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For the fourth time in six years, the flags on government buildings flew at half-mast in mourning on Tuesday. For the third time in two years, a ceremonial gun carriage made its slow journey to Mandai Crematorium.

The coffin it carried bore Dr Toh Chin Chye, the founding chairman of the People’s Action Party and deputy prime minister in independent Singapore’s first Cabinet.

He died last Friday at age 90.

At the somber private funeral on Wednesday, Toh was remembered as a resolute fighter and a meticulous policy maker. He considered becoming a Jesuit priest before deciding to serve his country instead.

“Dr. Toh’s passing is another sign that our founding generation, both leaders and ordinary citizens, are gradually fading away,” Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in his eulogy.

Since 2006, four founding fathers — Toh, Dr. Goh Keng Swee, S. Rajaratnam and Lim Kim San — have died. In 2010, Madam Kwa Geok Choo, wife of former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, also passed away.

With Toh’s death, only five members of independent Singapore’s first Cabinet are still alive: Lee Kuan Yew, Ong Pang Boon, Jek Yuen Thong, Othman Wok and Yong Nyuk Lin.

Some, such as former education minister Ong and former labor minister Jek, are rarely seen at public events. But on Tuesday, both were at the funeral.

With tears in her eyes, Jek said: “It is terrible to lose such a hardworking man.” Toh was part of a monthly lunch group with Jek and her husband, as well as several other PAP stalwarts.

Lee, who had described Toh as a “redoubtable fighter for equality for all people,” did not attend the funeral. The present generation, while benefiting from what the founding fathers achieved, does not have the “personal experience of how we got here,” said PM Lee.

“The battles and the blows, the excitements and disappointments, the unforgettable memories and indelible lessons that those critical years in our history impressed on the people fortunate enough to live through them,” he added.

It was Toh who pushed the group of young men who met in Lee’s basement in the 1950s to form a political party and enter the fray, PM Lee recalled.

But as Toh fought for independence from the British, and later battled the leftists for political power, his family back in Taiping, in the Malaysian state of Perak, was kept in the dark of the risks he was taking, younger brother Toh Chin Kooi, 69, said in his eulogy.

Every month, recalled the younger Toh, a money order for 400 Malayan dollars would arrive — to the immense relief of their parents. It was their only sign that Toh was safe and well across the Causeway.

Toh’s pugnacious public persona — first as the fearsome political negotiator, then as the “Iron Chancellor” of the University of Singapore — hid a devout and devoted family man.

Former PAP MP Loh Meng See, who took over the Rochor area from Toh in 1988, recalled receiving a cassette tape from Toh of his favorite hymns.

“His top favorite was One Day At A Time,” said Loh. “As it turned out, his one day at a time topped 90 years.”

While Toh may have expressed his convictions strongly, his views stemmed only from a selfless vision for Singapore, he added.

Final resting place is next to wife and daughter

After five eulogies were delivered, eight pall-bearers lifted the Singapore flag off Toh’s coffin, folded it and placed it in the arms of his son-in-law Johnny Ng.

It was a flag Toh had brought into being. Having helped earn the fledgling nation’s independence, he was tasked with helming the committee to design its flag.

“This was not merely an issue of aesthetics,” said PM Lee. “Our flag had to embody the values, aspirations, spirit and pride of our nascent nation, and over time, win the affection and loyalty of the citizens.”

The red-and-white flag which finally emerged had a crescent and five stars representing democracy, justice, peace, progress and equality, “values Dr Toh himself embraced and fought for all his life,” Lee said.

As the funeral came to a close, Toh’s family placed white roses in his casket.

His ashes will be kept in Mandai Columbarium, next to those of his late wife and daughter. Over the last eight years, their deaths had dealt him heavy blows.

In a brave and composed eulogy, 15-year-old Matthew, the eldest of his four grandchildren, said that “Kong Kong has gone to join Ah Ma and my mother.”. Over the last week since his grandfather died, he has learnt something of what Toh had accomplished before he was born, Matthew added.

“I knew my grandfather made many contributions to Singapore. However, I did not realize how many lives he touched until this week.”’

Recalling the fateful decision Toh made as a boy to take up a scholarship to further his studies instead of becoming a Jesuit priest, Loh said that Toh had the “brilliant mind and unworldly heart’ to be a good man of the cloth.

“But he is no less beloved for choosing to serve his country.”

Reprinted courtesy of Straits Times Indonesia. To subscribe to Straits Times Indonesia and/or the Jakarta Globe call 021 2553 5055.