Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles Good evening Mr Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen First of all, I'd like to wish all of you a very happy SG50 I'm really glad to have been a part of the nation's celebration of our Golden Jubilee Just two weeks ago, I was at NDP and now here I am, attending my very first National Day Rally So needless to say, I'm feeling pretty great And now, more importantly, I'd like to thank you, Sir, Mr Prime Minister and of all you present, for allowing me this opportunity to do something I wasn't able to do in the earlier part of this year when our beloved Mr Lee Kuan Yew passed away and left all of us quite shocked and bereaved Like many of you, as a Singaporean I expressed my grief through the wearing of sombre colours and in private conversations with family and friends But as a singer, I felt compelled to pay a tribute to the late Mr Lee through something I do best which is through a song So tonight, I stand here not so much to perform for you, which of course would have been a great honour As to lead you in a song tribute to a man many of us loved and admired and still love and admire I have chosen a song that has magically and quite miraculously united all of us whenever we heard it or sang it together I've been very blessed to have been given this song to sing at the National Day Parade way back in 1998 I hope that we can all continue to sing this song for many years to come and that it will always serve to remind us that no matter our differences We'll always be united by the fact that we call Singapore our home So, ladies and gentlemen If you will, please join me in the song "Home" Thank you This one is for LKY Thank you, Ms Kit Chan And now, ladies and gentlemen The Prime Minister My fellow Singaporeans, good evening First, let us thank Kit Chan again for her beautiful singing and also for dedicating her song to Mr Lee Kuan Yew I am very glad I invited her to the Rally and I am very touched that she offered to sing “Home” which is a fitting tribute to Mr Lee and a good start for the SG50 National Day Rally Two weeks ago, on the 9th of August, we celebrated our Golden Jubilee with a parade at the Padang For everyone who took part at the Padang, at the Floating Platform, around the Bay watching at home or overseas that night was something special to remember It wasn't just a birthday bash We were celebrating something far greater First of all, we celebrated our resolve to defend ourselves and to survive over the last 50 years We started out at independence with only two infantry battalions in a rough neighbourhood But our pioneers were determined to defend ourselves we built up the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Within four years, we paraded a few of our units on National Day in 1969 Overhead, we had one Hunter aircraft and one Alouette helicopter flying the Singapore flag In the mobile column, we had 18 AMX-13 tanks which were appearing in public for the first time and Major Goh Lye Choon was a second-in-command Singaporeans cheered Everyone understood what it meant and it wasn't just Singaporeans who took note Fifty years later, our pioneer servicemen kicked off the SG50 vintage parade Right marker Colonel Swee Boon Chai, first batch Officer Cadet School (OCS) Marching with him, Captain Hong Seng Mak, the legendary Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM), Tiger Hong Ibrahim Bulat, who trained our first national servicemen John Norfor and K S Rajan, our pioneer pilots Chan Seck Sung, our first US Ranger-trained commando Still wearing a red beret Encik Mohd Saleh, Warrant Officer Class 1, Navy pioneer who was one of the oldest participants, 77 years young We had Corporal Philip Ng, a citizen soldier, NSF 4 SIR 1972 NSMan 61 SIR, ten years - 1974 to 1984 now Mindef Reserve, still marching And many others too, older, greyer but the spirit remain undaunted and I am so glad that we have some of them here with us tonight Thank you very much Take a bow together Above us, instead of one Hunter fighter We had 20 F-16s, flying across the Padang forming the number “50” A Chinook helicopter flew the flag, escorted by two Apaches Colonel Goh Lye Choon, now retired was once again the second-in-command of the mobile column this time on a Leopard tank That's him Behind Lye Choon, 178 vehicles rolled past the City Hall steps Tanks, artillery, AA missile launchers, special ops vehicles, Hazmat vehicles and completing the mobile column we had nine vehicles carrying nine families They were the pioneers who had served in the SAF and the Home Team and they were on parade with their children who are presently serving and in two cases, with their grandchildren too And here we have a family Grandfather, father and son The son is Corporal Tajol Isfahan, 22 years old who joined the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) full-time three months ago The father is Senior Warrant Officer Mohd Azlan who’s 48 years old who is an SCDF Marine Command Specialist and their grandfather Mr Slamat, 78 years old He joined the Singapore Fire Brigade in 1948, before I was born I think before most of you were born He was involved in many major fire and rescue incidents The Bukit Ho Swee fire in 1961 The Robinson’s Department Store fire in 1972 Hotel New World in 1986 Three generations saluting the nation and we saluted them back Secondly, on National Day, we celebrated how we had turned vulnerability into strength We started off with no hinterland and a weak economy We depended on our entrepot trade, but our neighbours were building their own ports and sought to bypass us Our workers were unskilled and anxious about their future but we determined to make the world our hinterland And the tripartite partners worked together, worked hard to create the best workforce in the world The Government, the employers and the unions, we worked together Business Environment Risk Intelligence (BERI) every year ranked us number 1 in the world And with that workforce, we made PSA and Changi the best in the world We were a poor third world country People lived in cramped and squalid slums, no modern sanitation, no utilities but we built HDB flats to house all of us and made Singapore a first world metropolis and our beautiful home Nearly all our water came from Johor and every now and again when an issue arose with Malaysia some crazy politicians would threaten to turn off the tap to get us in line but we did not die of thirst We cleaned up our rivers, we dammed them up to become reservoirs We built Marina Barrage and turned Marina Bay into Marina Reservoir Our whole island became a catchment area We invented NEWater and on National Day 2002, we toasted our success Huat ah! Thirdly, we celebrated our journey from third world to first as one united people When we separated from Malaysia, we were not yet one people Memories of the race riots were fresh and raw The minorities were uncertain of their place in the new country They saw what had happened in Malaysia They wondered, will the new Singapore Government keep its promise of a multi-racial society But 50 years on, we celebrate as one united people On National Day, when the siren sounded, we stood and recited the Pledge together regardless of race, language or religion We sang Majulah Singapura What an exhilarating journey these 50 years have been How did we get here? I will put it down to three factors Firstly, we determined to be a multi-racial society Secondly, we created a culture, a culture of self-reliance and also mutual support And thirdly, we kept faith between the Government and the people First of all, multi-racialism We separated from Malaysia because we believed in this ideal of a multi-racial society We believed that before race, language and religion, we should first and foremost, be Singaporean That was the fundamental reason for our foundation as a country So we came down hard on chauvinists and racial extremists We built HDB estates where all the different races lived and mingled together There are no segregated ghettos in Singapore We made English our working language and gradually all our schools shifted to teaching in English We created Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) so that minorities would always be represented in Parliament and this