ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is among the global leaders who were featured in a book highlighting Singapore’s tradition of naming the new orchid hybrids after visiting foreign leaders.
The book written by renowned author and editor Koh Buck Song was launched by Foreign Minister of Singapore Vivian Balakrishnan. The book shows the complicated process of hybridization of orchid, the national flower of Singapore.
The book highlights ‘Dendrobium’, which was named after Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who visited Singapore from March 7-9, 1995.
According to the book the orchid’s yellow colour, with its association with sunlight, represents happiness and warmth in Pakistani culture. The book also gives a historical background of Benazir Bhutto’s visit.
During her visit, she also delivered a keynote address at the Fortune Global Forum, where she said that, with the end of the Cold War, “the most critical elements of the integration of the world community, as we approach the new millennium, are information and business”.
The book says and recalls Benazir Bhutto as the first democratically elected female leader of a Muslim country and one of three female prime ministers in the Muslim world, alongside those of Bangladesh and Turkiye.
The book also says that after her assassination in 2007, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong wrote a letter to her husband, President Asif Ali Zardari, noting that she would be remembered and honoured for her “ultimate sacrifice” and “indomitable spirit”.
Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, said that the orchid diplomatic practice dated back to 1956. Since then, over 280 orchid hybrids have been named after foreign leaders and international organizations as gestures of friendship and goodwill.
