[1] Lee delivered his "cautiously optimistic" speech "off the cuff", remarking, "You have done well—six superb years, a magnificent performance against all the odds, so much so that everybody says, 'But, of course, everybody knows that Singapore is a very well-endowed place... Oh, just natural course of events.'
[5] At the 1983 rally, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew "trotted out facts and figures to show that the more highly educated a woman was, the less likely she was to reproduce", before concluding, "[W]e are really discarding our able parents in the next generation and doubling the less able".
[1] In 1988, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew delivered "one of his most quoted lines": "And even from my sick bed, even if you are going to lower me into the grave, and I feel that something is going wrong, I'll get up.
He "spoke with a self-deprecating humour that heralded a new, gentler style of governance", which he underscored by remarking, "I am not going to follow [Lee Kuan Yew's] act.
He promoted a new "teach less, learn more" education policy, introduced a shortened five-day work week for the Civil Service, and most controversially, mooted the idea of casinos in Singapore.
[6] In 2005, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong adopted the current format of delivering his Malay and Chinese remarks at 6:45pm, with a break at 7:30pm, before commencing his English address at 8:00pm.
The move was to allow Singaporeans to watch Singapore take on China in the women's table tennis finals at the Beijing Olympics.
[9] In his 2015 speech, "set within the context of... an impending general election", Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong "asked for a strong mandate" without being "baldly partisan".
The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) also said that PM Lee had felt "unsteady because of prolonged standing, heat and dehydration", adding, "His heart is fine and he did not have a stroke."
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's speech mainly focused on the obstacles which Singapore was currently facing, namely Diabetes, Pre-school and Technology.
He also announced that Singapore would be seeking a second inscription on UNESCO's World Heritage List of her hawker culture, and that Senior Minister of State and Mayor Maliki Osman would be leading an improvement project for Geylang Serai.
[15] In Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's speech, he highlighted education bursaries and subsidies,[16] along with the mention of successful bursary holders who were invited along,[17] Pulau Brani's redevelopment plan as "Downtown South",[18] the ongoing China–United States trade war,[19] and how Singapore was involved in,[20] climate change;[21] its seriousness and their measures,[22] and changes to the re-employment and retirement ages which will take effect by 2022.
[27] Originally scheduled for 22 August 2021,[28] the rally was postponed due to the introduction of Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) measures to cope with an increase in COVID-19 community cases.
In his speech he highlighted several employment measures, including Workfare enhancements like more top-ups to $1.1 billion in two years and lowering the age criteria to those 30 years old compared to 35 years old now, expanding Progressive Wage Model to more sectors such as the retail, food and waste management sectors, as well as general careers like administrative assistants and drivers, a local qualifying salary and a PW Mark to acknowledge companies which pay workers fairly, studying concerns of delivery riders, controls on S-Passes and Employment Passes, legislating TAFEP guidelines and a tribunal for workplace disputes.
Lee also announced the impending repeal of Section 377A of the Penal Code while protecting the definition of marriages from future legal challenges by spelling out Parliament's right to do so in the Constitution.
They are Tuas Port; which will run in an automated and digitalised manner, Changi Airport Terminal 5; which will go ahead with measures to boost resilience during pandemics and make the building more environmentally-friendly, building 150,000 housing units at the current Paya Lebar Air Base area and future plans from "Long Term Plan Review" by the Urban Redevelopment Authority.
[41] The 2024 National Day Rally was delivered by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on 18 August 2024 at ITE College Central.
It locates these speeches in the continuous ideological work that the PAP government has to do to maintain consensus and forge new alliances among classes and social forces that are being transformed by globalisation.
[49] According to Kenneth Paul Tan of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, he stated that "the rally speech has also been a part of larger celebrations surrounding the commemoration of Singapore's independence gained on 9th August 1965.
These celebrations have come to include a short and formal televised National Day message from the prime minister, observance ceremonies held at organisations in the public and private sectors, constituency dinners and ministerial speeches, regularly televised music videos of patriotic songs composed for the celebrations, and—most spectacular of all—a National Day parade that since the mid-1980s has included not only a traditional ceremonial segment, but also high-tech mass performances and re-enactments of the official "Singapore Story" that end on a climax of fireworks".
[49] As an annual injection of patriotism, the National Day celebrations help to inoculate Singaporeans against the disenchantment that accompanies advanced industrial societies, whether they are formally classified as capitalist or socialist, democratic or authoritarian.