Singapore Turns 56 🇸🇬

The National Day Rally this year is postponed to August 29th, and the Parade itself has been postponed from August 9th to August 21st. At least. MINDEF came out with a totally expected tone-deaf statement that the Parade goes on even as we go into yet another lockdown. Hello, this is pandemic yah? Could you not place performers at risk of infection even as you said no spectators? The numbers of performers interacting in a Parade, and staying in a holding room is sheer madness. (I'm clearly not a fan of the Parade. Not the show of military might, and not the choreographed song and dance to entertain the nation.) 

In a recorded National Day Message, our Prime Minister acknowledged troubled stirrings within the Singapore society in this frustrating pandemic times. He said, 

Our social cohesion has held. But we cannot take this for granted," the Prime Minister said. "COVID-19 has strained fault lines in our society, and brought up difficult issues that we need to deal with.

Titled ‘The Road Ahead’, this year’s National Day song sounds like… every other year’s. It’s got an easy melody, a regular rhythm, and a feel-good music video. It's supposed to be like this isn't it? Enough said. Singer-songwriter Linying and music producer Evan Low (who also worked on the last four National Day songs) took charge of this year’s theme song.

The song also had hilarious dance moves. In double-quick time. Go learn it and swing your hips! I foresee this dance to be wiggled across many virtual events. LOL Yah I can dance to it. The movements are very mass-dance friendly. The punch-rolls got me giggling so bad. I cackled hysterically when I was made to do it in a mini-performance (online) for my old folks. 

Singapore Turns 56 today. We have A LOT to work on. We aren't living up to the creed in our National Pledge. It hasn't been "tidak kira apa bangsa, bahasa, atau ugama". Neither are we being kind. IMHO, we're being exceptionally selfish, self-entitled and unnecessarily insular. Singaporeans can be so racist, and I must say that I exceptionally detest the tone, approach and line taken by op-eds in the national Chinese newspaper when it comes to a discourse about race.  

The race of our Prime Minister should never matter in a democratic selection process. Is it not? I don't see it as any issue at all. (Why, do we want to raise the specter of Malaysia?) I was horrified to see it in print. Please don't anyhowly use the older generation as a scapegoat. If the older generation indeed thinks so, then they're being racist and reactionary. They need to reset their opinions and keep up with times. Using age as an excuse for everything is off-putting. To the political party, it's a matter of, which portion of the electorate do you wish to please? 

Racism is well and alive in Singapore, rearing its ugly head everywhere, and this year, it's totally out of the closet. The pandemic restrictions and frustrations have really brought out the worst in us. This is something Singapore needs to acknowledge, a fact that the majority race needs to see and not avoid or refrain from correcting friends, families and neighbors about misguided jokes and comments. Insidious racism is the worst. We need to make our stand heard. Being polite is no longer acceptable. How many years have we been preaching about racial harmony? It's a veneer. It's a glossy surface that's easily cracked. Singapore is made up of a country of immigrants, right from the start, before and after 1965. Have we forgotten that? We need to do better. Jangan lupa Ikrar Kita. 

Kami, warganegara Singapura, sebagai rakyat yang bersatu padu, tidak kira apa bangsa, bahasa, atau ugama, berikrar untuk membina suatu masyarakat yang demokratik, berdasarkan kepada keadilan dan persamaan untuk mencapai kebahagiaan, kemakmuran dan kemajuan bagi negara Kami.