My dad's always there for me, says PM

A father plays an important role in a child's life, and this includes being there for him, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday.

In a Facebook post on Father's Day, PM Lee said he has "always tried to be there for my children as my father has been there for me".

"Long after I had grown up, he gave me wise advice and taught me many important values," he said of his father, former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew.

PM Lee's post garnered more than 44,000 likes and 2,500 shares by 7pm yesterday.

In an interview four years ago, PM Lee said the most important thing his father taught him was to never say die, however desperate the situation.

"If you think hard enough, you will find the resource and you will find a way out of it. And don't forget where you came from. It could all be very different," recalled PM Lee of his father's words.

On his father's influence on him, PM Lee said in a 2000 interview that "it's the way (my father) helps to point me in certain directions and formed even the personality to some extent and set an example of what can be done and how to do it".

When asked if his own children would go into politics like he did, PM Lee said in 2006 that they had to "find their own paths".

This was no different for PM Lee and his two siblings, Hsien Yang and Wei Ling.

"My parents were lawyers; they let us choose our own paths," he said.

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