Tucked away at the very end of the book is the chapter on Conversations with an old friend.
Here is how two great friends, who were once powerful, cool, dreaded by some and admired by many, say their parting words.
HS: By the way, I told my friends yesterday that once upon a time, after a meeting where both of us did participate, you wrote me a letter which included one sentence which said: “You are as sharp as ever.” And yes, the fact is you are as sharp as ever.
LKY: No, I lack the nervous energy. The nervous energy to carry on writing for hours.
HS: Yeah.
LKY: It needs concentration. It needs physical stamina.
HS: Yeah, on the other hand, it makes one live longer.
LKY: That is debatable question.
HS: But I believe it to be true. I really do.
LKY: No, it keeps your mind alive.
HS: Yeah, it keeps the mind alive – plus cigarettes. They keep my mind alive. But the rest of the body is failing.
LKY: That is a rule of Nature you cannot break. Everybody has to obey that rule.
HS: Yeah.
LKY: Our genes are programmed to last a certain time and the cells do not reproduce themselves correctly beyond a certain expiry date.
HS: This is my last visit to this part of the world. I will not travel so long anymore.
LKY: But stay around for a long time. And I wish you good health and a full and rewarding life.
HS: Harry, all the best to you.
LKY: And to you. It’s been a pleasure and an honour to know you.
HS (Helmut Schmidt) was the chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982. On May 2012 at the age of 93, Schmidt visited LKY (Lee Kuan Yew) in Singapore.
The conversation is recorded in the book – One man’s view of the world – written by the founding premier of the Asian metropolis, Lee Kuan Yew, who passed away at the age of 91 on March 23, 2015.
While Singapore’s print and social media and, for that matter, the media all over the world, covered the passing of the great man extensively, I revisited Lee’s One man’s view of the world and read the last chapter differently from the first time I read it almost two years ago.
Further prompted by the words of Malaysian veteran journalist and author A Kadir Jasin in his blog, I was curious to find out more about the friends of this great man (Lee) in his life.
Kadir has said Lee left behind many admirers but very few friends. Some of his friends during the independence struggle walked away from him while others were purged. Many spent years in jail.
Kadir also said for driving hard bargains for his country and for his constant lecturing to other countries, including China, Lee left very few genuine friends. He and (Tun) Dr Mahathir Mohamad were constantly at loggerheads. About the only person in Malaysia who could be considered Lee’s friend is (Tun) Daim Zainuddin. They struck out famously during the negotiations on the Malayan Railway land in Singapore.
Kadir could be right about Lee having not many friends. But which great world leader, past and present, had or is having many friends, anyway? Ostensibly, it is a lonely life at the top.
There is this poem which says we count friends within five fingers.
It goes like this:
Long ago, my father placed his hand upon my head
As he laid each finger down, he smiled at me and said
Someday, son when you’re a man, you will understand
You’ll only count your true friends on the fingers of one hand
Five fingers you can count upon
Five fingers and you are one
Lee had two other close personal friends – Henry Kissinger (aged 88) and George Shultz (aged 95), both former US Secretary of State.
Asked what lay at the core of the friendship of the four of them: Kissinger replied: “Human dependability. For instance, I know when Helmut needs to talk even when he would never ask for it. I know, on the other hand, that he would be there if I needed him.”
For that sensitivity and dependability, Kissinger, in his tribute on the passing of his good friend, said: “The great tragedy of Lee’s life was that his beloved wife was felled by a stroke that left her a prisoner in her body, unable to communicate or receive communication. Through all that, Lee sat by her bedside in the evening, reading to her. He had faith that she understood despite the evidence to the contrary.”
This little poem speaks so aptly of friends:
If your dreams should crumble inside your wounded heart
Reflect upon the speed at which fair weather friends depart
Then warm yourself of fond memories of the chosen few
The best who wanted nothing but the very best for you.
Five fingers you can count upon
Five fingers and you are one
Journalist Mattias Nass who wrote about the “four friends” in Zeit Magazin on July 5, 2012, reported Kissinger’s words at one of the friend’s meetings: “But there is nothing left to tell each other. Nothing will remain unfulfilled because of it. Nevertheless, the loss will be great when one of us passes.” And so the counting of five fingers continues.
The following words of my father’s still ring with resonance in my ears
The golden patches of your life will bring
And butterflies leave you for a while to warm their wings
And fly away when rain clouds start to gather in your sky
And leave behind the faithful who will love you till they die
Five fingers you can count upon
Five fingers and you are one
Schmidt once said of Shultz: “George, you are one of the American leaders who established the friendship with the Germans – after two World Wars – in which we Germans were your enemies. And for this, I will forever be your thankful friend.”
“I have many friends,” Kissinger was also reported as saying about friends, “but I would say that I always end up with these four. Most people do not even know this group exists. In this sense, it’s exclusive.”
At the end of life – perfectly timed, no longer, no shorter, in the infinitely unfathomable scheme of God’s plans, one thing remains: love, faith and hope.
Do you have enough friends to count with your five fingers or are you more than blessed to have friends counting from 10 fingers to the “mistle-toes?”