Our founding father Lee Kuan Yew exemplifies the can-do spirit

DARE TO BELIEVE

NOT mission impossible. Our late founding father Lee Kuan Yew never believed in the impossibility of achieving water self-sufficiency.

At a time when technology did not permit, he envisaged the Marina Barrage. That vision eventually became a reality more than 20 years later. ...

Because he believed that technology would one day allow us to be water self-sufficient, they never gave up that relentless search for solutions.

We are where we are today because one man dared to dream.

Don't be afraid to dream. Dare to believe

The days of water rationing and water self-sufficiency

Back in those days when there was no NEWater, no desalination plants, in a severe drought, taps ran dry for months.

Yes, it happened many times. Water rationing was a common exercise.

Water is a precious and scarce resource. It does not come cheap. BILLION OF DOLLARS were spent on water research until feasible solutions were found. ...

Today, many Singaporeans take water for granted. They think the tap will never run dry. After all, dry spells have come and gone, and life goes on as usual with not a drop of water less. In fact, water usage went up instead in a dry spell as people took to the shower more often to cool themselves.

Let's be mindful of this fact: the tap will continue to run clean water as long as the desalination plants are running.

We speak of water self-sufficiency often and the desalination plants give us a sense of confidence but lest we forget, water self-sufficiency is also linked to energy self-sufficiency.

Friends, those desalination plants will produce clean water as long as there is energy to run them.

What if there is no energy? Will water still flow from the tap?

When our water agreement with Malaysia lapses, our main source of water will be from NEWater and desalination plants.

So let's begin to treat water as a finite resource, precious and scarce, and definitely not cheap.

Water conservation should be a habit and it begins at home. There is more that each one of us can do to conserve water. It starts with being conscious of how we use water.

Experts say that the decision to raise water prices after 17 years is to be applauded.

17 years is a long time. Who can dispute that cost of water production has not gone up in that 17 years?

There is strong evidence to suggest that under-priced or free water leads to very inefficient uses of water including increased wastage. (See: http://bit.ly/2m1V4hF)

Take the case of Doha, the capital of Qatar, for example. Water is free in Doha. The average daily water consumption of residents is 1200 litres!

Experts say that water should be priced accordingly to provide a sustainable financial model for the proper operation, maintenance, updating and construction of new facilities for water and wastewater treatment systems.

Concurrently, poor families should receive targeted subsidies so they have access to reliable water supply and wastewater treatment services. The subsidies could start, for example, when the water bill of a household exceeds 2 per cent of its income.

Goh Meng Seng is just an ignorant politician who loves to protest everything government.

Writing a long post to protest the visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Goh Meng Seng, founder of PPP (People's Power Party) then concluded by saying that the Singapore government should instead "persuade Israel to honor its earlier agreement to peaceful establishment of the Two-States resolution".

Which planet does he live on? Doesn't he know that the Singapore government's position is the two-state solution?

In fact, if he hadn't been preoccupied with simply opposing for the sake of opposing, he would know that just last year when PM Lee Hsien Loong visited Israel and Palestine, he had urged both sides to resume direct negotiations to reach a just and lasting two-state solution.

INDEED, we have a caring and compassionate government. Not perfect but always there for you.

Tin Pei Ling

Her easy bond with older residents could stem in part from how she's an only child who grew up in a household of adults.

Her father owned a coffee shop in Ghim Moh with several shareholders. He ran a drinks stall where she helped out at, while at Crescent Girls' School and later Hwa Chong Junior College.

"Making coffee was what my dad was good at and he raised the family through this," she says.... Her mother is a housewife.

When she was in her third year, her father had a heart attack. She had to run the coffee shop and took a semester off for this.

Upgrading works were being done in the area and business was bad. "We dipped into savings... My mum would sometimes cry secretly. She tried to hide it but I knew. "

She gives an animated recitation of a typical day: "Wake up at five plus. Open the coffee shop by six. Heat up the stove, check cashier, everything is in order then do, do, do, do, do. Afternoon, if there's class, I try to run to class while my mum takes over... then after that I come back, then to midnight, then close. Very tired. By the time I reach home... after shower, hit the bed, gone. Very tiring."

That experience taught her the struggles of small businesses and students who juggle work and study.

On her bad experience in 2011, she says she is thankful that MacPherson residents have been supportive and "willing to see me differently".