way, we encouraged all the communities to come together and yet gave each community space to maintain their own cultures and their own ways of life When delicate and awkward issues arose, we dealt with them together For example, when we discovered the Jemaah Islamiyah group planning to set off suicide bombs in Singapore after 9/11 We handled it as one people; we did not divide into Muslims and non-Muslims At the same, we made the effort to bring everybody together and to ensure that every community could hold his own and not be left behind So we set up self-help groups, the communities did starting with the Council for the Development of Singapore Malay/Muslim Community (Mendaki) later the Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA) then Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC) and the Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP) and the Eurasian Association The Government supported them and so we progressed together Therefore, for SG50, every community in Singapore is celebrating because every community has progressed with the nation And each group is celebrating with the other groups because we are one united people I have attended many SG50 celebrations this year A Catholic Jubilee Mass at the Indoor Stadium The SG50 Kita National Day Observance Ceremony here in this campus led by the Malay/ Muslim organisations but with other groups participating A Buddhist celebration at the Indoor Stadium A Protestant prayer event at the National Stadium A joint concert organised by the Taoist Federation, the New Creation Church and others at the Star Performing Arts Centre Here you see one of the items, a Chinese Kungfu group performing with the Silat group One function At one dinner, I had sitting around my table representatives of all the world’s major religions and I posted the picture on Facebook It showed the Rabbi of Singapore together with the Mufti of Singapore and Mr Gurmit Singh, a Sikh leader who was then chairing the IRO, the Inter-Religious Organisation Each had different dietary rules, each was served food that met his religious requirements but nothing stopped them from having a meal together and being friends together in fact, they took a selfie together, which I also posted on Facebook Only in Singapore! Some people may think that racial and religious harmony is not a problem anymore and that I am making too much about this But they would be wrong Race and religion are always sensitive matters, especially for us and in some ways, today, more complex and difficult to handle than 20 years ago because religiosity has gone up Many societies, people are taking their religion more seriously Happens in developed countries like US, Britain, Australia, Germany where you see racial and religious tensions Happens in Singapore too, not tensions but people taking religion more seriously and everywhere people exposed and vulnerable to extremist ideologists, like the Jihadist ideology of ISIS We are a multi-racial and multi-religious society and we are always at risk of deep fault lines opening up and we must never take our present happy state of affairs for granted The second factor of our success, after multi-racialism, is our culture of self-reliance and mutual support We knew right from the start that to strike out and blaze a path on our own Everyone had to pull their weight and be counted, we could not afford free-riders and that is why Mr Lee Kuan Yew exhorted us over and over again to become a rugged society We do not use that term quite so often anymore but our people must still be robust and tough, be able to take hard knocks, always striving to be better No one owes us a living and we have to make our own way forward in the world But a rugged society does not mean every man for himself We are strong even though we are small because we are strong together The ethos of our society is quite clear If you work hard, you should do well and that is good for you and we should cheer you and celebrate it But at the same time if you do well, we expect you to help others and everyone has to work together so that we succeed as one Team Singapore We have got to inculcate this ethos in our young people too And that is why we encourage our children to play sports to experience losing and winning together That is why we send them on adventure learning and character education To OBS, Outward Bound School in Pulau Ubin and also on overseas expeditions so that they can toughen themselves up and learn to work with one another as a team When I was in Secondary Four, my principal sent me to OBS, the experience made a deep impression on me Nowadays, students have many more opportunities to go for adventure learning, here and also abroad Tanjong Katong Primary School (TKPS) had a very successful programme, the Omega Challenge It has been going on for seven years The students who have been have testified to how much they benefitted from it Tragically on their most recent expedition to climb Mount Kinabalu The Omega Challenge group was caught in an earthquake Seven students, two teachers and a guide died We all mourned them and grieved with their families We held a National Day of Remembrance It will take us a long time to get over this tragedy but life goes on and it is important that we move on And I know that the other TKPS students and teachers who were on this trip are courageously doing so We have to go on with adventure training We will take the necessary safety precautions but we must keep pushing our limits to bring up a generation who will grow up tough and able to work closely together The third factor for our success is that we have kept faith between the Government and the people We have built up this bond between the Government and the people over the past 50 years The Government has kept its promises, what we said we would do, we did do We have kept our politics honest We insisted on high standards of integrity in public life, no corruption, no dishonesty We are also honest when it comes to policies and when it comes to the choices that we have to make We do not shy away from hard realities, we do not sugar-coat difficult issues We do right by Singaporeans In turn, our people expect the Government to perform, trust the Government to have their interests at heart and support the Government and its decisions to work for the common good And even in tough times therefore, we can act decisively together It was like this with our Pioneer Generation, for example on the issue of land acquisition The Government needed land to build HDB new towns around the island to house our people To build industrial estates like Jurong to create jobs for our people Later on to build the MRT network to move people around So the Government passed laws to acquire land not at the market price, without paying market prices It was tough for the land owners who suffered financial losses, sometimes more than once It was tough for the households who had to be resettled, lives were disrupted Thousands, maybe tens of thousands had to change their livelihoods But if the Government had not done this We could not have housed our population and we could not have transformed Singapore So there were sacrifices but in the end, it was for the common good and everybody benefitted and I thank all those who sacrificed for this common good Even in recent times, we've had to do tough things together During SARS in 2003, we passed laws urgently on the certificate of urgency to quarantine people at home to prevent community spread And we will ring you up and ask you to turn up on your camera to show that you are still there Singaporeans understood this was necessary and they accepted it Recently, South Korea had a serious outbreak of MERS but they had problems quarantining people It was not so easy for them to get people to cooperate There was one case, where a person was missing from her home They went, knocked on the door, no answer, telephone no answer, tracked her down via her hand phone She was several hundred kilometres away, playing golf You can pass the laws but people have to cooperate From time to time, new tough issues will come up and we will need your support to deal with them One tough issue which we already have and which will be with us for a long time to come is immigration and foreigners It is a very