My first thought when watching Prime Minister Lawrence Wong delivering his first National Day Rally speech on Aug 18 was: “This could have been Heng Swee Keat, and I wonder what he would have said.”
Looking back all the way to Goh Chok Tong’s maiden NDR speech in 1991, with the hindsight of what Lee Kuan Yew said about Tony Tan being his choice to succeed him rather than Goh, I also now wonder what Tony Tan would have said.
Since we are in the flashing-back mood, let’s go back to the very start. We may learn something about why Lawrence Wong could or could not have done differently with his rally speech.
This thing called ND Rally speech started in 1966, according to Wikipedia, “as a private meeting between the prime minister and grassroots leaders. The transcript was released to the media only two weeks later.
Only in 1971 did Lee decide ‘at the last minute’ to televise the speech, which has since been annually broadcast live”. The first rally was held on the eve of National Day. Since 1967, the rally has been held at least a week after National Day.
Wikipedia: “At the 1966 closed door rally, Lee told grassroots leaders, ‘Every year, on this 9th August for many years ahead – how many, I do not know – we will dedicate ourselves anew to consolidate ourselves to survive; and, most important of all, to find an enduring future for what we have built.'”
Anything familiar here? “Consolidate to survive.” “Find an enduring future for what we have built”.
One particular LKY ND Rally year stood out for me personally. That was the controversial graduate mum’s speech in 1983. Lee spoke about what he saw as an existential threat to Singapore’s future – not having enough babies to replace ourselves; in particular, not enough better-educated, graduate women were getting married and having babies.
I was the leader (editorial) writer at The Straits Times on that day. We took a generally cautious but supportive line because Singapore’s future was supposed to have been at stake.
Unfortunately, we had to wait and sift through no fewer than five or six drafts from the Istana every other hour. I started to write only at 9 pm. And Cheong Yip Seng, the editor, was struggling with the Page 1 headline for the story. He finally came up with what I considered to be a prize-winner: “Get hitched”. And I finally finished my piece at 11 pm.
That was vintage LKY with his tough-love approach.
Wikipedia: “Goh Chok Tong’s NDP Rally speeches were delivered with a self-deprecating humour that heralded a new, gentler style of governance, which he underscored by remarking, ‘I am not going to follow (Lee Kuan Yew’s) act. I am going to walk my own way.’ ”
Goh did things in his kinder and gentler way from 1991 when he became PM.
Each succeeding generation sought a better balance. When Lee Hsien Loong became PM in 2004, he said:
“To succeed, we have to balance between continuity and change, keeping what is still working and good and strong in our system, which is a lot, and changing the part which is obsolete, discarding the part which is no longer relevant, inventing new pieces, new ideas to deal with new problems and to take advantage of new opportunities and to develop new strengths and strategies to thrive in a different world.
We can never afford to be satisfied with the status quo, even if we are still okay, even if our policies are still working. People say, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. I say, if it ain’t broke, better maintain it, lubricate it, inspect it, replace it, upgrade it, try something better and make it work better than before.
I was a member of Chok Tong’s team, and I contributed to many of Chok Tong’s policies. These are sound policies, but we must always be prepared to look at them again; we must never be trapped by what we have and we must update them and conceive new ideas to go ahead. And this is true not just of the government but also of Singapore, also of society.”
The journey of reaching out, listening, reflecting and upgrading seems to be a part of the government’s DNA now.
Lawrence Wong and his team’s Forward Singapore programme is “an opportunity for all of us to come together, examine our values and aspirations and build consensus for our future. What do we, as a people, want to see? What would we like to achieve together?”
And he has shared his ForwardSG’s first offerings at the NDP rally (as summed up in The Straits Times): Share parental leave, new scheme to provide up to $6,000 for retrenched jobseekers, housing enhancements for couples, singles and seniors, Gifted Education Programme to be revised, higher mother tongue learning, Kallang Alive masterplan, prime waterfront coastline on island’s eastern front and new Singapore Centre of Islamic Studies.
He continued to emphasise the central theme of his reset in a meet-the-press session on Friday, Aug 23: Make bold moves for the future, don’t allow the past to constrain our options. But stick to fundamental principles – such as multiculturalism or an ethos of self-reliance – that remain relevant today.
Should Singaporeans now be excited or cautious? Both, I presume.
Tan Bah Bah is a former senior leader writer with The Straits Times. He was also managing editor of a magazine publishing company