How I wish our MAJULAH SINGAPURA was like this too...

Move over Prada & Nike; here comes national solidarity...

"Would you now please rise to proudly sing our National Anthem..." the announcer from MFA emphatically said. It is early September 2008, Manhattan, New York. It is the celebratory dinner of Singapore's National Day held by the Singapore's Permenant Mission to the UN. The turnout is good; students, families, diplomats, kids who seem to have come in a busload of their own.

Everyone stood up awkwardly. I could have sworn I saw some rolling their eyes, turning to their friends and giving awkward smiles, sheepish grins, a scratch to the head. If you walked into the room, you would have thought you walked into one of those awkward Hollywood wedding ceremonies where someone says he loves the bride (but he's not the groom). No. This was just before MAJULAH SINGAPURA. "Shit, I never sing this song for 4...no no 6 years oredi. Cham," was what I heard someone whisper in the not-so-loud-Singaporean-whisper.

And the whispering "marikita...." began. Barely audible. The kid runs across the room laughing...So many people came to this National Day dinner, yet when it came to the Anthem, many go quite. If I had not known better, one would have thought many just came for the food.

But I know that is not true. Many Singaporeans miss home. Especially being away from home, this was like homecoming. Be it missing the food, the friends, the Singlish la-lohs, its still coming home. Yet it saddens me to see how the "system" (whatever that is) has made us roll our eyes, feel sheepish proudly singing the national anthem, that represents the sovereignty and independence of what we call home. Can you imagine a Singapore, that small, belonging to another modern country of today? Would we be what we are today?

National education has often been decried as propaganda, and treated with contempt by most (I'm not saying all) younger Singaporeans, and singing the National Anthem even at this event has been subconsciously rolled into that cynical fold.

I am looking forward to the day we Singaporeans can sing the anthem proudly, be it at home or abroad, just like the way the New Yorkers sang theirs at the Yankees game and at the local marathon that I witnessed in the summer I was in New York.

I know many are proud to be Singaporeans. And I hope that someday we will step up to wear it proudly on our chest, the way we wear Prada, Gucci, Nike, Adidas daily.


Uncle T