THIS
National Day, do a little test.
A. Recite the pledge fully.
B. Explain the crescent moon, stars and colours of the national flag.
Can you?
You might say: The schoolday mornings of mumbling the pledge half-asleep, watching the flag inch its way up the pole, are a long way behind me.
But come on, you know that's no excuse.
This year, we turn 42.
Not old for a nation?
We鈥檙e in the coming-of-age, stay-out-late teenage years of nationhood.
A new generation of Singaporeans has grown up, one with new experiences and new visions.
It鈥檚 also a generation that鈥檚 sometimes not quite sure what being Singaporean means.
So this National Day, we thought we鈥檇 give you readers a challenge:
Can you interpret the flag and show us what it means to you?
Can you grasp the true meaning of the pledge and rewrite it in your own words?
Show us what being Singaporean means to you.
You don't have to be a Shakespeare or Picasso to take part.
We've not looking for the best-rhyming pledge or the prettiest flag.
We've looking for YOUR pledge, YOUR flag. We've looking for the most meaningful ideas.
Look at the samples that we will show you over the next few days. Get your creative juices flowing.
E-mail your ideas to
tnp@sph.com.sg and you stand a chance to win a Samsung E250 phone.
We've not, in any way, suggesting that it鈥檚 time to change the flag or the pledge. We are asking you to examine what they mean to you and share it with us.
At The New Paper, we like to do things differently.
Our hope is this.
That after this long hard look at the pledge and flag, you'll come to appreciate how beautiful they really are.
Are you up to it?
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My Flag
A flag of my imagination
Title: One
The single star represents unity. The nation's ideals have not changed.
But instead of having five stars, the five corners of the single star will represent democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality.
The crescent moon that symbolises a young nation is represented by the triangle pointing upwards (looking ahead).
Red is still used to symbolise universal brotherhood and equality of man. White still signifies everlasting purity and virtue.
But in my design, the colours are reversed when you flip the flag around.
Only when you see both sides of the flag do you realise that there is an equal distribution of red and white.
For me, this symbolises creativity, which is so important for the nation when moving into the future.
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My pledge
LAWYER Adrian Tan found it a real challenge when asked to reinterpret the pledge put together by the late S Rajaratnam in today's context.
But he did come out with an original version that, in his words, best explains the spirit of the former Deputy Prime Minister's oath.
Explained Mr Tan: 'Mr Rajaratnam's pledge was simple yet elegant. His theme was 'unity in diversity'.
'When he wrote it some 40 years ago, we were a very young nation. We had many problems, the main one being that we were from different races, languages and religions.
'The founding fathers were telling the people, through the pledge: 'We are different in how we look, speak and worship, but now we are one country, so get your act together!'
'The diversity message is probably self-evident now. (In reinterpreting it,) I wanted to capture the values of New Singapore. I wanted to reflect our position in time and in the world.
'We are no longer an immigrant society coming to grips with statehood. We lead the world in many areas as a nation. We've gained self-confidence, because we know we are good at some things.
'On the other hand, we expect different things now. We are more eager to talk about issues and have open debate.
'We prize transparency. We need to grow by becoming more inclusive. We are becoming a more sophisticated society. That's the New Singapore.'
source :
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/st...36988,00.html?