sensitive matter, not an easy thing to talk about, even at the National Day Rally and Singaporeans understandably have strong views about it The Government has heard them, we have adjusted our policies Upgraded our infrastructure, slowed down the inflow of foreign workers Tightened up on PR and citizenship applications Made sure that Singaporeans are fairly treated at work But on foreigners and immigration, there are no easy choices Every option has a cost, has a downside If we close our doors to foreign workers, our economy will tank Companies would not have enough workers Some will close down and our own people working in these companies will lose their jobs Also we need foreign workers to build our homes and schools to meet our daily needs, we need foreign domestic help So we cannot close our doors completely On the other hand, if we let in too many foreign workers, our society will come undone Singaporeans will be crowded out, workplaces will feel foreign, our identity will be diluted and we just cannot digest huge numbers Therefore, we have got to find something in-between Make a right trade-off, but even in-between there is a cost and there is a price and there is a pain Companies will still find your costs going up, they will have to pass some of these costs on to consumers Things would not be as cheap Companies will have to pass up opportunities too When they can see the opportunities but cannot get the workers, many companies will not be able to expand And yet because some foreign workers will still be coming in There will be Singaporeans who will feel that Singapore is changing too fast and will resent having to compete with non-Singaporeans So, whichever option we choose, it will involve some pain But I believe that I am doing what Singapore needs and what best safeguards your interest If I did not believe that, I would not be doing it It is my responsibility to make this decision, to make this judgement and then to act on your behalf And having acted on your behalf, to account to you for the results and for the reasons why I decided the way I did I think I owe it to you. You have elected me This is my duty, I cannot shirk it These principles have brought us here Multi-racialism, self-reliance and mutual support, keeping faith between the government and people These principles have made us special They are not so easy to do Easy to say, not so easy to do Very few countries have got this right but by and large, we have got it right And Singapore has to stay special because if we are just a dull little spot on the map, a smudge, we are going to count for nothing We have to be a shining red dot If we are soft and flabby, we are going to be eaten up We have to be rugged, we have to have that steel in us If we are divided, whether along racial lines or class lines, we cannot survive We have to stand as one united people, we have to progress together How do we stay special? First, we have to be alive to our external environment That is a fundamental reality for a “little red dot” We will always be a small country in Southeast Asia This is an exciting place to be, but also a rather dangerous place to live I have not spoken much about the external affairs in recent rallies because we have been so focused on domestic issues But I think I have spoken too little because big things are happening around us and they are bound to affect us and unless we keep track of events and stay on top of developments, we may be overwhelmed We have good relations with our neighbours, much better than 50 years ago and our neighbours have done well and we have prospered with them But it may not always be like this Even in the next 10 years, we cannot be sure Certainly, in the next 50 years, nobody can rule out instability, tension, or even war in Asia Take Malaysia, our closest neighbour, our very close partner We watch what is happening in Malaysia very closely What are the Malaysians worried about? I can tell you what they are worried about They worry about ISIS and terrorism Bcause Malaysian citizens are becoming radicalised, going to Syria and Iraq to fight including members of their armed forces going to become terrorists Some have already gone, dozens are there When they come back, they will bring back violence, the know-how and the extremist ideas This year alone, Malaysian authorities have arrested nearly 100 citizens suspected of links with ISIS That is one thing they worry about which we should worry about They worry about racial and religious tensions, about society being divided along racial lines They have had incidents recently like the riot in Low Yat Plaza, between Chinese and Malays which has prompted soul searching If they have racial problems, it will affect us across the border They worry about money politics 1MDB is in the news every day and Prime Minister Najib has just set up a national panel to develop laws on “political funding with integrity” because everybody knows this is the problem These are Malaysia’s problems Fortunately we are a different country, having separated from Malaysia 50 years ago But our two societies and our two economies remain very closely intertwined So their problems can easily become our problems And if Malaysia is troubled, unstable or divided, it will affect our economy, our society and our security too And the closer we work with them, the more we are concerned that things go well for them Indonesia is also important to us It is the biggest country in Southeast Asia, it sets the tone for the whole region When Indonesia is stable, all its neighbours benefit If Indonesia is in a state of flux, Southeast Asia will be affected, as it was during Confrontation We have enjoyed good relations with Indonesia for many years With President Suharto since 1970s, then with President SBY (Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono) over the last decade and now I look forward to continuing these good relations with President Jokowi But Indonesia is a big and complex country and there are different views within Indonesia about its neighbours And one common Indonesian view about Singapore is that we are a small neighbour enjoying undeserved success at their expense I told you in my Chinese speech just now of one Indonesian official who explained this mindset to us but I give you another example here On our National Day, just recently on the 9th of August One Indonesian newspaper published an overview of the relationship between them and us And they quoted a senior Indonesian politician, what he said about the haze He said, “I would only consider apologising for the haze if Singapore and Malaysia are thankful for the oxygen from Indonesian forests for 11 months each year” So you know where you stand and please know your place in the world Do not get uppity This may not reflect the Indonesian Government’s view, but we have to take note of it It is a deep seated mindset That a little red dot red dot should know its place in the world and this mindset will not disappear for a long time I once met a group of Indonesian journalists We invite them to our National Day to understand us and to write about us So they asked me the usual questions which Indonesian journalists ask us about Smuggling, about money laundering, about sand, about us taking advantage and so on, I gave them explanations At the end of it all, they were persuaded, then they said to me “Do you feel discouraged that you keep on explaining and at the end we keep writing the same thing?” I said no, I am not discouraged at all, I am quite used to it But I think that’s the fundamental reality and it is not going to change for a very long time to come We also have to watch relations between the major powers in the region We are friends with all the major powers, with America, with China, with Japan – all three And people are amazed that we can be friends with all three and they ask how this is possible Well, we tell them it's just good luck but partly, it’s also because of adroit diplomacy, because we have good officers in the MFA But we have been lucky, we have been lucky that the big powers have been at peace with one another And so we don’t have to choose sides, with one against the other But will it be so easy to maintain this happy state of affairs in future? Will the stars always be so neatly aligned? What