Lee Kuan Yew still sedated in ICU

Singapore

FORMER prime minister Lee Kuan Yew is still in intensive care at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH), said the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on Thursday in its latest update on the 91-year-old's health.

Mr Lee is in the hospital's Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and remains sedated. He is also using a ventilator to help him breathe. His doctors have restarted him on antibiotics and are continuing to monitor him closely, the statement added.

Mr Lee, a member of parliament for the Tanjong Pagar group representation constituency (GRC), was first admitted to SGH on Feb 5 for severe pneumonia.

On Saturday, the PMO had said that his condition was stable and that he was conscious and lightly sedated.

Mr Lee's extended illness meant that he had to miss his constituency's annual Chinese New Year dinner, on Thursday, for the third time in a row.

Last year, he skipped the function because he was hospitalised for an infection, fever and cough. And in 2013, he was admitted to SGH for a suspected episode of a transient ischaemic attack, a condition in which an irregular heartbeat leads to a brief stoppage of blood flow to the brain.

The other four MPs of Tanjong Pagar GRC - Social and Family Development Minister Chan Chun Sing, Senior Minister of State for Education and Law Indranee Rajah, and backbenchers Lily Neo and Chia Shi-Lu - attended Thursday's dinner held at the campus of Shelton College International in Telok Blangah.

The event, which attracted some 1,500 residents and grassroots leaders, was hosted by Sam Tan, the Minister of State at both the PMO and the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth. Mr Tan is the MP of the Radin Mas single ward, which neighbours Tanjong Pagar GRC.

As the guests streamed into the venue, most of them stopped to pen their well-wishes to Mr Lee on a large banner near the school's entrance.

In a speech delivered in both English and Mandarin, Mr Chan said that the best present that today's younger generation of grassroots leaders in Tanjong Pagar and Radin Mas could give to Mr Lee as he recovers in hospital would be to continue to take good care of the residents, especially the pioneers and the less-privileged.

Mr Chan, the newly appointed deputy secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress, also gave his take on this year's Budget that was delivered by Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam in parliament earlier this week.

He said that it was "not a one-year Budget for a short-term gain", but rather one that charts the course for a long-term trajectory for Singapore to invest in its workers and companies.

"This year's Budget is not just about redistributing to help the poor. More importantly, it's an investment in the future, to set the foundation for us to compete in the future," he added.

"We will make sure that, year after year, we continue to enlarge the pie (so) that our workers have better salaries and better working conditions, and that our businesses can succeed not just in Singapore and the region, but in the global environment too."