National Day 2008 : Celebrating the Singapore Spirit !

Those who have children always want that their children's future to be better than their own. If they have struggled, they want their children to have an easier life. My parents experienced the turmoil of the post World War 2 era when Singapore was a colony under British rule and we no say in its future. Our forefathers fought hard against colonialism for the right to determine Singapore's future and they fought even harder for its survival. What we have today is what our parents fought for yesterday. What we fight for today will be what our children will have tomorrow.
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This year's theme for National Day is "Celebrating the Singapore Spirit". The most important spirit in a people is their fighting spirit. I'm not talking just about the willingness to stand up and fight for Singapore in times of war but the also the spirit to fight for what we believe is right. To fight and shape our destiny:

"Beneath the load how we
yearned to be free
Then came the day of liberty
when we took our destiny...."
- Rony Tan's Singapore Song

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We fought so hard against colonialism to take back our destiny and be free. Our forefathers. my grandfather and yours were not obedient serfs who accepted the rules and laws our colonial masters laid out. They fought to build this nation so that their children and their children's children can call this place home and have the liberty to shape our destiny.
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The 5 stars on our flag represents 5 ideals we are to uphold - democracy, justice, equality, progress and peace. While we evolve in this increasingly globalised world, we must never lose sight of our ideals. We must never allow our democracy to be weakened or we will end up serfs in our own society without a say in our destiny. If we allow inequality to widen there will be unnecessary suffering among the poorest and weakest members of our society. The best way to preserve these ideals will be to elect leaders who sincerely believe in them.
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In recent weeks, the issue of Singaporeans not wanting to have children and emigrating to Western countries cropped up again. It has been more than a decade since these issues surfaced. People leave the country when they feel no sense of ownership. For many people there are many genuine economic advantages if they leave Singapore - higher pay, better housing, better medical care etc. The best way to retain our people will be to give them a sense of ownership and we can do that by upholding the ideal of democracy in which everyone has a say in the way the country is run. People have to lose the fear of speaking up for this sense of ownership to be felt. The surest way to perpetuate this fear is to bankrupt and jail those who speak the loudest...when you do that, those who speak softly become silent and slowly people will stop speaking up and sense of ownership disappears. Singapore becomes just another city ...another place to make a living ...a hotel rather than a home.

In the past decade the income gap among Singaporeans have ballooned to 3rd world levels. Equality is an ideal we have to strive for....we cannot continue to implement pro-business policies at a time when corporate profits are at record highs, we cannot continue to implement regressive taxation such as GST to cut the taxes of the richest 1% of the population at the expense of the poorest, we cannot continue to depress the wages by opening the floodgates to foreign labor while state own monopolies increase fees and fares to grow their profits. On this National Day, we should never forget the ideals of equality and justice as we transform our socio economic system. We should never put money above people in our priorities and GDP above the well being of our poorest citizens.

"We pledge our hearts and lives
So in this homeland we vow
to live and die"- The Singapore Song

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Our future depends on our courage to do what is right. Like our forefathers who fought against colonialism, we have to continue to honor our pledge to build a democratic society based on justice and equality. We cannot afford to be complacent and leave the fate of our home in the hands of those who may not care for our ideals.