The "Singapore Lahure" isn't your typical Lahure: if in the Queen's employ, he isn't a Singapore Lahure at all, and if in the employ of the Government of Singapore, he is in the police, not in the army.
How much does the impressions of one person affect the fate of thousands? A lot, needless to say. But, rarely do we get to point to specific moments in history when an incident indelibly impressed a person, who went on to institute something that created a new identity for a whole group of people. Case in point: the Singapore Lahure.
My nephew, in his quotidian quest for scrap paper, managed to dig out a copy of TIME magazine, [September 21, 1998], titled "Starr Report," all about Clinton's sexcapade.
In it is an excerpt from "The Singapore Story," memoir by Lee Kuan Yew, in which a young Lee, watching defeated Allied soldiers being marched back into Singapore by their Japanese victors, writes:
"While this platoon was camping in [our] house, British, Indian and Australian forces were marched to captivity... Many looked dejected and despondent, perplexed that they had been beaten so decisively and so easily. The surrendered army was a mournful sight.
"There were some who won my respect and admiration. Among them were the Highlanders whom I recognized by their Scottish caps. Even in defeat they held themselves erect and marched in time--"Left Right, Left Right, Left, Left!" shouted the sergeant major. And the Gurkhas were like the Highlanders. They too marched erect, unbroken and doughty in defeat. I secretly cheered them on. They left a life-long impression on me. As a result, the Singapore government has employed a Gurkha company for its anti-riot police squad from the 1960s to this day."
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