Does the lack of national flags at HDB estates serve as a litmus test as to PAP government’s performance?

by Simon Lim

Tomorrow, we will celebrate our 53th National Day Parade at the floating platform.  I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely wish all my fellow Singaporeans a very Happy National Day.

Over the last two days, I drove around Singapore to observe the displaying of our national flags by HDB residents from their units. The results were so pathetic when compared with past years’.

Life in Singapore under the PAP government is tough for so many of our citizens and despite the huge and impressive façade and display that is being put up at the floating platform, this pathetic displaying of our national flags by our citizens is the real litmus test, and lest PAP government forgets, our citizens’ well-being is what really matters.

It must be substance over style.  I don’t need any PAP ministers or PAP scholars or PAP generals to “smoke” me about the answer.

Looking back when we were ejected from Malaysia against our wish in 1965, our future was so very bleak when the sky fell on us. The odds were stacked so high against us that nobody even gave us any chance of survival. But we did not beat our chest.

Back then, our hugely uneducated and poor citizens pulled together with our old guard ministers and soldiered on. The rest is history. Today, we are enjoying the breeze under the big Singapore tree that they had together planted.

Looking forward, for our children to also have the chance to enjoy the breeze that the trees we together plant today, the decisions and efforts that we make today are crucial.

As a citizen, I do not know Lee Hsien Loong personally and I have nothing personal against him, but I am very disappointed with a number of decisions and performance of his government.

Although he belongs in the same political party that his father and others jointly founded, he and his cabinet colleagues today do not possess the same level of calibre, political instincts, political empathy and political acumen that the pioneer generation PAP leaders.

These are the people whose leadership lifted a generation of people whom my grandparents belonged to. They lifted us from third world to first and made us a proud and confident people, ready to face and take on the world.

For that, I am eternally grateful. Anyway, the lack of flags are citizen’s silent way of protest and I am much sadden by it.

I hope that the PAP government is honest enough with itself, humble enough and willing to do some introspective post-mortem to understand better the real mood, frustrations, disappointments and even anger of our people vs their many price increases in recent time, lack of proper accountability and deteriorating governing standards etc under the Lee Hsien Loong administration government.

Happy National Day to all.

Below are some photos taken at Telok Blangah and Choa Chu Kang on 8 August 2018.

A block at Choa Chu Kang which is decorated with flags while the other has none.