if the relations among the powers sour or hot up? There could be a miscalculation, there could be a mishap There could be a misunderstanding If American and Chinese airplanes collide over the South China Sea Or Japanese and Chinese ships clash near the Diaoyu Dao or the Senkaku Islands Then tensions will go up, countries will press us to take sides You are either with us, or against us. Which are you? We will have to decide which are we It’s not so easy to decide and these are imponderables and risks which we have to be aware of and which Mr Lee Kuan Yew was very concerned that Singaporeans may not be adequately aware of and wanted to speak about, even into his extreme old age It was that important to him It is in fact that important to us We have been able to maintain our security, and our standing in the world because we have a strong SAF so others do not fool around with us Because our economy is successful, so others find it worthwhile to cooperate with us Because we have good diplomats and good leaders who talk sense, command respect and can defend our interests abroad These are important advantages for a small country which does not have aircraft carriers to go sailing around, keeping the peace and keeping ourselves safe And we must keep these advantages to sail through the next 50 years safely Let me just give you two examples of how having good ministers can advance our interests abroad, out of many Take Minister Vivian – Vivian Balakrishnan Minister for Environment, Water Resources Last year, he attended the UN Climate Change Conference which was held in Peru, in Lima, in December Vivian led the Singapore delegation but he did not just represent Singapore He was appointed one of two Friends of the Chair The other Friend of the Chair was Norway And the role of the Friend of the Chair is to be an honest broker To work behind the scenes to bridge the gaps between the different countries To help put together a deal that countries could agree upon So it is an important low-key job They chose Vivian and Vivian was effective. Why? Because he was competent and he mastered a very complicated brief Every time he briefs Cabinet, we have to spend time reading the paper understanding the subject all over again and asking Vivian what does all this mean? But it his job to know and to explain and to analyse how we can protect our interests and not be disadvantaged But he also was supported by a strong and cohesive team of Singapore officials Different ministries, each knowing their job but able to work together across the ministries and take a national perspective So they could staff him, they could work out alternatives, they could propose compromises they could tweak the language, they can go and chat up different groups and find out what different groups are thinking That was Team Singapore at work They actually should wear red T-shirts at such meetings Vivian and Team Singapore helped the Lima conference to reach a successful outcome They had to overrun, I think they went on for another 36 hours but in the end there was a positive agreement and in the process, the agreement also protected and advanced Singapore’s interests That’s one example I give you another example. These are all far away from defence So people understand that even apart from armed forces We have to be on our guard and know how to work with others to advance our interest This next example is Lim Swee Say Swee Say attends the ILO Conference in Geneva every year. International Labour Organisation He used to go as Secretary-General of NTUC, now he goes as Minister for Manpower This year he went in June The Director-General of ILO hosted the conference dinner, so dinner is meant to talk shop And at dinner many of the Labour Ministers shared the problems they faced in their countries all facing similar problems Slow job growth, youth unemployment, stagnating wages, widening income gaps It was a very miserable dinner So Swee Say is never one for a miserable dinner He decided to turn the discussion around and to focus on solutions and not problems and he did it, the way only Swee Say knows how to do it He started by acknowledging we all face the same 3 “D” challenges, D for delta What’s D? Jobs Deficit, Skills Deficit, Quality Deficit, so three D’s So everybody nodded, says yes Then he said, we all want the same three "F" opportunities – future Jobs of the future, skills of the future, career of the future Everybody smiled Then he concluded that the solution was to strengthen the three "P"s – Partnership between the partners Partners: Government, unions and employers And he shared about Singapore’s unique tripartite approach and sold a little bit of “koyok” for us So when Swee Say had finished the mood in the room had lifted and everyone was discussing solutions and not moping And the Director-General rounded up the discussion and proposed three cheers for Singapore We must maintain this quality of leaders and strengthen our economy and our defence in order to hold our own with the outside world, to work with others to advance our interests and to protect ourselves when the external environment becomes troubled or hostile The next thing we must do to continue being special is to keep on improving our education, not just in schools, but also life-long learning Because education enables our people to be self-reliant Because our workers and students must stay ahead of globalisation and technology Last year, I explained SkillsFuture which provides Singaporeans with opportunities to develop to their full potential whatever their starting point may be Since then, we have made some progress For example, we have a SkillsFuture Earn-and-Learn Programme It gives fresh ITE and Polytechnic graduates a head-start in their careers They can earn a full-time salary, at the same time learn new skills and then upgrade to higher jobs We have created the SkillsFuture Credit so every Singaporean aged 25 and above will have initially $500 of credit in the account to spend on training programmes throughout life and from time to time, we will top up that credit Tonight, I will tell you about another thing we are doing, which has to do with SIT The Singapore Institute of Technology SIT provides applied-learning pathways for students who prefer more hands-on learning SIT awards its own degrees; it also awards degrees in collaboration with respected overseas partners For example, TUM – the Technical University of Munich or CIA, the Culinary Institute of America It teaches you to cook, not to spy Or DigiPen Institute of Technology One of the top institutions for animation, computer engineering and game design SIT is expanding its intake so it can take in more poly students, more mature students This year, 2,000 students already In five years’ time by 2020, 3,500 students I visited SIT a few months ago at their campus at Dover Road I met their students and staff, they were keen about their future Passionate about what they were doing And the students relished the opportunities for internships to apply what they have learnt and to show off their skills And one such student is Chen Zhangkai, who is 27 Zhangkai is a late bloomer When he was young, he played truant, he got into fights, he was streamed into EM3, almost failed his PSLE So he took a longer path than usual From PSLE he went to Normal Technical (stream), then to ITE, then to Nanyang Polytechnic, then to SIT Step by step, persevering, overcoming setbacks, climbing up Last year, Zhangkai graduated from SIT with a DigiPen degree His final year project and portfolio were good and a director of an animation studio came, saw it, was impressed offered him an internship and after that offered him a job So Zhangkai has now landed himself a dream job as an animator Well done Zhangkai SkillsFuture will produce more success stories like Zhangkai There are always opportunities no matter where you are to upgrade and do better SIT’s main campus is at Dover Road with branch campuses in all the polytechnics So we will bring all these branch campuses together and build one new centralised campus for SIT And the new campus will be in Punggol Across the road from SIT, we will build a creative industry cluster, in fact, on both sides of SIT JTC will do this and bring creative industries to come to be next to SIT and to be