On how she managed to move on, she says there was a point when she realised that if she overcame the nastiness she faced, it might encourage others with their own challenges.

"So there was also this additional dimension that was motivating me." She adds: "There's this song, if it doesn't kill you, you will get stronger. So sometimes these pop songs help." (She's referring to Kelly Clarkson's Stronger).

What also helped was putting the criticisms in perspective.

Even though she felt wronged and hurt, she realised that what she suffered was "really just (loss of) face issue, pride, reputation".

"All these things are intangible, right? I still have my family around me, whereas for other people whom I've met, they have real bread and butter issues, like losing a job and worries about how to feed the whole family."

She has many plans for her ward and talks earnestly - and at length - about plans to rejuvenate the ward, help the elderly age actively in the community, and projects for younger residents.

Excerpt of interview with Sumiko Tan.

"Syonan" no more

The name of the gallery may have been changed, but history remains.

REMEMBER SYONAN AND WHAT IT STOOD FOR.

The gallery has been renamed "Surviving the Japanese Occupation", a name that evokes little reaction. ...

Dr Yaacob said: “Over the past two days, I have read the comments made on this issue, and received many letters from Singaporeans of all races. While they agreed that we need to teach Singaporeans about the Japanese Occupation, they also shared that the words “Syonan Gallery” had evoked deep hurt in them, as well as their parents and grandparents.”

Stressing this was never the intention, Dr Yaacob said: “I am sorry for the pain the name has caused. I have reflected deeply on what I heard. We must honour and respect the feelings of those who suffered terribly and lost family members during the Japanese Occupation.”

Singapore was renamed Syonan-to by the Japanese in 1942, following the British surrender. It means "Light of the South".

WHY DID NLB CHOOSE THE NAME 'SYONAN' FOR THE GALLERY?

NLB said that after consulting historians and its advisory panel, it "decided that no other name captured the time and all that it stood for. "The period when Singapore was known as Syonan was a very important part of our history. The new name of the gallery reminds us how brittle our sovereignty can be, as Singapore lost not only its freedom, but also its name during the Japanese Occupation. It is a sombre reminder not to take our peace and harmony for granted, and to appreciate the need to defend ourselves."

Well, that name is no more.

In all intent and purpose, the name "Syonan" would have been a grim and powerful reminder of this dark period of our past.

The name of the gallery may have been changed, but history remains. Remember Syonan and what it stood for. Visit the gallery and learn history.

All the unnecessary furore over the naming of a gallery: Syonan Gallery

It's the naming of a gallery WITHIN the museum, NOT the name of the museum which has not changed.

The gallery detailed the 3 years and 8 months of occupation by the Japanese and what more appropriate name to call it than Syonan, the name change by the Japanese. ...

Do we erase 'Syonan' from our vocabulary and textbooks? Are we honouring the Japanese when we tell our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren that for 3 years and 8 months, Singapore was Syonan-to? Of course not.

We want future generations of Singaporeans to learn this bit of dark history.

Call it what it was: Syonan.

"Syonan" is a grim reminder of what can happen to a people if they are unable to defend themselves.

If we allow ourselves to become complacent, if we do not take our defence seriously, if we are careless about our defence, if we become defenceless, Syonan is a reminder that someone can just come in and change the name of our country.

To those websites who saw an opportunity to stir by calling the name a betrayal, every time you downplay the need for national service, every time you instigate Singaporeans to take a negative attitude towards national service or total defence, you are betraying the security of Singapore. See More

Building A World Class Education System From Scratch (Part 2)

SURVIVAL-DRIVEN PHASE (1959 - 1978)

In this phase, the focus was on enrolment and ensuring that every child goes to school because most of the population were illiterate and only the affluent were educated. 

This phase saw the rapid construction of schools and the doubling of the teaching force from from 10,500 in 1959 to over 19,000 by 1968.

At the end of this phase there was near universal primary education.

However, the quality of education was not high. There was high education wastage with almost 30% of primary school children failing to progress to secondary school. English proficiency was also low.

Out of every 1000 pupils who entered primary one, only 35% eventually obtained 3 or more 'O' level passes.
 

EFFICIENCY-DRIVEN PHASE (1976 - 1996)

The education system moved away from the one-size-fits-all system to a system that creates multiple pathways for students in order to reduce the dropout rate, and to enable a more effective deliverance of classroom teaching where teachers were able to focus on teaching students of similar abilities.

