national day RALLY 2004...towards more babies..heh..

Haha, ya, something even closer to home, the National Day Rally 2004. Well, i dinno how many of us here had caught it (i myself only started watching from 11pm), but it's sure that it has been a long time since something on tv has managed to catch the same amount of my attention as it did. Firstly, I was surprised by the style with which the speech was given. Confident, light-hearted, yet powerful.

PM Lee started off by what i called "harnessing and gathering his audience" (in our terms maybe something like an orientation), by saluting and acknowledging the efforts of his predecessor, SM Goh. Even more stunning is the changes he personnally confirmed in the speech. People woke up from "seminar paralysis" when he announced that there will be major changes in the educational system, such as enlisting professionals to teach in the respective fields from as early as the primary or secondary level, (i.e musicians teach and groom budding musicians). This was seen by him as a necessary step to not only develop each person to the fullest of his interest and potential, but also as a must-go for an inclusive society.

Eyebrows must have been raised by the time he read out a letter detailing the wish list of a typical working Singaporean about to give birth. "Before she delivers her baby in September, I will deliver my package," PM Lee said, to warm applause from those present. That would include two addtitional days of leave entitlement for anyone with children under 7, and an extension of maternity leave from 8 to 12 weeks. Not to mention a possible lowering of maid levy in the pipeline.

Many jaws would have dropped as the PM digged deep down into issues about our young not getting married and having children. "...maybe it's due to email, maybe it's due to globalisation, but what i see is that our people are working longer hours...in the morning at 6 we check our email, at 2 am a e-mail comes in, how to have children?!" "When foreigners come in to join us, they would ask, do you work on Saturdays?" These, to him, pointed out that the young people are working too long, affecting their social lives, resulting in less socialisation, less friends, less couples and less babies. Hence, he announced cooly, "the civil service would go to a 5-day work week" "This includes all the ministries, army camps and statutory boards." What i was thinking was, man this guy is seriously crazy and powerful. No doubt no one would know for sure how this new working dynamics would come into play, but he's got guts to do this on his first NDP rally man! The most important thing i think somemore, is that the government has really foreseen a problem in the lives of ordinary "da gong jia zu". They seriously work too hard, and get little in return, especially in the greater goals of life.

Policies aside, I guessed the physical environment can provide as many facilities as possible, but what's most important is the emotional landscape. Young people need to feel the flow of romance, in and out of every office building, HDB flat and most importantly, the people they meet on the streets everyday. Only with that, can you not only get more couples, but the couples would also feel wanting to go into the all-so important "creations" that the government is so eagerly looking towards. Right now, the this landscape seems a bit barren, but the rain is coming, and the seeds have been sown. Hopefully, it will turn to be as beautiful as our "Garden City" in the future. :)