integrated with SIT So that students can easily go from classroom to workplace, apply what they learn Companies can easily go to SIT and get help if they need some new idea or some problem solved SIT will also be integrated into Punggol Downtown, and HDB's upcoming Northshore District And the community will share SIT’s facilities: the classrooms, the workshops, the multi-purpose hall So, we have talked about Punggol 21, we have Punggol 21 Plus. With SIT, it will be Punggol 21 A-Plus Here is how the SIT campus will look like SIT in the middle and you can see the industry buildings on both sides If you zoom in and take a closer look, you can see the University on one side The industries on the other and linked bridges joining them up, so people can go back and forth This will come It is a long-term effort and the Chinese saying says “十年树木,百年树人” Ten years to grow a tree, one hundred years to nurture a person When we go into SkillsFuture, this is our mindset We are planting for the long term; planting seeds now to bear fruit many years from now Of course, we also will be planting real trees on the SIT campus and when they are grown, many years from now, I hope the campus will look something like this and Punggol 21 residents will be happy While SkillsFuture creates more opportunities for Singaporeans, we will continue to make sure that no one is left behind There is an African saying which says “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” For the last 50 years, we have gone together and we have gone far And that is what we must do for the next 50 years HDB housing is one important way we make sure that we go together We started the HDB home ownership programme in the 1960s and it has been a tremendous success Today, more than 90 per cent of HDB households own their flats We are a nation of home-owners and we have achieved something unique for our people Home ownership and no ghettos or slums anywhere in Singapore There is a true story about an IMF economist who visited Singapore, Indian economist, his name is Sudip And he stayed at the Fairmont. Fairmont Hotel, high up, looked out, saw the beautiful city He said, “Can’t be. I want to find out how big this nice area around the hotel is.” So he decided he would get down, walk in one direction until he reached a not-so-nice area Turn round, come back, then he will know Singapore is like so many other cities in the world, with rough areas So Sudip came down, walked and walked and walked and walked, he never reached a rough area After two hours, he gave up and came back, astonished and impressed that Singapore had no rough area In Boston, I did the same experiment from Harvard, half an hour, I got there And it is not unique; every city is like that except Singapore In Singapore, no matter where you are, you live in a good neighbourhood You have good homes, you have parks, you have waterways You can feel safe and secure, you can go jogging in the middle of the night, even if you are a young lady; safe This must always be the reality for all Singaporeans HDB flats will always be affordable and accessible to all In the last five years, we have made big moves in housing We have stabilised BTO prices, we have launched 100,000 HDB flats equal to four Clementi towns We have shortened the queues for flats so most first-timers can now choose their flat in a non-mature estate on their first try Some of them say, “Please don’t give me the flats so fast, I’m not ready to collect my keys yet.” But we are going to do three more things in housing First, for the higher-end households We will make more Singaporeans eligible to buy HDB flats and ECs (Executive Condominiums) Currently, there is an income ceiling for HDB flats and ECs HDB flats – ceiling $10,000 ECs – ceiling $12,000 We last raised this four years ago Since then, incomes have gone up further and also since then we have cleared the first-timer backlog queuing up for HDB flats So, we have the possibility now to raise the income ceiling and bring more people into the eligibility net What shall we do? For HDB flats, we will go from $10,000 to $12,000 For ECs, we will go from $12,000 to $14,000 This way, more households can buy HDB flats and ECs Secondly, we will help middle and lower-income households who are buying their first home, first-timers We will make HDB flats more affordable for them We have a complicated system of HDB grants If you are buying a house, you know the details but the gist of it is There are weighted towards those who earn less So the less you earn, the more generous our grants The more you earn, you may still be eligible for an HDB flat but I think you can pay for a bit more of it yourself So we will enhance our grants which help the lower and middle-income households buy flats The way we do that is we have the Special CPF Housing Grant which is called the SHG Special CPF Housing Grant We will extend the SHG to cover more households Right now, the SHG has an income ceiling, which is $6,500, and that is half of all households And we will raise this ceiling to $8,500 so that two thirds of households will qualify for the SHG We will also increase the amount of the SHG because currently the maximum amount is $20,000 and we will double that to $40,000 So what does this mean? For a median household, one just about middle-income buying a flat previously they would have received $10,000 of SHG Now they will receive $30,000 of SHG – three times as much The third thing we will do is to help those in rental flats, to help them to own their flat With the home ownership programme, almost all Singaporeans have been able to buy their homes but there are a few who still cannot afford to do that or have not been able to hold onto their flats So, for those who have not bought the flat ever before Minister Khaw Boon Wan recently restructured the two-room flat and the Studio Apartment schemes And after the restructuring, I think that will help It is more flexible, it will be easier for people to buy their first flat, a two-room flat Also now that we are doubling the maximum SHG, which I just told you about That will make two-room flats even more affordable How much more affordable? Last time when I was an HDB agent, I told you that if you earn $1,000 a month, you can buy a two-room flat Now with these latest changes, even if you earn below $1,000 but you are holding a stable job and you contribute to CPF regularly You can still afford to have a two-room flat Come to your housing agent at your MPS (Meet-the-People Session) and we will work out the details There is another group of rental tenants who are more difficult to help, more tricky to help and these are the ones who have bought a flat before, but sold it and are now back in a rental unit They have already benefitted from previous HDB subsidies So the Government cannot just give them another grant to buy another flat Otherwise there’s no end and it would not be fair to others So these households find it particularly difficult to afford another flat Also these households often have many different problems Jobs, relationships, children’s education, sometimes drugs and their housing problem is a result of their other problems It’s not a house being an issue but because their lives are not in order So the house is a consequence of the mess I am very concerned about the future of this group because without help, they may be permanently out of reach of getting a flat of their own And they will be trapped in poverty and their children will be affected And you perpetuate the cycle into the next generation So we have studied this problem at length I think there is a way we can help these families to start afresh and to own their homes again And we have got a scheme to do this which we will call the Fresh Start Housing Scheme What will a Fresh Start Housing Scheme do? It will help second-timer rental households own a two-room flat The flat will have a shorter lease The flat will have stricter resale conditions that can make it more affordable and also may maximise the chances of people holding on to it and not just flipping it But it’s not just providing a flat It’s also supporting the family with counsellors, to guide them to solve their problems holistically, all aspects Jobs, school, drugs, family relationships, planning for the future, saving for the