This followed from the Goh Keng Swee Report on education which recommended that students be streamed into different tracks based on their aptitude.

CDIS (Curriculum Development Institute of Singapore) was created in 1980 to develop a suite of supporting teaching materials that could be used off-the-shelf by less-experienced and less-skilled teachers.

Workshops were also held to explain to teachers how to use the materials effectively.

This second phase also saw the establishment of independent (1988) and autonomous (1994) schools.

By 1995, the Singapore education system had become one of the top performing systems in the world.

ABILITY-BASED ASPIRATION-DRIVEN PHASE (1997 - present)

This focuses on enabling every child to attain to his or her maximum potential.

The growth of the global knowledge economy required a paradigm shift in Singapore's education system towards a focus on innovation, creativity and research.

In 1997 a new educational vision called "Thinking Schools, Learning Nation" was launched. (See then PM Goh Chok Tong's speech here: http://bit.ly/1Hga8MR)

As Mr Goh Chok Tong said in his speech in 1997, learning will not end in the school or the university.

Quote:

"We have to prepare ourselves for a bracing future - a future of intense competition and shifting competitive advantages, a future where technologies and concepts are replaced at an increasing pace, and a future of changing values.

Education and training are central to how nations will fare in this future. Strong nations and strong communities will distinguish themselves from the rest by how well their people learn and adapt to change. Learning will not end in the school or even in the university. Much of the knowledge learnt by the young will be obsolete some years after they complete their formal education. In some professions, like Information Technology, obsolescence occurs even faster. The task of education must therefore be to provide the young with the core knowledge and core skills, and the habits of learning, that enable them to learn continuously throughout their lives. We have to equip them for a future that we cannot really predict."

Thinking Schools, Learning Nation encompassed a wide range of initiatives over a number of years that were designed to tailor education to the abilities and interests of students, to provide more flexibility and choice for students and to transform the structures of education.
A broader array of subject matter courses was created for students and a portfolio of different types of schools specialising in arts, mathematics and science and sports were created."

"Teach Less, Learn More"

In 2004, the government developed the “Teach Less, Learn More” initiative to move instruction further away from the rote memorization and repetitive tasks.
In 2009, art, music and physical education gained a larger role in the overall curriculum.

The Ministry has also rolled out new initiatives dedicated to providing financial aid for students in need, signaling a renewed commitment to educational equality.

OVERWHELMING ADJUSTMENT TO PREPARE FOR A CHANGING WORLD 

Today, the Singapore's education system is going through an overwhelming adjustment to prepare the young for a changing world.

Education Minister Ong Ye Kung used the analogy of a computer to describe this adjustment. From the outside, the computer looks unchanged, but inside, its operating system is changing, its algorithm is changing.

"It's changing the way we do things, uncovering students' talents, developing them to the fullest," he said.

We need a mindset change too. Education Minister Ng Chee Meng said we need to build resilience in students so that they know how to bounce back in a world that is having to cope with disruptive changes.

In this respect, both parents and educators must take a step back and allow students to deal with challenges and setbacks on their own and not be too quick to intervene, no matter how good our intentions are, Mr Ng said.

Our students must dare to 'chiong', he said.

He also spoke of the need to reduce the "growing skills gap between what we learn in schools and the jobs graduates are applying for.

He gave the assurance that his ministry will continue to place strong emphasis on 21st-century competencies, including critical and inventive thinking, communication and collaboration skills, as well as global awareness and cross-cultural skills.


References: http://bit.ly/1L1rewo http://bit.ly/1K5PeRm http://bit.ly/1Hga8MR

3 YEARS AND 8 MONTHS OF EXTREME HARDSHIP AND SUFFERING AS AN OCCUPIED PEOPLE

It was the FIRST DAY of the CHINESE NEW YEAR, the YEAR OF THE HORSE when the British surrendered Singapore to the Japanese.

DPM Teo Chee Hean's speech:

One of the fiercest battles before the surrender – the Battle for Bukit Timah - took place near the Ford Factory.

The Japanese reached Bukit Timah on 11 February and met strong resistance from the Straits Settlements Volunteer Force comprising local civilian defenders who fought bravely and fiercely with rifles, shotguns, and hand grenades tied to their waists and swords strapped to their backs.

