In August 2009, Lee Kuan Yew suggested that the pledge was just an aspiration to the dismay of NMP Viswa Sadasivan who had sought to move a motion to reaffirm the tenets enshrined in our National Pledge.
Now 6 years on, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, not to be outdone by his father, has gone one step further. He concluded his recent National Day message with a chilling desecration of the pledge.
50 years on, on our Golden Jubilee, we will gather again at the Padang. We will sing “Majulah Singapura” proudly, and recite the National Pledge. We will rejoice in the success of our last five decades, and commit ourselves anew to work together as one united people, regardless of race, language or religion, to build Singapore, so as to achieve happiness, prosperity, and progress for our nation.
(See http://www.pmo.gov.sg/mediacentre/prime-minister-lee-hsien-loongs-national-day-message-2015-english for the full transcript.)
In case we have forgotten, here is what every Singaporean child pledges daily in school:-
We, the citizens of Singapore, pledge ourselves as one united people, regardless of race, language, or religion to build a democratic society based on justice and equality so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation.
Were the substitution of “democratic society” with “Singapore” and the eradication of “based on justice and equality” a cunning sleight of hand or a mere careless omission?
When a leader changes the pledge in a manner which diminishes the importance of “democracy”, “justice” and “equality”, it spells trouble and augurs badly for us all and requires some deep soul searching on our part
Will we ever know or forever be left wondering? How does one form a reasonable judgment as to the intentions of the Prime Minister? Short of a clear and unambiguous statement from the PM’s office, are we left only to speculate or can we form a legitimate opinion based on his actions in recent months and years?
The omission of “democracy” and “justice” appear to be consistent with the acts of an individual who has proceeded with the defamation charges brought against Roy Ngerng or the treatment of Amos Yee by the state for calling his father a “horrible person”.
As for the notion of equality, speaking in 2013 at an inaugural DBS Asia Leadership dialogue, the Prime Minister had this to say:
In fact, if I can get another 10 billionaires to move to Singapore and set up their base here, my Gini coefficient will get worse but I think Singaporeans will be better off...
(http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/pm-getting-politics-right-critical-spore)
Perhaps for the Prime Minister, equality is no longer a consideration given the focus on getting “billionaires to move to Singapore”. Could the elimination of “equality” in his message also shed light on his recent comments on the need for a “certain natural aristocracy in the system”? Should we the citizens of Singapore therefore resign ourselves to the sight of large number of our old folks carrying cardboard, cleaning toilets and wiping tables with their hunched backs and trembling hands whilst being shouted at by patrons, stall-owners and managers of food courts?
Is it truly possible for our nation’s leader to forget the pledge? Could it justifiably be argued that the speech was merely a paraphrase of the pledge which would be a difficult argument to accept given that the pledge was inserted almost word-for-word into the speech except for the elimination of the most critical phrase which anchors it and gives it impetus – “to build a democratic society based on justice and equality”.
Then again, perhaps, we need to take a hard look at the last 50 years and wonder if the Prime Minister was like his father merely stating a reality which we the citizens of Singapore have chosen to ignore – that ultimately this is what the last 50 years of nation building by the PAP has been about – a Faustian bargain between the Party and the People – one in which democracy, justice and equality has been sacrificed for happiness, prosperity and progress.
It is time for a drastic change and for us to inform the Prime Minister that we, the citizens of Singapore, intend to cash in the promissory note enshrined in our pledge of a “democratic society based on justice and equality” at GE2015 regardless of what he or his father thinks of our National Pledge.
JN
* Submitted by TRE reader.
Source: www.tremeritus.com
