National Day - Its Meaning

TELLING THE PEOPLE

TODAY Singapore celebrated its second National Day with pageantry and festivity which will be continued tomorrow.

It is right that this should be an occasion for joy, yet at the same time it must be a time for thought and for resolve.

It is an occasion for thought as to the true, deeper meaning of National Day …… and for resolve by every Singaporean to give his utmost in the service of the State.

On this day the accent is on the word "national" …… for the theme of the whole programme of celebration is the necessity for an ever-increasing sense of national loyalty, of national consciousness.

Today, of all days, the people of Singapore must remember that they are one people, one nation ….. not Chinese or Malays or Indians or members of any race but first and foremost Singaporeans and Malayans.

Their loyalty is to Singapore - no longer to the country of their birth or their parents' birth if that country happens to be a foreign country.

This national loyalty every good citizen must both practice and preach …… practice it himself and see that others practice it, too.

The good citizen must show, by his personal example, that they ways of divided loyalties, of narrow racialism, are the ways of disaster, of "all Hell let loose," as the Minister for Culture, Mr. Rajaratnam has put it.

That is the first necessity if Singapore is to flourish - undivided loyalty to the State. The other necessity, if Singapore is to increase its prosperity, is sweat and toil.

The Government has mapped the way through the Four Year Plan. The Government leads and guides …… that is its duty.

But the translation of plans into reality depends, in the final analysis, on the hard work and enthusiasm of the people.

Therefore on this National Day the good citizen must pledge himself to give the State his undivided loyalty to shun all narrow racialism and to work harder for the country - his country.

Majulah Singapura!