* The Peace, my reflection from Singapore National Day Parade 2010…

The parade @ Padang, City Hall, Singapore 2010...

The grand old City Hall...

Singapore National Day Parade (NDP)  is one show that will never fail to stir up a certain special, unique and deep intimate emotion in me. I feel blessed (always) when I am able to sit at the gallery and watch the parade passing by peacefully and everyone is able to dance, smile and have a good time partying. Tears will well up in my eyes, and a deep emotional energy will send a series of magnetic waves up my spine to my soul. The feeling is overwhelmingly warm and gratifying.

That is why every year I will always try my best to find my way into the parade grounds, either by offering my service, bidding for NDP tickets, or be a show participant.

This year was no exception; I was there for one of the rehearsal show. As usual, I was carrying my camera, moving around the arena, shooting furiously at everything that had some appeal to my senses. But alas, the cloud

getting ready for the rain...

started to build up, and next came the rain. I managed to find a nice little sheltered place to pack myself in with my camera hanging down my neck, wrapped around by my handkerchief, and continued to watch the show.

“Are you feeling cold?” I heard a voice… it came from a father and a son sitting in front of me. The father was sheltered by a small umbrella, while the son was wearing the raincoat provided in the NDP  goodies bag.

The unstoppable spirit of NDP...

“No dad, I am ok. Besides, those people (he was pointing to the parade ground) are even worse than us; they have not taken shelter, and are still continuing to perform in the rain for us to see. They must be feeling cold…” The father suddenly became speechless, and just hugged his son close to him and continued to watch the show.

The kid echoed something that sounded all too familiar to me… I remember PM Lee Hsien Loong has recounted his own experience, as a participant in the 1967 NDP, where he was soaking wet in the rain. The moment and the experience he had shared were overwhelmingly touching.

Suddenly, the images of yesteryears started to unfold right before my eyes. I was only 6 years old when Singapore was kicked out of Malaya, and forced to be independent. It was not the case that we fought hard for our independence, but more like a bad boy being kicked out of the family, and forced to survive on our own regardless….

The future of Singapore was filled with uncertainties. The Konfrontasi was on-going at that time, and the conservative UMNO faction strongly opposed the separation; we faced the danger of being attacked by Indonesian military or forcibly re-absorbed into the Malaysia Federation under unfavorable terms.

The Singapore's Red Lion...

The British troops had remained in Singapore following our independence.  However, in 1968, London announced its decision to withdraw its forces by 1971. Again we had no choice but to set out to build up our own military, called the Singapore Armed Forces, and a national service programme was also introduced in 1967 by the late Dr Goh Keng Swee.

We immediately sought international recognition of our sovereignty by joining the United Nations. Singapore became the 117th member of the UN on 21 September 1965. In October that same year, we became a part of the Commonwealth nations.

As a small island nation, we were seen as inadequate to be a viable country and much of the international media was skeptical of the prospects for our survival. Besides the issue of sovereignty, other pressing problems included unemployment, housing, education, and the lack of natural resources and land. Unemployment at that time ranged between 10-12%, threatening to trigger civil unrest.

Salute to the President....

My childhood was filled with hardships and uncertainties, but also filled with a sense of freedom.  Life was hard, but I never had to beg for my meals.

Faced with severe unemployment and a housing crisis, we embarked on a modernisation programme that focused on establishing a manufacturing industry, developing large public housing estates and investing heavily on public education. Since independence, our economy has grown by an average of nine percent each year. By the 1990s, we have become one of the world’s most prosperous nations, with a highly-developed free market economy, strong international trading links, and the highest per capita gross domestic product in Asia outside of Japan.

The enemy's nightmare...

The Black Knight....

We managed to find a workable formula to achieve peace, and that led to progress, prosperity and happiness. We have spent a great deal of effort and huge sums of money to achieve and maintain our peace. Without that, we would never have had a place we can call home (of our own), and the opportunity to work hard towards progress, achieving prosperity and securing happiness.

Isn’t that the same principle with our life?

If we want to be happy, we must first seek to have a peace of mind. To achieve that peace of mind is not an easy task.  We need to invest huge amount of effort, time, and sacrifices to reach and maintain that state of being. Only when we have achieved that state of being, that we can then progress, prosper and achieve our happiness in a sustainable way.

the old and the new National Theatres....

Our mind is constantly bombarded by many adverse external elements, such as greed, that leads us to possessiveness and wanting more of everything; jealousy that leads us to anger and creating strains in relationships; envy that leads us to emotional imbalance and many sleepless nights…

To achieve a peace of mind, we must first seek to be integrated – our body, mind and soul have to be integrated into one entity and function as one. Only then will we be able to think as one, feel as one and live as one. Meditation is one way that can enable us to be integrated. A meditative state of being can be achieved by practicing Yoga, Zhineng Qigong or meditative sex.

Once we are integrated, we will be much more aware of ourselves, and of the things around us. We will understand why this world is not free, although it may appear to be free on the surface. The truth is that there are contradictions everywhere in life, and that these will ultimately all converge, such as life meeting death, day meeting night, love meeting hate, and yes meeting no. Our conscience is really not that of our own, but influenced and perhaps even created by society as a result of the domestication process since the day we were born.

Once we are aware of all these contradictions, we will transcend beyond the boundaries, to a state of being where we can embrace all these contradictions in a holistic way. Only then will we not have to make choices. We can then exist in a state of “choicelessness” but remain silently aware that these contradictions will eventually converge and become one. We know yes is no longer yes, and no is no longer no.  All these are absolutely indefinable because where yes and no meet is inconceivable, and this is the state of transcendence, a state of real peace which is beyond our mind.