Singa the Lion

The creation of Singa was overseen by Basskaran Nair, a civil servant, who headed the National Courtesy Campaign in its early years.

The team tasked with creating Singa consisted of chief artist Joseph Teo, Ahmad Asran and Eileen Wat.

[3] The final design depicts Singa as a golden lion with a bright and welcoming smile.

[4] Since its introduction, Singa has been made into a host of items ranging from stickers, iron-on transfers, hand-puppets, stuffed toys,[5] badges, documentaries, jingles, songs, posters and banners, debates, contests, talks, exhibitions, courtesy courses, leaflets, handbooks and pamphlets.

Singa soon became a familiar face with regular appearances in community events and advertisement campaigns.

Statues of Singa were erected next to the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts building in Fort Canning Road.

[7] In March of 2009, Singaporean newspaper outlet TODAY covered three students from Singapore Management University (SMU) held a funeral for Singa.

A Mr V Kumar, alongside two other friends, gave a eulogy 'mourning the death of kindness in Singapore and called on Singaporeans to remember Singa and what he stood for'.

[8] The following day, Singapore Kindness Movement chairman Koh Poh Tiong released a statement saying, 'I was a little taken aback with TODAY's story, showing a photograph with a coffin, which says Singa is dead.

In addition, ten life-sized Singa statues were unveiled following the launch of Singapore Kindness Month at the IMM Building.

[9] On the 15th of May 2013, Singapore Kindness Movement posted on its website announcing Singa's resignation, effective immediately.

We can let our anger and disagreement dictate the kind of people and society we want to be, or we can decide to be gracious, even when frustrated.

[11][12][13][14] On 22nd of May, General Secretary of the Singapore Kindness Movement Dr William Wan responded to a blog post titled 'Upset Singaporean on Singa'.

It is our opinion that Singapore today needs all of us to find the Singa in us, and that is the message we hope will resonate with people.The event provided much controversy, as covered by Priscilla Goy in the Straits Times.

A series of 2.5 inch tall vinyl collectible figurines of Singa the Kindness Lion were created in collaboration with Singapore-based toy maker Play Imaginative and various local artists.