A letter of my own.

This section is dedicated to the letters I myself have sent in to the Straits Times forum. There are only two in recent memory, and I can only find one at the moment, so here it is.

You might remember Singapore’s glorious victory in winning the rights to host a certain inaugural minor sporting event. Much was made of that, and my brother and I reacted to some of the sickeningly saccharine tributes appearing in the forum pages by penning the below letter. I sent it in, and in case you are wondering, I did sign off with my real, full, name in doing so.

It was a test as to whether, as it seemed at that time, our august national broadsheet would publish any piece of crap coming its way, so long as it contained a singular scrap of positivity regarding our great national triumph. We decided not to take the route of publicly declaring our support for child molesters while praising the sublime achievement, but rather to send in a letter so incredibly over-the-top that its publication would confirm the complete lack of credibility of any “editor” of the forum page.

To our national newspaper’s eternal credit, this one never saw the light of day in print.

 

I refer to the letter “One small step for the Games, one giant feat for Singapore” by Mr Martin Tan (ST Forum, Feb 23).

Like Mr Tan, I am a patriotic, red-blooded Singaporean who has never shied away from celebrating the wondrous achievements of our young and rising nation. I too awaited the results of the Youth Olympic Games bid with the utmost eagerness and anticipation.

When the appointed hour came, I sat myself down before my television set, dressed appropriately in the national colours, with the NDP ’07 cap upon my head and minature Singapore flags in both hands. I was determined that, whether Singapore won or lost the bid, I would continue to uphold national pride and dignity, as should be required of any citizen of this great and glorious nation-state.

As the seconds ticked down, the tension became unbearable. My mouth went dry and my heart could not stop thumping. Nervous sweat dripped from my face. It had all come right down to this very moment, and nothing else mattered to me now but victory.

“Singapore.”

It took a couple of seconds for the word to register. When it finally sank in, tears welled up within my eyes; tears of pride and joy. We had done it. We had done it as a nation united, a country 4 million strong but with one unbreakable will. Victory was finally ours, after months of ceaseless struggle and toil. I got to my feet, the tears coursing down my cheeks, and despite the lack of any accompaniment began to sing our much loved community song “Stand Up for Singapore”. I sang loudly and proudly, unabashed in my patriotic joy, right hand rigidly raised in salute to those whose unabridged sacrifices had made this greatest of feats possible.

I had never felt so proud to be Singaporean. Our tiny island, for so many years an insignificant pimple upon the Earth’s surface, had done the unthinkable, the historic, the monumental, the truly incredible. We had achieved what no other country, no matter the greatness of their history or the wealth of their people, had ever achieved. We had won hosting rights to the inaugural Youth Olympic Games. It was a stunning triumph which would long endure in global consciousness.

I sang on, further raising my voice in love and respect for this truly amazing country I am so fortunate to be able to call home. Four million people with one collective soul – the future is ours for the taking.

One People, One Nation, One Singapore.