With the choice of MacDonald House as the focus of the photo, I guess the PM wanted to use the recent diplomatic spat with Indonesia to remind Singaporeans of the importance of national defence.
What the PM appears to have ignored is the fact that due to the government's bad economic policies of the last 2 decades, Singaporeans' economic position have been weakened considerably. The reckless importation of middle-class foreigners have pushed up asset prices while the unmitigated reliance on low-end foreign workers have suppressed the wages of lower-income Singaporeans. As such, due to these policies, the economic resilience of Singaporeans have been very much weakened.
Related to the above is the negative psychological impact on Singaporeans of feeling that we are 2nd class in our own country. As a foreign friend of mine who had recently left Singapore told me - "I came to Singapore because your government treated me better than citizens". So here, the psychological defence of Singaporeans has been seriously undermined by the government's single-minded pursuit of GDP growth.
With so many foreigners in our midst, and many of them carrying the 'I am here because I am a talent and better than you locals" attitude, our social fabric has been damaged by the increasing conflict between natives and aliens. As such, on the social defence front, we have also regressed.
In conclusion, if the government wants to move beyond rhetoric in the area of total defence, the first thing to do is to change its economic policies and take measures to heal the damage done to the aforementioned 3 pillars of total defence.
Hopefully, Total Defence Day 2015 can be a happier one for Singaporeans. 希望新加坡人不用再面對外人喧賓奪主的情況。
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