From Lenin and Mao to Lee Kuan Yew, legacies are determined by the living, not the dead

N. Balakrishnan says in almost every instance, the decision of how to treat the legacy of a founding father rests with their successors, regardless of what the one who died wanted

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A commuter passes by a signboard bearing an image of the late Lee Kuan Yew at a train station in Singapore, in March 2015. Photo: Reuters

Published: 2:15pm, 27 Jun 2017Updated: 11:03pm, 6 Jul 2017

I have seen the mausoleums of Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong (毛澤東) and Ho Chi Minh. Thousands still line up in hushed silence, to see them, demonstrating to non-believers that the embalmed bodies still serve a powerful emotional and political purpose. As the debate about whether the family home of Singapore’s founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew should be preserved, I cannot help thinking that in almost every instance, the decision of how to deal with the legacy of a founding father rests with their successors, whatever the will of the one who died.

Why the Lee Kuan Yew family feud is a metaphor for Singapore

A man works on a giant sculpture of Ho Chi Minh at the Air Force Museum in Hanoi in October 1999. Ho Chi Minh had written in his will that, after Vietnam was unified, his cremated ashes should be scattered across North and South Vietnam. Vietnam has been unified for decades, but it does not look like his body will be cremated any time soon. Photo: AP

The most obvious transgression happened with Ho Chi Minh, who had written in his will that, after Vietnam was unified, his cremated ashes should be scattered across North and South Vietnam. Vietnam has been unified for decades, but it does not look like his body will be cremated any time soon.

The mausoleum of Vladimir Lenin (right) in Moscow’s Red Square. Photo: AP

Those of us who have read the great tomes of Russian literature such as The Brothers Karamazov will know that it is an old Russian tradition to believe that the bodies of holy men do not deteriorate after their death. The Russian Communist Party drew on this tradition to preserve Lenin’s body. It was his body, rather than his words, that provided the continuity in Russia, and perhaps still does.

The political lesson that the Chinese Communist Party learnt from the Soviet Union is that after Joseph Stalin’s successor Nikita Khrushchev, publicly condemned his predecessor, the Soviet Union started going downhill. So, Mao is still venerated in China.

A student stands in front of a statue of Mao Zedong after her graduation ceremony at Fudan University in Shanghai. What Mao would make of today’s China is anybody’s guess. Photo: Reuters