<Pic Credit REUTERS>
It has not even been a week since the death of Lee Kuan Yew, the first prime minister of Singapore and who is widely regarded to be its founding father, and although the country's media is full of stories, anecdotes and memories of the man, as well as tributes from foreign and local dignitaries, on the internet it is another story.
Of course, there is a great outpouring of grief for the politician, who stepped down as prime minister in 1990 but continued to rule behind the scenes as senior minister and then minister mentor, but on Facebook page communities and status updates, local forums and blogs, there is also a lot of discussion about what the media is not focusing on – a critique of Lee's policies.
Publicly, most Singaporeans are simply sharing tributes to Lee Kuan Yew with their networks of friends, or linking to blog posts by Singaporean bloggers that caution a more middle-ground point of view of "not being too sad" or recognising Lee was human too and made mistakes like everyone else.
Rising anger online
Yet there are some people who do not care who reads their statuses and who have been posting a wide range of angry and frustrated comments that range from accusing Lee of being racist, and being dismissive of his achievements, to complaining about nepotism, and being glad he is dead.
There are moans about endless different taxes, complaints about the amount of foreigners in the country and even memes showing Lee Hsien Loong – the current prime minister and son of Lee Kuan Yew – with dollar signs in his eyes, or telling people not to believe in propaganda:
The last few days has seen a rising trend in these Facebook statuses being screen capped and shared by other citizens privately for discussion through the private messaging function on Facebook, or posted publicly to anonymous Singapore Facebook community pages and forums.
But why is there so much hate and vitriol? Perhaps it could be because these things are never said publicly, or maybe the local media's portrayal is starting to rub some people up the wrong way.
"The media has been going on and on for days about the success story of Lee Kuan Yew. They are painting him as a mystical, legendary hero, creating a character that will live on throughout history," says Dr Felix Tan, head of the Global Education programme at the Singapore Institute of Management.
"He was a great man and a great leader, but he was a man of his time. He needed to do what he had to do. We know his good things. His legacy is Singapore. Anywhere you turn is his legacy. But surely the media should perhaps show what sort of mistakes he has made, to paint him more as a human."
The three camps in Singapore
Currently there are three camps in Singapore: the people who are devastated that Lee Kuan Yew has died and really grateful for all his policies have given them; the people who are sad that he has died, are grateful but still want changes in government policies; and the people who are not grateful at all and dislike Lee being turned into an idol.
“The online dissention should continue with the rhetoric, criticising in order to make change. But I'm not sure it's the right time to do so – we should give respect to someone who has just passed away. That's my only gripe with keyboard warriors. It's almost like a TV debate, only it's on social media”- Dr Felix Tan
There is also the argument now being seen in comments all over the internet that no matter whether the PAP and Lee Kuan Yew have done anything wrong, now is not the time to bring it up. Part of the reason for this is propriety and some of it comes from traditional Asian values and superstitions.
*Read the rest of the article at http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/lee-kuan-yew-death-beyond-queuing-mourners-diss...