National Day Rally.html |
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The National Day Rally (Chinese: 国庆群众大会, Malay: Rapat Umum Hari Kebangsaan) is an annual address that the Prime Minister of Singapore makes to the entire nation, on the second Sunday after August 9, the country's National Day. It has been a yearly event since 1966 where the Prime Minister lists down the direction of the country and is comparable to the State of the Union Address delivered by the President of the United States.
Prior to 2005, the rally was a continuous version from 8 pm (SST). From 2005 onwards, the Malay and Chinese versions are read out at 6.45 pm with a break at 7.30 pm while the English version is read at 8 pm.
Opposition MPs were invited to the rally for the first time in 2007.
An article titled "Singapore's National Day Rally Speech: A Site of Ideological Negotiation"1 analyses the inaugural National Day Rally speeches of three Singapore prime ministers. It locates these speeches in the continuous ideological work that the People’s Action Party (PAP) government has to do in order to maintain consensus and forge new alliances among classes and social forces that are being transformed by globalisation. Increasingly, these speeches have had to deal with the contradictions between nation-building and the tensions between the liberal and reactionary tendencies of the global city. It is argued that such a situation has made it futile for the government to attempt a straightforward ideological mobilisation of the people into a relatively homogeneous national community. The PAP government’s ideological struggle to forge consensus has been balanced by a strategy of divide-and-rule. Ironically, the rally speeches have been as much about dividing as they have been about uniting. The article is available here
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Location
The rally was delivered at the Kallang Theatre before 2001. After 2001, the venue has been shifted to the University Cultural Centre at the National University of Singapore.
Broadcast
As a national event, the rally is broadcasted 'live' from 6.45pm till 10pm (SST), with a break between 7.30pm and 8pm, across MediaCorp TV channels.2
| Platform/Language | English | Mandarin | Malay | Tamil |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TV | Channel 5, TVMobile, Channel NewsAsia (8pm-10pm) | Channel 8, Channel U | Suria | Vasantham Central |
| Radio | 938LIVE | Capital 95.8FM | Warna 94.2FM | Oli 96.8FM |
| Online | Channel NewsAsia Live | - | - | - |
The rally was broadcasted from 2001 to 2004 on SPH MediaWorks channels as well.
The speeches are also available for viewing at MediaCorp news portals, Singapore Press Holdings news portals and the Government of Singapore Information Portal after the broadcast. Highlights of the speeches will be published at all Singapore newspapers in the following days.
In 2008, the English language telecast of the Rally, initially scheduled for 'live' broadcast at 8pm on Aug 17, was postponed to the next day. This movement was to facilitate Singaporeans to watch women's table tennis team take on China in the finals at the Beijing Olympics. The Rally itself will proceed as usual at the University Cultural Centre. However, the Malay and the Chinese parts of the Rally will still be telecasted 'live' at 6.45 pm. The English part of the speech will be aired at 8pm on Aug 18, 2008. 3
References
- ^ Kenneth Paul Tan (2007) "Singapore's National Day Rally Speech: A Site of Ideological Negotiation", Journal of Contemporary Asia 37:3, pp. 292-308. Also available online
- ^ "MediaCorp to broadcast PM Lee's Nat'l Day Rally Speech "live" Sunday", Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved on 14 August 2008.
- ^ "Broadcast of National Day Rally English speech postponed to Monday", Channel NewsAsia (2007-08-16).
Further reading
- "Transcript of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s National Day Rally English Speech on 19 August 2007 at NUS University Cultural Centre". Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (Singapore) (2007-08-19). Retrieved on 2007-08-30.
- "Transcript of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s National Day Rally English Speech on 17 August 2008 at NUS University Cultural Centre". Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (Singapore) (2008-08-17). Retrieved on 2008-08-31.