Stirring
People’s passion
A grand party to rally a rich but increasingly divided society that is constantly changing. By Seah Chiang Nee.
Aug 12, 2007

Singapore not only marks its National Day on a grand scale but has also evolved it into a national icon that stirs the nation’s emotions.

EVERYONE loves a parade, they say, but few embrace the idea more passionately than Singaporeans when it comes to celebrating National Day.

In fact most Western nations which have never been conquered do not observe their National Day as actively as this young republic had done over the past four decades.

The US marks July 4 or Independence Day with plenty of fireworks, family picnics, concerts and baseball games, but – like Canada and other nations outside the communist world – it has no mass parade.

One reason is they may be too big to allow for one big rallying point, so the important holiday means little more than a marching band, political speeches and flag-bedecked buildings.

The Swedes, who have not fought in a modern war, have a guarded attitude towards celebrating a national day. They say they’re proud of their country but don’t feel any need to show it.

New Zealand does not even have one. “The timing is right for us to actively and positively advance our national identity – starting with a new national day,” said United Future leader Peter Dunne.

Tiny Singapore has gone the other extreme. During the past 41 years, it has not only celebrated it on a grand scale but has also evolved it into a national icon that stirs the nation’s emotions.

On its 42nd birthday bash on Thursday – Aug 9 – it was on a more imaginative scale than before.

For the first time it was held on the world’s largest floating stage at Marina Bay watched by 27,000 Singaporeans decked out in patriotic red-white shirts.

As I watched the televised parade, my mind recalled pictures that I have seen of a million-strong people marching in Tiananmen after a new China had emerged and wondered if Singapore had copied the concept.

Nothing beats the communists, including North Korea or the former Soviet Union, which used it to flex their missiles and rockets and accompanied by goose-steeping soldiers.

Singapore, too, occasionally showed off its military prowess (including jetfighters screaming overhead) but Thursday’s parade, like all others, was mostly of a softer, cultural nature of dancing and songs.

The show was put on the Internet for the 150,000 Singaporeans living abroad.

Inspiring songs in four languages filled the air. Discovery Channel ran a documentary about how the nation came into being.

From early independence, the ruling People’s Action Party had realised – as the Chinese communists did in 1949 – that mass public rallies and patriotic songs could instil a sense of pride and unity in the people.

The marching contingents, the roaring crowds and waves of exploding fireworks amplified by loudspeakers have, I am sure, served to quicken the process of nation building.

The PAP saw a special need for the expensive party. Singapore has been through war, communism and communal strife and often feels vulnerable to threats of one form or another.

“Countries like this will use their national days to arouse sentiments of nationalism and rally their citizens,” one foreign journalist said.

Singapore has another crucial objective: Promoting racial ties.

The efficient way the parade was organised reveals much about Singapore and its people, and explains why it has collectively been successful.

Next to cities like Beijing, New Delhi or Pyongyang, which hold much bigger parades, Singapore’s capability for clockwork organisation is the most telling.

“Hardly a month or two passes at the end of one parade before planning begins on next year’s,” a foreign journalist observed. Thousands of children would stand in line waiting to do their bit.

“In our own country, these kids would wander all over the place. It’s not easy to get nine-year-old’s to stand neatly in line and obey instructions,” said one South-East Asian visitor.

This year’s rally was held amid a strong economy and high employment, but also widespread price increases that are hitting the pockets of the broad middle and poorer class.

It was fuelled by an increase last month in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from 5% to 7%.

The spirit of Singaporeans is dampened by rising costs of almost all their daily necessities, including housing, food, public transport and health-care, making life hard for salary earners.

Above all, this is a widening economic gap. In the past five years the wealthiest 20% got richer while the income of the bottom one-fifth shrank.

The worst sufferers are poorly educated senior citizens who find it difficult to find work in Singapore’s modern economy.

In his National Day message, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said his government would adopt measures to help them find work and increase their retirement savings.

Lee unfolded a string of sterling news about strong growth (7.6% in the first half) and other achievements that could match those during his father’s golden era.

Yet the reactions of their respective followers differed sharply. Lee Kuan Yew was widely praised during his time, while the son is finding it hard to rally the younger generation behind him.

Blogger Aaron Ng wrote of the parade: “The amount of euphoria generated ... temporarily suppresses the unhappy feelings of social groups left out of Singapore’s rapid economic development.”

Other critics are unhappy with the government’s refusal to allow opposition MPs to hold outdoor National Day dinners in their own constituencies.

The PAP could field a marching contingent and display party flags at the parade, but not the opposition.

“They promised to build an inclusive society that leaves out no one” a cynic remarked. “The parade does not show real inclusiveness.”

(This was published in The Star, Malaysia, on Aug 12, 2007).