From Shoemaker To Bodyguard, How They Remember LKY - Free Websites, Share News And Posts Publicly

Good morning.

Sep 16, 2023 would have been Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s 100th birthday if he were alive, and it seemed an apt occasion to produce a documentary about the man.

It fell to me, a 34-year-old Singaporean with immigrant grandparents, who wasn’t even born when Lee was prime minister.

The brief was to collect impressions and memories from individuals who, through their jobs and positions, had close interactions with the man. We landed on a diverse cast of 12 – from a pair of bodyguards, a Mandarin tutor and an architect, to a press photographer and even Lee’s shoemakers.

Karuppiah Kandasamy, Lee’s bodyguard from 1970-1990, was surprised to be approached. “Why me? I’m not an important person,” he asked.

Kanda, as he’s known, spoke of why he’d have unflinchingly taken a bullet for Lee. “If I had gone, Singapore would have not lost anything. But if he had gone…”

Former press photographer George Gascon recounted how Lee had wanted him to take a picture of him using the computer, for his published memoirs, “probably to urge people” to be computer-literate as he was. “I was lucky. I think I’m the only one who has taken photos of his bedroom.”

I have seen and read much about Lee Kuan Yew. Now I feel as if I have vicariously met the man, through those rich stories told by our profiles.

You can also hear from the man himself in another documentary, Lee Kuan Yew: In His Own Words. It assembles some of his most insightful speeches and interviews, and examines his values and ideas.

MST Shahul Hameed

Senior Producer