future The family has to play its part, and show that they are putting their lives in order determined to get back on their feet, committed to putting their children through school Then if they show that and with all these extra arrangements I think we can justify providing a grant for them a Fresh Start Housing Grant to help them pay their flat So it is not without conditions You have to do your part But you do your part, we help you, you have a second chance And over time, with guidance, with help, through this Scheme you can own your own homes again You have something to work towards, aspire to and achieve, for yourself, for your children It’s a major initiative, it will take us some time to work out But I think it is important because it shows our philosophy That in Singapore, we will help you but you must help yourself and we do not want anybody to be left behind Finally, we have to manage our population issues well Because whether our population is young or old, growing or shrinking That determines how our society, our outlook, our confidence will be I will speak about two groups tonight, the seniors and the families and babies Let me start with the seniors The elderly will always have a place in Singapore We honour them because they brought us here, they brought us up and they will always have something to contribute to Singapore That is why we made the Pioneer Generation Package (PGP) to express our gratitude to the pioneers who contributed so much to building today’s Singapore Having made the package, we made an extra effort We sent PG Ambassadors to every home, to visit pioneers at home, chat with them understand their needs and explain to them how they can personally benefit from the PGP And in the process of talking to them, we learnt many heart-warming stories and we collected them all in a nice book which we launched last month It’s titled, “Their Past: A Present for Our Future” Quite a clever title Lots of interesting stories in the book One in particular is about two friends - Mr Mutu Sammy, and Mr Ching Chong Kwi Mr Mutu Sammy is 69 years old, Mr Ching is 81 years old They have been neighbours and close friends for ten years Mutu lost his leg long ago in a traffic accident Mr Ching who is 81 years old takes care of Mutu Looks after his plants, changes light bulbs for him, drives him to medical check-ups Mr Ching speaks Mandarin, Mutu speaks English, and they talk to each other in Malay That’s the Kampong Spirit for you Mutu and Mr Ching told our Ambassadors that they are very happy with the PG Package and the PG Card because Mutu benefits directly from it There is a PG Disability Assistance Scheme and he qualifies and he gets $100 a month And when he visits the Specialist Outpatient Clinic, the net amount he has to pay is just $12 And of course both are happy to be honoured and to be recognised We are grateful to all our Pioneers And I think at SG50 NDR, we should say again, thank you, pioneers of Singapore The senior citizens, I know what you are thinking, who are not quite as old as the PG You are also very much on our minds So when we did the PG Package, we also did a special package of Medisave top-ups for those who are slightly younger, did not quite qualify, like me But I think what many seniors really want is not a package but to age well Gan Kim Yong leads the Ministerial Committee on Ageing He will announce an Action Plan soon which we hope will make Singapore a model for successful ageing, handling this problem Let me give you just one sneak peek from his plan tonight Many people who are in their 60s want to work longer They say, “If I sit at home and do nothing, I will go ga-ga Furthermore, my wife will tell me to go and do something about it" So we raised the re-employment age to 65 three years ago And the unions and workers were very happy I think the employers have accepted it, they are adjusting to it and starting to benefit from it It’s still too early to judge but so far, it seems to be working well From the workers’ point of view, 65 may be too early to stop work Workers want us to raise the re-employment age and they want to keep working for as long as they are healthy I hear this every time I attend a union function I reply “Yes, I agree fully We will do it, we have choose a right time to do it because we want to make sure that the employers have the practical arrangements and you can make a contribution at your company and it will not be a burden to the company" Otherwise it’s not sustainable But we have been working at this problem The tripartite partners have been discussing this and I am happy to tell you that they have reached an agreement And the agreement is that we will pass legislation to raise the re-employment age from 65 to 67 We will do it by 2017, in other words after the coming election Now, let me talk about families and babies We discuss these as policies and what should we do, rules, incentives but at the root of this is not policy It is people, families and their children Our families are what make life meaningful for many of us and our children are what will ensure that Singapore will have a future In fact, our children are the reason why we want Singapore to have a future, for them And so we decided on a baby Jubilee Gift for SG50 babies And you can see some of the things down here – a box, the strap, some T-shirts, and some other diaper holders I am glad to hear from Grace Fu that we have given out almost 20,000 SG50 packets this year including one to Tin Pei Ling When I go around and see parents with the red sling, I will ask them “Ah, SG50 baby. Congratulations! How many months old?” And then, “When is the next one coming?” In fact, I have been trying to find a family which has two Jubilee babies. It is possible And finally I came across one Introducing Charlotte on the left and Colette, on the right, twins born three weeks ago I hope couples continue to have many babies after SG50, but I know it is a serious decision It is hard work and a lifelong commitment You sacrifice your time, your sleep, you have to buy milk powder, diapers, and parenting goes on for many years well after your children have supposedly grown up Having a child is a major responsibility, but we will help you because every Singapore child is precious to us because each one is a member of our Singapore family So when I speak about families at the National Day Rally, I always try to do something to make it easier for parents to have babies Not just practical help, but also signals to change mindsets and attitudes and, therefore, encourage people gradually to change behaviour For example, making workplaces more family-friendly or getting fathers to do their share of parental duties If you look at the numbers, last year’s numbers seem promising This is the graph of the babies born every year since 2000 2000 was a bumper year 41,600, Dragon Year The next Dragon Year there is a bit of a blip But what encourages me is that this year 2014, not a Dragon Year, but almost as big as a dragon If you look back, it is almost 10 years since we have had that many babies in one year So it is not bad and I expect that this year, we will have about the same number as 2014 On National Day this year, we had a record number of babies born – 129 9th August babies These are statistics, but what I see directly when I go around confirms this Because nowadays I often see families who have lots of kids and they are proud and happy that they have many children and they tell me that they have many children On the Jubilee weekend, I met the Goh family at the new Ci Yuan Hawker Centre I went to see the hawker food, but I got a bonus, I saw some babies as well I started off noticing this SG50 baby then I counted the sister one, brother one, another brother, one, two, three, four, five kids in one Goh family Father was not there. I said where’s the father? Father queuing up for food So talked to the father, he works in the SAF, mother is a homemaker and they are enjoying family life It is good! So I think this is a good time to give our families and babies efforts an extra push We will push in four ways First, we will help couples who live closer to their parents In the old days, we used to have extended families and everybody would be under one roof It can be complicated, but it is also a strength