Only You

She must have had the Johnny Mathis record on the turntable when our founding lady of Singapore literature was inspired to pen her eulogy. Too bad it wasn't set to verse, maybe some rap artiste of Eminem calibre will update the crooner's classic into an iTunes hit download.

• If only you had done so without so much human cost.
• If only this single-mindedness had not blinded you to the need for change in the evolving political landscape of Singapore.
• If only you had shown one more attribute of great leadership—the ability to acknowledge mistakes made and the humility to say sorry for policies that had caused pain and hardship to others.
• If only this deep sense of family closeness and love had been paralleled by a sense of compassion for the families of those political dissidents who were jailed for decades or had to flee into permanent exile.

And to the touchy feely part about devoted bedside duty for his ailing wife, we may add:

• If only you understood the Sonnets you read to her, the Bard's words refer to a human heart of love and compassion, not a mechanical pacemaker contrived by scientists without soul.

Three days have not yet passed, and already a 17 year old has been arrested. No wonder they always say,  it ain't over till the fat lady sings. Writers don't count.