With the capture of Bukit Timah hill, the Japanese gained a stranglehold on Singapore’s water supply – which they promptly cut off. This was a strategic move that contributed to the British surrender.

It was here at the Ford Motor Factory, where General Yamashita of the Japanese Imperial Army had set up his headquarters, that Lieutenant-General A E Percival, commander of the British forces, signed the surrender papers on 15 February 1942. That was the first day of the Chinese New Year.

The day after the British surrendered, Singapore was renamed “Syonan-to” or “Light of the South” by the Japanese invaders.

But FOR THE PEOPLE OF SINGAPORE, IT MARKED THE BEGINNING OF DARK TIMES, WHICH WAS TO LAST 3 YEARS AND 8 MONTHS.

Singaporeans went through extreme hardship and suffering as an occupied people.

Conditions were desperate. There was not enough food; there was no healthcare.

WORSE THAN THE PHYSICAL HARDSHIP WAS HAVING TO LIVE IN CONSTANT FEAR.

The walls of this gallery tell the stories of torture and massacres. Many families lost loved ones and suffered grievously.

The gallery here at the old Ford Motor Factory is a powerful and poignant reminder to all Singaporeans that WE ONCE PAID A TERRIBLE PRICE BECAUSE WE COULD NOT DEFEND OURSELVES.

We must learn from this most painful lesson of what could be taken away from us if we are not able to defend ourselves.

The need to learn from our past cannot be overstated. It provides the backdrop that helps us make sense of our present and guides us so that we do not repeat the same mistakes.

This gallery ensures that the history of the Japanese Occupation in Singapore is not forgotten, and that the important lessons it holds are conveyed to future generations of Singaporeans.

Singaporeans must know that we should never take our nation’s peace and stability for granted, and that we ourselves must be responsible for our own defence. Without security as a strong foundation, we cannot develop and progress as a nation.

That is why we have invested so much in our defence since we became an independent nation – by requiring our men to do National Service and steadily developing the capabilities of the Singapore Armed Forces.

Anyone who may be tempted to think that our small island will be an easy target – like it was in 1942 – must be left in no doubt about the resolve of Singaporeans and our commitment to defend our nation, and that the Singapore Armed Forces can and will repel any aggressor and defend Singapore.

We want to live in a stable and peaceful region. But like many other countries which have seen the ravages of invasion and occupation, we have learned through bitter experience that in order to remain secure and to enjoy peace, we must first be prepared to fight to defend ourselves.

https://www.mindef.gov.sg/imindef/press_room/official_releases/sp/2006/17feb06_speech.print.noimg.html

THIS MOMENT in history...'UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER'

General Percival made the decision to surrender on 15 February 1942. The water supply on Singapore Island had virtually dried up, petrol supplies were almost exhausted, military supplies were running low and the constant bombardments of the city were causing shocking civilian casualties. Percival realised that his only options were to fight to the death or surrender. He personally arranged the ceasefire and signed the surrender document at the Ford factory that same evening.

6.20 p.m. The exact moment when the British surrendered Singapore to the Japanese.

Never Again: The Fall of Singapore

On Feb 15, 1942, Singapore fell to the Japanese.

On 10 December 1941, Japanese bombers sank two British warships, the Repulse and the Prince of Wales, off the coast of Malaya. This was a serious blow for Britain and its naval strength. Singapore’s defences were severely weakened. In all, 840 sailors were lost.

The British expected an attack on Singapore to come from... the sea. There were no permanent defences on the landward side, and Singapore’s big guns pointed towards the ocean and couldn’t be turned around.

However the Japanese advanced by land and the troops moved quickly down the Malay Peninsula, many on bicycles.

Allied troops, including the soldiers of the Australian 8th Division, tried valiantly to hold back the Japanese advance, but were forced down the Malay Peninsula and across to the island of Singapore.

On 8 February, the Japanese landed in the north-west of the island in collapsible boats. It is believed that 13,000 troops crossed into Singapore that night.

Twenty-four hours later a second Japanese landing force, the Imperial Guards division, crossed into Singapore at Kranji and via a repaired Causeway.

By the morning of 10 February there were Japanese troops on most of north-west Singapore.

Within six days they were on the outskirts of Singapore city, which was also now under constant air attack.

After gaining full control of Pasir Panjang Ridge on 14 February, Japanese troops moved into the Alexandra area.

