NATIONAL DAY RALLY

I was born before Majullah Singapura and the Negara-Ku national songs. Yet I have to profess that as a child, I never heard or knew about the song “God Save the Queen”. Growing up I never really bothered about my nationality. My parents never spoke about national issues or world current affairs. What bothered them was remained employed so there was food on the table and all the children get education. My parents having lived through turmoil and hardship, had resigned to fate and destiny and simply prayed for the best.

Yet I am more fortunate. I had a decent education. Singapore prospered despite its limited resources. Singaporean in general has great job opportunities and I am fortunate enough to land a good job. Although I am politically inactive and apathetic, I nevertheless keep myself abreast of world events and always watch keenly on government policies. For this reason, I have never failed to follow the annual National Day Rally since LKY started it.

The National Day Rally annually was similar to the State of Union address in USA. Over the years, it has been institutionalised in Singapore and future leaders will be expected to follow this tradition, national day speech. For the PM, it is a report card on his performance. Of course, needless to say, the PM takes this opportunity for some self congratulations. More importantly, it is a platform for the PM to rally Singaporeans to stay united to face the challenges ahead. And the same time to shares and explain the domestic issues and policies the government had adopted or intended to introduce.

This year rally was no different from the past. We all know we are in an unprecedented economic crisis and are just seeing sign of economic recovery. Rightly, he did not hype on the pains and turmoils which the public has enough of this over the last 12 months. Instead the focus was on religious harmony and a reminder how fragile this could be. Basically, it is a reminder to religious groups not to be too fervent and impose their values on others. Of course the AWARE saga was briefly mentioned. Overall there are no new issue discuss. I guess there is not much good thing to boast too. Also he does not wish to add more negative news to the already weak sentiment.

This rally was more like an election rally. The last 30 minutes was spent on the progress Singapore has made over the last 50 years. Photographs and short videos were cleverly used to score the points on how the government has developed Singapore into a world class city unimaginable 50 years ago.

My guess is election is coming soon.




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