Elderly Lee Kuan Yew Ailing?

Concern is rising over the health of Lee Kuan Yew, one of Asia’s most influential figures over the past half century, after the above picture of him appeared on Yahoo, greeting Hassanal Bolkiah, the sultan of Brunei, and his consort.

The 90-year-old former prime minister and father of independent Singapore has not been seen in public recently and the picture, showing he had suffered serious weight loss, shocked the public.

Lee gave up the premiership of the country in 1990, assuming the position of Senior Minister after stepping down and was widely assumed to be running the island republic’s affairs through the administration of his successor, Goh Chok Tong, which ended when the elder Lee’s son, Lee Hsien Loong, took over in 2004 when the father was appointed “minister mentor,”, a role from which he stepped down in 2011.

He famously told a 1988 National Day rally that “Even from my sick bed, even if you are going to lower me into the grave and I feel something is going wrong, I will get up."

After Lee’s wife, Kwa Geok Choo, whom he called his “great source of strength and comfort,” died in 2010 he described his loneliness.