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The air was dead at Singapore General Hospital Block 6 yesterday, a stark contrast from the night of Mar 18, when a group of hungry reporters and curious onlookers crowded the building's lobby, waiting for news about Lee Kuan Yew's condition.
The nation’s first Prime Minister is on life support at the hospital’s intensive care unit, where he's been warded since Feb 5, initially for severe pneumonia. Two days ago, the Prime Minister’s Office released the first alarming news concerning the former statesman. His health had taken a turn for the worse following an infection, and he has been critically ill ever since. Everyone took this as an imminent sign of passing for the 91-year-old.
At SGH that evening, there was a feeling of dread, and social media went into a frenzy as people started expressing both love and hate for the elder Lee.
Yesterday evening, however, at both the lobby of SGH and on social media, people seemed to have moved past their alarming state of mind. It was pretty much life as usual at the hospital and everywhere else.
The TV crew's cameras were still set up, of course, and there were still reporters from various news outlets on standby at the newly cordoned-off area for media. The yearning and the enthusiasm for breaking news were gone from their eyes though.
The lensmen mostly kept to each other, making small talk and smaller jokes — but cameras at the ready should anything interesting pop up.
Considering the lack of any new development to Lee Kuan Yew’s condition upstairs, it should come to no surprise that the media jumped on anything moderately fascinating. Here’s a random who issued a statement about the former Prime Minister, but in the end he simple wanted to show off a certificate he received from the police for bravery.
Man pays tribute to #LKY, saying SGeans should pray for him...b4 producing a police cert he got for bravery #nolink pic.twitter.com/q2f70AQs9r
— Amir Yusof (@miryusof) March 19, 2015
There were some folks milling around at the lobby, but none were there for Lee Kuan Yew. We approached some families sitting down at the Bengawan Solo eatery, but most politely waved us away, saying that they were visiting their warded relatives. Most knew that the man who moulded modern Singapore was living his last days, but they were more concerned about their own affairs.
No vigils, no flowers at the ready, no placards, no groups of people crying their hearts out. Though to be fair, Crosby, Stills and Nash were performing live at The Star Theatre yesterday, and they’re legends in their own right too.
Over at Bengawan Solo, the cashier lady looked like she was holding the weight of the world on her shoulders. Letting out a huge audible sigh as she tersely took our order, it was apparent that it was a non-stop busy shift for her as reporters, regular visitors and stragglers like us continued to patronise the outlet throughout the day. Just her luck to be stationed as a store cashier at the block where Lee Kuan Yew was in.
It was close to 9.30pm that the camera crew started dismantling their equipment, disappointed in a whole day spent at the drab, uncomfortable lobby of SGH without anything to show for it.
Still there’s tomorrow, and perhaps a lot more tomorrows of waiting at the hospital for the press, until something happens. In the words of LKY himself: "Rest on laurels? I wish I could do that. No, you rest when you’re dead”.
Photos: Ilyas Sholihyn
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