Singapore Bids Farewell To Longtime Leader

Thousands of Singaporeans and world leaders have lined the streets to pay their respects to the country's founding prime minister.

Lee Kuan Yew, who served as prime minister for 31 years, died on Monday at the age of 91. He had been suffering from pneumonia.

After almost a week of national mourning, Mr Lee's coffin was taken from Parliament House to the National University of Singapore for a state funeral.

Officials said more than a million people have already paid their respects to the former leader by visiting tribute sites at community centres across the island.

"It has been a deeply moving experience," Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Mr Lee's son, said in a Facebook post thanking the public.

The expansive show of emotion is a rare event for Singapore.

Singapore is known around the world as a wealthy Asian trade and financial centre with a strict social order including a ban on chewing gum and caning for some crimes.

Mr Lee ruled with an iron grip until 1990 and is regarded by Singaporeans as the architect of the island's prosperity.

But his authoritarian rule has also left a legacy of restrictions on free speech, a tame media and a stunted democracy.

Leaders and dignitaries from more than two dozen countries attended the state funeral.

Highlights of the procession included a 21-gun salute by four howitzers and a flyover by four fighter jets.

The ceremony concluded with the singing of the Malay-language national anthem Majulah Singapura (Onwards Singapore).

Mr Lee's remains were then driven to a private cremation service.