Now, people live in nuclear families But many couples still want to stay with their parents or near their parents Or parents often would want to stay with or near their married children so that the grandparents can enjoy their grandkids and the adult children can help to look after the old folks as they age HDB already has various schemes to support this We have relooked at the HDB incentives and we will repackage them and re-launch them more generously And we will introduce what we call a Proximity Housing Grant What is the Proximity Housing Grant? It is for every Singaporean household, whether first-timer or not, you will be eligible and you can get it when you buy a resale flat with your parents or near your parents or you buy a resale flat with your married children or near your married children You can get the Proximity Housing Grant once But MND will work out the details and we will announce them soon Secondly, we will enhance the Baby Bonus We will increase the amount of the Bonus to help cover a little bit more of the child-raising costs during the child’s infancy and I think that will help because I hear mothers telling me that milk powder is expensive Well, if that is so, this will be a little bit of assistance Also, the Baby Bonus is presently just for the first four children, so we will now give it to every child This will provide support to parents More support to parents with larger families and also reflects our attitude that every child is valued in Singapore Thirdly, Medisave In Singapore, when a new baby is born, you do not just get the birth certificate You also get the CPF Medisave account And the account comes with some money from the Government to help cover your MediShield premiums and vaccinations and other expenses at least for the first few years And this is called the Medisave grant for newborns So we will increase the Medisave grant for newborns We will make it enough to cover MediShield Life premiums until you are 21 years old and also help with other healthcare expenses such as recommended vaccinations Because until 21, really the burden is on your parents After 21, we presume you will be looking after yourself And this will give your parents greater peace of mind Fourthly, paternity leave Fathers play a very important role in bringing up children You have to do your part If it is just the mother’s responsibility to care for and raise your children I think the mother will decide enough is enough Right now, fathers get one week of paternity leave I think fathers can do more, so we will add one more week of paternity leave Making two weeks Do not go and play golf, please use it to take care of your kid The Government will pay for this one extra week We will implement this, but the companies have to agree to give the leave So we will not force the companies for a start, we will implement this on a voluntary basis to give the companies, to give employers time to adjust And then after a few years, we will look at the position again Of course, the public service, the civil service, will volunteer straightaway So to all the public officers who may be watching tonight, you have no excuse The Baby Bonus, the Medisave grant and the Paternity leave changes will apply with effect from the 1st of January, the 1st of January 2015 Because this is a Jubilee year, I think we should give all the Jubilee babies this little hongbao Grace Fu will tell you lots of details soon and I hope they will all be happy details and they will help many more couples to experience the joys of parenthood For Singapore to continue to do well, we must have that resolve to defend this land We must have that will to make Singapore endure and to prevail and we must stand as one united people, regardless of race, language or religion After 50 years, this faith, this sense of togetherness and purpose is stronger than before The Singapore spirit ignites when we celebrate our successes together When our athletes made us proud at the SEA Games like Shanti Pereira who won our first sprint gold in 42 years Or Ashley Liew, the marathon runner After the other runners took a wrong turn He slowed down and waited for them to catch up and showed sportsmanship and class The Singapore spirit shines when we help one another in times of need When we were beset by severe haze in 2013 Many people came forward to distribute masks and help the less able When a man was run over by a truck recently people rushed forward to push the truck, lift it up and help the man out After a bomb exploded in Bangkok last week Singaporeans living in Bangkok contacted the embassy to offer help Our spirit shone brightest when Mr Lee Kuan Yew passed away Hundreds of thousands lined up, day and night to pay their respects at Parliament House and at many community tribute sites Mr Lee’s passing brought out so much in us People queued patiently, they let children and seniors through Businesses provided free chairs and refreshments to those queuing up Volunteers helped out, distributing umbrellas, food, drinks And when the gun carriage carried Mr Lee on his final journey from Parliament House to the UCC, the University Cultural Centre Tens of thousands lined the streets And then it started to rain What would we do? Everyone stayed put It was like the 1968 National Day Parade when it poured on the parade after it had formed up The funeral procession started on time into the pouring rain I was deeply moved to see the crowds stand their ground, paying their last respects to Mr Lee Teardrops and raindrops fell together For all of us, this was a historic moment shared as one Singapore family We were mourning Mr Lee’s passing but also affirming what he stood for and celebrating what he had achieved That day, something changed in us Our shared moment of sorrow bonded us Now we do not have to struggle to find words to define the Singapore spirit or to say what being Singaporean is Now we know that we are Singaporean Fifty years ago, our challenges seemed insurmountable As a small country, we could easily have flickered and faded into the darkness of history But our pioneers were made of stern stuff, they were galvanized Many born elsewhere but deciding to make Singapore their home and their lifelong passion They dug in their heels and built a nation together Fifty years on, our challenges are still formidable but they are far from insurmountable Those people who feel daunted and think Singapore’s best days are behind us, they are wrong Our best days will always be ahead of us Provided we continue to have a strong team, a team of lions and the lion-hearted, leaders and the people We have had such a good team so far Started with Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his colleagues, together with the pioneer generation who built Singapore and made sure that Singapore would thrive beyond them They handed over to Mr Goh Chok Tong and the second generation of Singaporeans 25 years ago now Our generation inherited Singapore from them and together, we took Singapore further forward to reach SG50 In the last ten years, we have written perhaps, another chapter of the Singapore story If you have been following my National Day Rallies, you will know what we have done together We said we would build more beautiful homes that Singaporeans could afford and we did This is Punggol 21 This is the view from Dawson I think it is taken from the air terrace, I went up to take a look The city rejuvenated We have continued the Kampong spirit During Ramadan, our neighbours break fast together along HDB corridors And all over the island, volunteers have beautified our shared spaces with Communities in Bloom We said we would strengthen our safety nets and we did We introduced Workfare, Silver Support, ComCare We built new hospitals Ng Teng Fong Hospital has opened since my last Rally Community hospitals have also opened - this is Ren Ci and Yishun Community Hospital will soon be ready We have made healthcare more accessible and affordable We have CHAS, the blue card and the orange card And we have the PG Card With MediShield Life, Singaporeans have lifelong healthcare coverage We helped each other too Going door-to-door delivering milk powder and food to needy families Seniors have kept active, exercising to stay fit and healthy as they age And if you think these exercises