Post No. 266 (NDP Special)

Happy 44th National Day!

I'm patriot. Yep. I love my country. I love my government. I love the fact that I'm Singaporean, that I'm holding a pink IC, that I've served my national service, that I'm in a local university. Yes, I'm a patriot and I'm proud to be one.

Call me naive, call me brain-washed; still, I love my country. Every 9th August, I will either be at the NDP, or I will be at home watching the NDP (I missed 1 or 2 live telecasts, but watched the encore anyway). And then I will take time to think about how much this little country has gone through and how far we have come to be where we are right now.

We have certainly come a long way. I know, that was a cliche. But cliches are cliches only because (quoting The Kite Runner) "they are dead on" aren't they? 44 years, from mudflats to a metropolitan city (that was quoting MM Lee), from 3rd world to 1st world, from unrecognized to a global country. It was certainly quite a feat.

I know people always have something to say about the government. I've heard it all. About pulling strings, some conspiracy that was covered up, some secrets here and there, failures in certain projects and what not. I'll grant the wagging tongues their benefit of the doubt, even if some myths were not proven and some stories sound more far-fetched than true. But still, I love my government because they are effective and they are clean. Because they know how to manage the little resources we have and they know how to manage when a crisis hit the island, be it economic or pandamic. We have a good government and the results speak for itself. Even with the track record as evidence, many people will still stick to stories of manipulation and conspiracies. I won't try to change their minds. I just want to ask, "could you have done better?"

Personally, I think this year's NDP was one of the better ones. One reason is because my unit was on TV (hoho, felt nostalgic when i saw the teletubby :P). But more importantly, it was because other than the display of the multi-cultural arts and some mass display of formations and the other usual fan-fare, there was also a very strong message of having a national identity. The fact that the 10 chapters was revolved around the national pledge and the reciting of pledge at 2022HRS were pretty nice ideas. Haha, I admit it did feel a little silly to stand by myself in my room and reciting the pledge. Oh well.

This is home. My pledge. My anthem. My flag. My crescent moon and five stars. My country. This is home. Truly. Surely.

What will you defend? What do you see?

Happy 44th National Day!