State Funeral
This is my first time ‘witnessing’ such a grand funeral, a State Funeral. It has always been so eye-opening to watch a funeral procession. My first time watching the funeral procession when I was a little kid, staying at Boon Lay Drive. The funeral procession happened at the other side of our neighbourhood (Blk 180s). It was the Chinese funeral procession and it was the music of the Chinese song (武侠帝女花) that captivated me. The funeral procession was led by a Band that played this nice tune.
I always wondered why different religion have different sort of funeral procession. I always asked my mother if I saw a different kind of funeral procession. I waited for a chance to see the Catholic funeral procession. And I found that it was so much simpler than the Chinese.
Dr Goh Keng Swee is also a Christian. But what kind of Christian? I got to know it only through Wikipedia, saying that he is a Methodist… Not long ago, on 5th May 2010, I had witnessed another funeral, a Catholic Funeral, at St Mary of the Angels…
Below you can see photographs of Dr Goh Keng Swee. The first photograph, Dr Goh Keng Swee, lying in State at the Parliament House. As public, we are not supposed to take any photographs. So you can see that I had only managed to take some quick snaps (lousy pictures) of the first and last sight of Dr Goh Keng Swee.
Dr Goh Keng Swee lying in state at the Parliament House from May 20 to 22, for the public to pay their last respects
But look at this, reporters/journalists and professional photographers can take videos and pictures of Dr Goh Keng Swee! I, a public, when wanted to take photographs in the Parliament House, was told that ‘photography is not allowed’!
State Funeral of Dr Goh Keng Swee on May 23
I, a public, was not invited for the State Funeral either. Because I am just a nobody, not related to Dr Goh Keng Swee and an unimportant person. However, I was so grateful that I could witness the “LIVE” funeral of him still. I watched the whole funeral procession, listened to the whole Eulogy session, and never fell asleep nor yawned at all. I saw some people present at Singapore Conference Hall yawning… (through the TV), is this showing respects, the last respects?
You see, these two photographs I took from Obituary Goh Keng Swee
For ‘their’ own purposes, ‘they’ can do what ‘they’ want to do. But what about the ‘public’?
Anyway, I enjoyed watching this State Funeral. It was enlightening and by showing the grand funeral, it just got to show the tremendous efforts this great person had contributed to Singapore. Now, the nation gave him back the honour, and May he rests in peace, and I am sure he will…
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...Tags: catholic, chinese funeral, christian funeral, difference, first and last, first time, funeral procession, goh keng swee, great man, honour, last time, nation, parliament house, photographs, public, religion, respects, singapore, state funeral, witness
[...] out into the world to bring his peace, joy and forgiveness to all mankind. On this day, it was the State Funeral of Dr Goh Keng [...]