Despite the fact that the Alexandra Military Hospital was marked by red crosses, Japanese troops charged into the hospital and killed a British officer who had gone out to meet them with a white flag.

The Japanese troops then entered an operating theatre and killed the patient on the operating table as well as the staff attending to him.

Another group of soldiers then entered the wards and bayoneted the patients indiscriminately. Later, the Japanese were said to have gathered about 200 patients and staff outside the hospital, tied them up with a rope and crammed them into three small rooms for the night. The next day they were tied together in threes and executed. It is estimated that around 280 staff and patients were killed over two days.

On 15 February Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, the British commander in Singapore, called for a ceasefire and made the difficult decision to surrender.

The battle of Singapore, the Gibraltar of the east, the impregnable fortress, lasted only one week from 8 Feb to 15 Feb 1942.

Japanese capabilities were arrogantly underestimated. Thousands of Allied troops, including many from Malaya and Singapore, were killed and injured in desperate defence.

The fall of Singapore was the British Army's greatest humiliation but the disaster was most acutely experienced by the population of Singapore. They paid a grievous price.

"Hindsight enables us to understand that there were serious errors of leadership as the Japanese 25th Army attacked down the Malayan peninsula.

So it is not surprising that one of the lessons that the late Lee Kuan Yew took from the fall of Singapore was that Singaporeans should never rely on any but themselves for their security. And that is why the Singapore Armed Forces are the best funded, best equipped, best trained and most professional forces in South-east Asia." - - Scott Wightman, British High Commissioner to Singapore.

Joined together again in death

They were inseparable.

She was his closest friend, his “tower of strength”, for more than three-quarters of his life.

At Raffles College, she had beaten him to be the top student in English and economics at the end of the first term, giving Lee stiff competition for the coveted Queen’s Scholarship. 

With their friendship blossoming by September 1944, Lee Kuan Yew invited Kwa Geok Choo to his 21st birthday dinner, “an event not without significance” in those days.

In the months before he left in September 1946, they spent a lot of time together and took photographs.

Lee wrote in his memoirs: “We were young and in love, anxious to record this moment of our lives ... We both hoped she would go back to Raffles College, win the Queen’s Scholarship to read law and join me wherever I might be.

“She was totally committed. I sensed it. I was equally determined to keep my commitment to her.”

In 2003, in an e-mail interview with ST Senior Correspondent M Nirmala, Mrs Lee Kuan Yew said the qualities she admired most in Mr Lee was his powers of persuasion.

She said:

(a) He persuaded me to marry him, but I would have to wait for him for three years while he studied in England to qualify as a lawyer.

(b) He persuaded a British army officer to give him a priority passage on the troopship Britannic to get him to England.

(c) When he got to London, he persuaded Professor Hughes Parry, head of the Law Faculty of London School of Economics, to take him in two weeks after term had started, although he had turned others away.

(d) After a few miserable weeks in London, he persuaded W. S. Thatcher, the Censor of FitzWilliam House, Cambridge, to take him in one term late.

(e) When I was awarded the Queens Scholarship in July 1947, he persuaded W. S. Thatcher to write to the Mistress of Girton College about taking in his girlfriend, me.

(f) He met the Mistress and persuaded her that I was exceptional and worth taking in for that academic year.

(g) The Education Department in Singapore doubted that I had been offered a place in Girton College; they had not been able to get Eddie Barker a place in Cambridge even though he had won the Queens Scholarship the previous year (1946). Eddie did not get in till the following year. Kuan Yew persuaded Girton College to send a telegram to the Singapore authorities to confirm they would take me in 1947, and so they sent me to England in September that year.

So I did not have to wait three years before he married me.

In life, they were inseparable. In death, they were joined in their ashes according to their wishes.

Why no elected presidency in the beginning?

Because we were poor. There was nothing to protect. No reserves to protect.

People toiled for a living. They lived by the sweat of their brow.

Through hard work, a clean, competent and prudent government, we accumulated reserves and by the mid 1980s, there was actually something to protect.

Hence the elected presidency was legislated - in 1991.

Regardless of race, language and religion, and the Presidency

We do not live in a perfect world. 'Regardless of race, language or religion' is an aspiration to work towards, not something that we have already arrived at.

Do you really see yourself simply and only as a Singaporean and no longer regard yourself as Chinese, Malay or Indian?...

