The Workers’ Party (WP) urged citizens to fly the national flag and keep fighting for Singapore, on Wednesday (27 May). The opposition party’s call comes as Singapore grapples with the COVID-19 crisis and the worst economic outlook in its 55-year history.
Pointing out that President Halimah has allowed Singaporeans to fly the national flag from 25 Apr to 30 June 2020 as a show of unity and solidarity in the midst of COVID-19, the WP recalled that the Singapore flag and other symbols like the coat of arms and the ‘Majulah Singapura’ phrase were designed with the input of the opposition, back in 1959.
The WP, which is the only elected opposition party in Parliament, looked back on former Minister of Culture, S. Rajaratnam’s parliamentary speech on the significance of Singapore’s symbols. Mr Rajaratnam said that the Government “worked in close co-operation with opposition parties because we want these symbols to express the sentiments and aspirations, not of any particular group, Party or section, but of the people of Singapore as a whole.””
Mr Rajaratnam also spoke about the significance of the five stars in the national flag and called those who would destroy the founding ideals of Singapore “false prophets”. Mr Rajaratnam had said: “The five stars represent the ideals on which the new State of Singapore was founded – democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality. Those who would destroy these are our enemies. Those who would repudiate them are false prophets.”
Calling on individuals and families to make a personal effort to display the national flag instead of letting flag-hanging be a product of grassroots campaigns, the WP said: “In the months of July and early-August each year, flag-hanging is often enough a product in many neighbourhoods of top-down grassroots efforts. But it should be an individual, personal/family effort and it must have meaning with the ideals of nationhood intuitively understood by every Singaporean.”
The WP said that the stars in the national flag means to them that every Singaporean counts and urged Singaporeans to keep fighting for their nation: “What does it mean when there is a star in our flag representing democracy? Or justice? Or equality? Or peace? Or progress? To us in the Workers’ Party, it means, every Singaporean counts. Keep fighting for your Singapore. Because it is yours.”
The WP also published a video showing its members hanging the national flag outside their homes. Secretary-general Pritam Singh, chairman Sylvia Lim, and other politicians like Muhamad Faisal Manap, Dennis Tan Lip Fong, Yee Jenn Jong and Gerald Giam joined the effort.
The video, which features a rendition of the national anthem in the background, includes another quote by Mr Rajaratnam from 1959, in which he said, “We respect the flag as such or the State arms or anthem for the sentiments and ideas they represent.”
Watch the video here:
https://www.facebook.com/workersparty/videos/256842668853037/