and a former deputy prime minister. A member of the Old Guard, he played a leading role with Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his team in Singapore's politics. Among those who attended the wake at 23 Greenview Crescent was Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who remembered his childhood days when Dr Toh would come to their Oxley Road home for meetings with Mr Lee Kuan Yew when the People's Action Party was being formed. PM Lee said: "He was one of the founding generation of Singaporeans who helped to create today's Singapore. Without them, we wouldn't have gotten here today. "In a way, it is a passing of the generation, passing of the years. The first generation gradually fading away and we are into a post-independence phase now, a generation which have grown up post-1965, benefiting from what the founders did to bring us but not with personal knowledge of what happened, the blows, the battles, the excitements, the disappointments, all the unforgettable memories for those who lived through them. "When a person like Dr Toh passes, it reminds you of how you got here, how much we owe to that generation, and how much is our responsibility to carry it forward, to take Singapore higher and better into the next step." Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said his father had worked closely with Dr Toh in the university, and he himself had read closely about Dr Toh during his school days. Mr Tharman said: "Singapore is better-off because Lee Kuan Yew had that group of people with him. No one knows what Singapore will be like 50 years from now, but we have got to keep producing people like that, leaders with conviction, with minds of their own, but who are determined to work together to make something possible." Veteran politician Lee Khoon Choy got to know Dr Toh in 1949, when they played chess during university. He said: "He is a very honest politician, honest, dedicated, hardworking but sometimes very stubborn. He has his views and won't diverge from his views and may not agree with everybody and was a bit hot tempered. He will not stand nonsense but he stuck with the PAP." Former MP for Changi, Teo Chong Tee, recalled some of the interesting exchanges he had with Dr Toh in Parliament when he was the Health Minister. "When he was the Minister of Health, I did raise certain questions which I think didn't make him too happy. But he was prepared to shoot me down and that was okay in Parliament, where we do an exchange of views." Former Deputy Prime Minister, Professor S Jayakumar, was also at the wake. He said: "He was the first person from the party to ask me to consider politics and stand for elections. This was before Mr Goh Chok Tong, through Mr Dhanabalan, who approached me to stand for the 1980 elections. "But at that time, I had just come back from the United Nations and just become Dean of the Law Faculty, so I explained to him that would be my priority and he understood, but he told me it's something I would be asked again sooner or later." Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts, Grace Fu, said: "Very passionate about what he did in the past. I think he taught us about how we should stand firm for what we believe in, and continue to have that passion to serve the people. He's a real model." Tanjong Pagar MP, Indranee Rajah, also spoke about Dr Toh at a community event in Tiong Bahru on Saturday. She said: "It was with a sense of profound sorrow that I learnt about the passing of Dr Toh Chin Chye. I had the opportunity to meet him two or three times at previous party events. "His thoughts, his socialist ideas, his principles have become part of the DNA of our nation. It'll be fair to say that he was a political giant. "He was a deep thinker, but more than that, his fighting spirit was what enabled modern Singapore. He's one of our founding fathers, we owe a great debt to him, and his memory will always be precious to Singaporeans." Former MP for Chong Boon, S Chandra Das, who worked with Dr Toh as a young officer in the Economic Development Board, also recalled his interactions with Dr Toh. He said: "Even as a backbencher, as we watched over the last few years, he disagreed yes, but he was very forthright with his opinion, nothing personal, he felt strongly on any issue and he spoke up." The public homage continues on Sunday, and Dr Toh will be given a private funeral on February 7 at the Mandai Crematorium at 11am. www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1180924/1/.html

Channel: News

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