If you're Chinese, you still celebrate Chinese new year and festivals, don't you? You still give your children Chinese names, don't you? Have you ditched your Chinese culture or stop speaking Chinese? Likewise if you're Malay or Indian and so on.

We are multiracial and will always be multiracial and not a homogenous society. We achieve racial harmony not by denying the culture and traditions of each ethnic group or our own.

We achieve it by accepting that each group brings with them their unique culture and traditions that can enrich the Singapore identity and we build on the common space that we also share.

The President as the head of state is to reflect the multiracial composition of Singapore. It has nothing to do with playing the race card.

Look at the world around you. Is racism on the rise? What makes you think that Singaporeans are a special breed of race-blind people? If the elected president is somehow always a Chinese, who is to say that the day will never come when someone with a agenda will whisper: Are we not a multiracial country? Why is the president always a Chinese?

We have achieved racial harmony because we have an ACTIVIST GOVERNMENT who intervenes with social policies to prevent enclaves from being formed thus leading to greater integration.

We enjoy racial harmony because there are very TOUGH LAWS in place to deal with hate speech, racial slurs and religious insults.

Take away the activism of the government. Take away the tough laws. Will we still enjoy the same kind of peace and racial harmony?

It is important to understand that the peace and the harmony we enjoy among the different races is not automatically passed down to future generations. It is not something in your genes that you can passed on to your children. Every child has to learn from the day he or she is born, to accept racial differences and to co-exist with different races.

This means that how you feel today about the different races and what you enjoy today is not a given for future generations. That is why the government keeps emphasizing the need for sustained efforts to maintain racial harmony.

Some argue that a reserved election compromises on meritocracy. How is meritocracy compromised when the candidate is still subject to the same qualifying criteria?

In a hypothetical scenario where a Chinese and a Malay candidate stand for election competing against each other. Let's say that the Malay candidate is a better candidate of the two but the Chinese candidate wins. Where then is your meritocracy argument?

The baseline is that any person who wants to stand for election as president must meet the qualifying criteria. These are the same regardless of whether an election is reserved or not.

A point to note is that the reserved election APPLIES TO ALL RACES INCLUDING THE CHINESE.

We don't talk about a reserved election for a Chinese candidate because such a scenario is unlikely to arise. But in principle, the reserved election applies to all races.

In the unlikely event that no Chinese gets elected as President for 5 elections, then there will be a reserved election for a Chinese candidate.

OUR DEFENCE IS OUR OWN RESPONSIBILITY. Celebrating 50 years of national service.

"We cannot change the fact that we are a small country, but today, after 50 years of NS, we have built an SAF capable of defending Singapore," Defence Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen said.

"From time to time, relations with other countries may not be completely smooth, but our relations with big powers like the US, China and India are fundementally sound and healthy," he said.

"The responsibility to defend Singapore ultimately rests on Singaporeans, and Singaporeans alone,” he added.

Diversity: Our weapon against extremism

Our WEAPON against extremism: DIVERSITY.

Extremism is characterised by intolerance.

EMBRACING DIVERSITY means an acceptance of differences and allowing others to be different from ourselves. ...

This leads to FREEDOM - freedom to be different, freedom to practise your own faith and beliefs. Think about it.

Everyone wants the freedom to practise their own faith.

It is therefore good to put into practice the universal Golden Rule to 'do to others as you would others do to you'.

Not to embrace diversity is to turn our backs on geography

The sense of being a Singaporean cannot be divorced from being multicultural, and celebrating the fact that we are so. For we are a small island in Southeast Asia, a region which does not have a unifying culture, unlike the Arabian, Indian, European or Chinese civilizations.

Southeast Asia is diverse because it is at the intersection of major civilizations. Major religions, from Hinduism and Bud...dhism, to Islam and Christianity, precipitated thick layers of identity traits in the region throughout history. And Singapore is at the center of it all.

Not to embrace diversity is to turn our backs on the realities of geography and history, and to deny being our true self. Diversity is what makes Singapore unique, and it is what makes us Singaporeans.

It is thanks to the myriad of influences from different cultures and beliefs – Singapore is like a 百家被, or in English, a “100 good wishes quilt”, where many pieces of cloths are stitched together into a blanket to protect a newborn, and passed to future generations.

Today, around the world, there is a growing trend of religious extremism. The acts of extremists aim to harm what is most precious to our societies, which is the mutual trust and cohesion between communities.

