The Workers’ Party (WP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Aljunied GRC Gerald Giam has filed a parliamentary question on Wednesday (20 July) asking the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) on its reasons for allowing this year’s National Day Parade (NDP) celebration to take place while Singapore is in the midst of Phase 2 (Heightened Alert).
Mr Giam’s question is meant for the Parliamentary sitting on or after 2 August.
In a blogpost on Thursday (22 July), Mr Giam pointed out that during Phase 2 (Heightened Alert), which started on 22 July through 18 August 2021, most of the non-essential activities are being restricted to groups of only two persons.
In fact, some activities like dining-out and working out in the gym, have been completed prohibited during this “quasi-lockdown”, he noted.
The WP MP went on to say that COVID-19 frontliners and essential workers are also invited to be present in person at the Marina Bay Floating Platform to watch the NDP celebration.
To this, Mr Giam wrote: “I asked whether the parade will increase the risk of the spread of infection to them. After the parade, most of them will continue to be in frequent contact with members of the public.”
“While we greatly appreciate our frontliners and essential workers, and would like to honour them, we should not unnecessarily expose them to the risk of being infected during such a large gathering of people,” he asserted.
As such, Mr Giam stressed that it is important for the Government to be prudent and only have a celebration for Singapore’s Independence Day after the infection rates in the country drops.
“I understand that this evening (22 July), the Government announced its decision to postpose NDP until 21 August. This is a good move, although it too should be contingent on the COVID-19 risk levels coming down significantly by them,” he remarked.
Here’s the complete question filed by Mr Giam for the Parliament sitting:
Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song: To ask the Minister for Defence (a) what are the reasons for allowing the National Day Parade (NDP) to proceed in the midst of Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) from 22 July to 18 August 2021; and (b) whether the event will increase the risk of the spread of infection to COVID-19 frontliners and essential workers invited to watch the NDP in person and who will thereafter be in frequent contact with members of the public.
National Day Parade postponed to 21 August
On Thursday evening, MINDEF announced that this year’s NDP will be postponed to 21 August 2021 after the scheduled end of the Phase 2 (Heightened Alert).
A ceremonial parade will be held instead on the original date on 9 August.
The NDP rehearsal and preview, previously planned for 24 July and 31 July respectively, have also been postponed.
Besides that, the National Day Rally speech by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has also been postponed to 29 August 2021.
Originally, this year’s NDP was scheduled to be held at The Float @ Marina Bay on 9 August, with spectators required to undergo pre-event testing and be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Online petition calling for the cancellation of NDP
Earlier on Monday (19 July), an online petition on Change.org, titled ‘Cancel Singapore National Day Parade (NDP) 2021‘, was initiated by a person named Abby See, urging the Government to cancel NDP 2021 celebration due to the growing number of COVID-19 cases in the country.
The petition mentioned that it “does not make any sense” for the Government to conduct a public event given that the number of COVID-19 cases are rising, adding that the event is not considered as “essential during a pandemic”.
It added that even if NDP is not considered a social gathering, it is still a “mass-scale gathering” whereby thousands of people will be present at the event when they shouldn’t – regardless of whether they are vaccinated or not.
The petition also questioned the need for NDP to be given the green light when the Government has continuously urged the public stay at home.
At the time of writing, the petition has garnered more than 39,000 signatures.
