In case you missed it last night, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong dropped by the Institute of Technical Education College Central to deliver this year’s National Day Rally speech.
But as we all know, our Sunday nights are too precious to pay attention to the government’s priorities in policy-making, so here’s what he talked about: the increasing importance of pre-school education, being healthy and becoming more technologically advanced. Yeah, that’s pretty much it.
You can check out his whole speech below, or read the dozens of “highlights” and “key takeaway” pieces about National Day Rally 2017.
Done? Cool. Here’s some of the top responses we could find that take PM Lee’s points and issues to task.
On this year’s “insipid”, “banal” speech
As far as National Day Rally speeches go, The Middle Ground’s Bertha Henson pointed out that it didn’t so much as paint a global picture as it focused on direct issues affecting the everyday lives of everyday Singaporeans.
“I liked the way you dispensed advice,” she wrote. “It made you sound like a man who knows his people, like how grandparents want to play with their grandchildren, not take responsibility for them, or how parents shouldn’t be telling the children to shut up.”
The Online Citizen and The Flip Side were a little harsher when it came to PM Lee’s lack of attention on topics other than health or going cashless. TOC’s Lim Tean objected to how PM Lee chose to talk about diabetes instead of other issues such as “increasing unemployment, stagnating wages, astronomical costs of living” and more. The Flip Side’s Jason Tan opined that there are many other pertinent issues — like declining public transport reliability and productivity, as well as the need to boost social safety nets for the disadvantaged — that make “better (National Day Rally) fodder”.
On eating healthy
A big portion of the speech was surprisingly dedicated to eating healthy, with a focus on eating brown rice instead of the starchy goodness that is white rice. The prime minister also waged war against diabetes, citing it as a serious problem in Singapore. He called for his countrymen to cut back on sugar and soft drinks, and exercise more often as well.
But doing all that isn’t as easy for the financially disadvantaged in Singapore, argued former Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) Calvin Cheng. “Low-income people cannot afford to go to a yuppie cafe and order Quinoa with Organic Chicken Breast,” he wrote, among other things.
Rice Media produced a listicle arguing how brown rice is apparently the “most un-Singaporean thing you can eat”.
On Singapore lagging behind in the world of e-payments
PM Lee also talked about how Singapore lags behind in digital payments when compared to other cities (including those in China), and highlighted the need to simplify and integrate e-payment platforms for everyone.
Young entrepreneur Lim Jialing — founder/owner of Demochoco — explained in an enlightening post why e-payments simply aren’t catching up in Singapore, and it’s basically due to the “exorbitant fees” incurred by small business owners.
On parking.sg, the app that really should have been launched a long time ago
In such a technology-driven city like Singapore, it’s puzzling why motorists still have to wrestle with paper parking coupons. PM Lee pushed the Housing and Development Board and the Urban Redevelopment Authority to go digital, and the result is an app called parking.sg that’ll soon be launched in October. Users are able to select and pay for accurate parking durations on a per-minute basis, as well as extend parking sessions remotely.
Actually, no complaints here, except the fact that the authorities really should have thought of this solution a long time ago.
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