There is also worry of a rising political rhetoric that feeds on the insecurity of communities, and propound a more insular worldview and less tolerance for diversity.

As a small country open to the outside world, we are susceptible to such trends. What is happening in other countries can also affect sentiments in Singapore.

At this time, it is all the more important that we reaffirm our Pledge, and remind ourselves of our shared values. We are a multi-cultural society, a country for every community, with meritocracy as one of our key organizing principles. The majority do not overrule the principle of equality, and the minorities do not exclude themselves.

After fifty one years of independence, I believe these values and ideas have sunk deep roots in our collective consciousness.

And we must continue to work to strengthen them.

Building a cohesive society and one united people is an endless journey. Countries with far longer histories are still grappling with this challenge, what more Singapore. It is a difficult and delicate task. We need to uphold the principle of equality, and build a shared sense of being as a nation, but without going overboard or adopting an extreme ideology, to the extent of disregarding or becoming disrespectful to the identities and cultures of individual communities.

Religious and community leaders have always played a significant role, to lead by example, and to promote interfaith understanding and tolerance, and as a Singaporean I thank all of you.

Excerpt of speech at an Interfaith Festive Gathering - Reunion and Reflections, at Furama Riverfront Hotel

http://bit.ly/2l6WEhQ See More

Our core value: We are all Singaporeans regardless of race, language or religion.

We are all Singaporeans regardless of race, language or religion.

This has to be our constant refrain, like a tenet we hold dear to our hearts.

Excerpts from speech given by Law Minister Shanmugam:...

The THREE CORE PRINCIPLES that has been our approach over the last 50 years:

First, equality and equality of opportunities.

Second, accepting the facts within Singapore: we are different, we look different, let’s accept that, and let’s celebrate our diversity while building an overarching Singaporean identity.

And third, while there is considerable ethnic, religious diversity, let’s also work actively to keep as large a common space as possible in our interactions.

You see many Government policies in the context of these three principles. Some of them were criticised but with hindsight we can see they make sense.

The Government’s approach is activist.

Some examples...

The ethnic integration policy – the Government intervenes on where people live and makes sure that no ethnic enclaves develop. People have to live together. No banlieues in Singapore.

Schools – standard uniforms for everyone. Common identity in schools, with majority of schools compulsory racially mixed, compulsory education and so our young children have to interact with each other, learn to get on with each other, learn to respect and value each other.

Self-help groups – subject to some criticism but the basic point is, accept that there are Indians, Malays, Chinese, Eurasians, others.

Laws - a tough framework of laws, touching on what you can and cannot say about race and religion.

In Singapore, you cannot burn the Quran or the Bible on the basis of the freedom of speech and if you did, you will be behind bars.

We

A President to remind us of our multiracial composition

In a world of rising populism with racism rearing its ugly head, more than ever before, we need to remind ourselves that we are a multiracial society where every community, every race, language and culture has its equal place.

And this multiracial identity is our national identity.

The PRESIDENT, as the HEAD OF STATE, must be a reminder to all Singaporeans of our multiracial composition. As th...e Head of State, the President is a symbolic expression of this multiracial national identity.

That is why it is important that there is a rotation of presidency among the different races to reflect our multiracial community.

This brings us to the importance of the reserved presidential election - to ensure that such a rotation takes place.

Most people think of a reserved election as being reserved only for minority races.

In principle, the reserved election applies to ALL the races. Yes, including Chinese.

But because the Chinese form the majority, the possibility of not seeing a Chinese elected as president is very low and therefore it is unlikely that there will be a need for a reserved election for a Chinese candidate to be elected as president.

Some people have commented that candidates in reserved election are less qualified. This is WRONG.
ARE THE CANDIDATES FOR A RESERVED PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION LESS QUALIFIED?

OF COURSE NOT.

Every person who wants to stand for election as president, regardless of whether it is a reserved election or not, has to MEET THE SAME QUALIFYING CRITERIA

.

So every person who is qualified to stand for election as president, including in a reserved election, is EQUALLY QUALIFIED.

In an interview with the Straits Times in 1999 on the election of S R Nathan as president, Mr Lee Kuan Yew said:

"We've had two terms of Wee Kim Wee, one term of Ong Teng Cheong. I think it's time to remind Singaporeans that we are a multiracial community. And it's also good. It's a symbolic expression of our national identity."