are not quite challenging enough You can try to do these exercises We said we would create more pathways for children to chase rainbows and we did We built Northlight and Assumption Pathway for students who fail their PSLE because we believe in our young and we will never give up on them We built the School of the Arts, the Sports School, the School of Science and Technology to cater to varied talents We built first class campuses for our ITE Colleges, including ITE College Central, where we are now We built new universities Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) UniSIM If they were not first class institutions Cheng Long (Jackie Chan) would not have given us these beautiful old Chinese buildings to be part of SUTD But we are special and we will keep it so We said that we would transform our city and we did Changi Airport is upgrading, Project Jewel, T4 and T5 are coming up The Gardens by the Bay are an iconic and popular attraction We have beautiful park connectors and ABC waterways, like Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park I took Prime Minister Tony Abbott there, the Australian PM to show him how Singaporeans live and the natural environment that we all enjoy I think it is worth showing off Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park Our volunteers have been active too Preserving nature and heritage on Pulau Ubin, keeping our rivers clean We said we would transform Marina Bay and we did This was Marina Bay in 2005 with Marina South still empty land And at my rally that year, I promised you that by our Jubilee year, Marina Bay would be special And this is Marina Bay today We did this together We had a vision, we believed in it, and together, we realised our dreams In the last ten years, we built on what we inherited We put brick on brick, we climbed step by step We kept Singapore special, delivered results for Singaporeans How did we do that? Mr Lee and his team planned beyond their terms, beyond their lifetimes They nurtured the next generation of leaders and the next generation of Singaporeans They taught their successors to do the same and this is what my team and I have sought to do for the last ten years We have served you to the best of our ability, you have got to know us well We have walked this SG50 journey together with you My team and I take very seriously our responsibility to make sure that Singapore lasts beyond us My core team are already in our late 50s and 60s We will not be around forever and we must have the next team ready in the wings The nucleus is there – brought in at the last elections and earlier They have taken charge of important programmes like Our Singapore Conversation, like SG50 as well as different ministries, including difficult ones They have connected with Singaporeans young and old and participated fully in the major decisions which we have made But we need to reinforce them, to round out the team to give Singapore the best possible chance of succeeding into the future And that is what I need to do in the next election Singapore is at a turning point We have just completed 50 successful years Now we are starting out on our next 50 years of nationhood Soon, I will be calling elections to ask for your mandate to take Singapore into this next phase of our nation-building And this election will be critical You will be deciding who is governing Singapore for the next five years But much more than that, you will be choosing the team who will be working with you for the next 15 to 20 years You will be setting the direction for Singapore for the next 50 years You will be determining the future for Singapore What will this future be? Will Singapore become an ordinary country, with intractable problems, slow or even negative growth Overspending, heavy burdens for our children, gridlocked government, unable to act? So many examples around the world Or will Singapore always stay special for our children? A multi-racial society strengthened by diversity, not splintered by divisions A rugged society where everyone strives to do his best, but looks out for his fellow men A people who live up to our song “One People, One Nation, One Singapore” If you are proud of what we have achieved together If you support what we want to do ahead, the future that we are building then please support me, please support my team Because my team and I cannot do anything just by ourselves We have to do it with you in order to do it for you In fact, we have to do it together in order to do it for all of us, to do a good job for Singapore so that we can keep Singapore special for many years to come Another 50 years Can I be sure that Singapore will still be doing well, still be special come SG100? Nobody can be sure Nobody can promise that we will all live happily ever after We all have our hopes and fears, our views and our guesses One opinion that I know everybody would have liked to know was Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s He is gone now, but some friends did ask him this question not too long ago In his old age, a group of friends would regularly take Mr Lee out for meals The conversation would flow and Mr Lee would get a chance to see a different bit of the Singapore that he had built The last time they had dinner together was in January this year, shortly before he was taken to hospital After Mr Lee died, one of the friends wrote to me, describing what happened Let me read her letter As it was the start of 2015, we talked at length about the celebrations for SG50 We took turns to encourage Mr Lee to attend as many SG50 events as possible Actually, we hoped he would be there for the SG50 National Day Parade Mr Lee listened to our exhortations, but stopped short of saying yes to our suggestions At each of our gatherings, it had become a tradition to ask Mr Lee “Will there be a Singapore many years from now?” Once, Mr Lee said “Maybe” On another, Mr Lee said “Yes, if there is no corruption” This was classic Mr Lee Ever believing in Singapore Yet ever cognisant that there will always work to be done, that we should never take things for granted Continuing with our tradition and in the spirit of SG50 that evening we asked him “Will there be a Singapore 50 years from now?” Mr Lee’s answer took us all by surprise That evening, for the first time, Mr Lee said “Of course there will be… even better!” Mr Lee did not make it to the SG50 NDP But we were happy to have three surviving ministers who signed the Separation Agreement at the Parade Encik Othman Wok, who is here with us this evening and Mr Ong Pang Boon and Mr Jek Yeun Thong They sat in a place of honour, next to Mr Lee’s chair When we watched the video tribute to Mr Lee, we were all moved We could sense his spirit with us, and in us Mr Lee would have been proud of what he had built, if he had seen the NDP Now, he is no longer here We are on our own, but we are ready Our resolve to defend ourselves is unquestioned Our spirit and confidence is robust Our unity and identity as a people has never been stronger At the NDP, we showed the world what stuff Singapore is made of For me, there were two special moments in a memorable parade One was when Kit Chan sang “Home” She sang beautifully, she always does But what most amazed me was the singing from the crowd All round the Padang, we could hear our voices lustily singing “This is home, truly” And never before have we done that The second moment was after the parade The last item, the kids were in bright LED costumes, putting on an energetic and spectacular performance I went down to the Padang afterwards to meet them They were in high spirits Their faces shone with excitement and hope I thought to myself, these are the faces of the future of Singapore 50 years from now, SG100 They will be about 60 years old, still vigorous with many more active years ahead of them I hope they will be back at the Padang celebrating again, remembering SG50 Congratulating one another on how much they have done and how far they have come and looking at more young, radiant faces of children and many grandchildren and singing "Majulah Singapura!" Thank you very much
B1 singapore national day people national flat sit National Day Rally 2015 English Speech 253 17 JACK JHOU posted on 2015/09/10 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary