Happy 54th National Day Singapore!
As we celebrated our nation’s birthday over the long weekend, i reflected on Singapore’s journey over the decades.
Come to think of it, 54 years is really young for a country, and we’ve achieved much within this time against the hand we were dealt, growing from 3rd world to first with only our forefathers’ wits, character and an inherited central port position amongst the world’s busiest trading routes.
We’ve been blessed with very good leaders who sought to build and improve the foundations of world-class infrastructure systems including education, banking, transport and housing. Yes, they are not perfect, but our leaders are really top notch nonetheless. For that we are grateful.
We’ve also been blessed with a united people that saw us weather some of the harshest storms ranging from the early survival issues when we had to build our defense from ground zero, and identity crises that helped us come together to form our understanding of what it means to be Singaporean, to sophisticated financial storms and global economic meltdown in more recent years. For that we are thankful.
As we head towards the tenth anniversary of the Great Financial Crisis, sensational media headlines continue to cause knee-jerk reactions throughout global market places under the likes of a few leaders who may have unbalanced views of the world and who may have unbalanced power per intellect ratios, and yet have been ironically voted to represent their people and countries.
That’s contrasting.
As we celebrate in the now, we pray that we continue to be one united people and bring progress to our nation, and for Singapore to continue to be a guiding light for the founding values we stand for, in all work that we do, including the financial industry.
We the citizens of Singapore, pledge ourselves as one united people, regardless of race, language or religion, to build a democratic society, based on justice and equality, so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation.