As this year comes to a close, we pay special recognition to the many great people in Singapore who have helped to make our nation-state the wonderful place it is.

And so, we bring you Mothership.sg's list of 15 Singaporeans who did their jobs well in 2015:

1. All the Singaporeans who facilitated various aspects of the late Lee Kuan Yew's wake and funeral

Like these guys distributing umbrellas:

And these folks from the SCDF:

And these NSFs who set up the queue tents across the Padang so Singaporeans didn't faint from heat stroke:

And these folks who managed the queue lines and helped to extract elderly visitors to the priority queue:

And these folks who stood around, round-the-clock, signalling the queue waiting time:

And MediaCorp which brought us quality live coverage of the funeral in the heavy rain.

They received praise from Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong recently:

"On the day of the State Funeral, despite a heavy downpour, your camera crews stayed in position in the heavy rain to get the footage for viewers and the whole nation was watching. In all these events, you delivered what was needed and more, and gave of your best to serve Singaporeans. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your hard work."

2. The Singapore Airlines cabin crew who help passengers in need cut up their food for them:

She isn't the only one — apart from this, there are many other reasons Singapore Airlines is a great way to fly. :)

 

3. Ho Ching, by revealing more about herself to the public, has done more than any PR folks at improving her own image this year:

Say what you like about her, but PM Lee's wife has in 2015 made great strides in the public eye — in particular, through her Facebook activity.

Like the time she corrected blind critics of Temasek Holdings's performance, and the time she showed she's a comforting wife, mom and friend.

Earlier this year, she posted four short sentences that garnered more than 850 likes and 45 shares in seven hours, sealing her status as a social media influencer.

In the wake of the Paris attacks, she was the voice of reason that explained the outpouring of grief over them as opposed to the killings in Lebanon.

And most recently, during her Korean holiday with her husband, she poetically charmed her Facebook followers — and the photo above? 'Nuff said.

 

4. The Botanic Gardens, for becoming a UNESCO heritage site:

The 156-year-old garden is the nation's first UNESCO heritage site.

5. DPM Tharman Shanmugaratnam, for being so dxxxxx good at his job:

We all know this already, but here's a recap of some of the impactful things he did this year:

- Budget 2015, a mammoth effort he's taken the lead on every year since becoming Finance Minister eight years ago;

- Sucker-punching a sharp-shooting news anchor from BBC at an international forum;

- How he outdoes everyone he's around just by being there;

- That epic speech during the September hustings that everyone remembers now;

- Successfully leading his team to outdoing the performance of his own boss;

- Taking on that epic coordinating minister role (which basically oversees all the country's key ministries);

And the fun things he did, like this stunt at a boring tree-planting ceremony.

 

6. The foreign worker who did a pull-up to save a toddler:

Yeah, he's not Singaporean, but doesn't he deserve citizenship just for doing this?

 

7. All the times us keyboard warriors came together to do good

To raise funds for this old man who was conned of his life savings, as well as the family of this guy. Just to name two.

 

8. Chee Soon Juan, who became one of GE2015's biggest stories

Why? Read this.

Curious to know more? Buy/read his books.

 

9. Serina Wee: for maintaining her chio in times of distress

Even though she (and oh yeah, the five other City Harvest Church leaders) lost the trial against her (and them) for funds misappropriation and falsification of accounts.

She was later sentenced to five years' jail, but maintained her chio despite the prosecution appealing to up it.

See? Still chio.

 

10. Sharon Tan, for adding the most value to her appearance

This is what Sharon Tan looked like when we first met her at the start of the City Harvest Church case:

And here she is, at the close of the case:

Something's changed, and we can't put a finger on what, but we're definitely okay with it.

 

11. Davinder Singh, for jaywalking between Parliament and the Supreme Court like a boss...

Watch the whole video below:

[video width="426" height="236" mp4="https://cdn.mothership.sg/1/2015/12/jaywalking2-2.mp4"][/video]

And well, also for being the epic lawyer he is and skewering Roy Ngerng in court in July.

 

12. Ambassador-at-large Bilahari Kausikan, for being the diplomat who got into the most number of fights

2015 is the year for Bilahari to get into fights...

a) against European officials:

b) against Malaysian opposition politicians:

Their exchange inspired a Malaysian academic to wade into the fray too.

c) against veteran editor:

d) and most recently, against Singaporean opposition politician:

Well played, Ambassador Bilahari — we were well amused.

 

13. The late Lee Kuan Yew's memoirs, for being among top-selling non-fiction books this year

This:

As well as these:

And also this:

All flew off the shelves at local bookstores this year, especially in the weeks and months following the late founding Prime Minister's passing.

Getting Singaporeans to finally read. How's that for a posthumous achievement?

 

14. That RSAF female officer

Who runs faster than you, can do more push-ups and sit-ups than you, and basically make you feel like a sad sack of potatoes.

#fitnessgoals for 2016, maybe? Okay, we'll be realistic. 2075.

 

And lastly,

15. Ex-Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew — for pulling a 180-degree switch on his public image through one swift action

Alas, it is indeed regrettable that it is only through resigning that a minister can go from fly-on-the-wall who is the target of everyone's complaints, abuse and criticism (to put it mildly):

To this:

Just look at all the tributes that came in — from train enthusiasts to fellow MPs and ministers. He even managed to melt our cold, dead hearts, turning us into more thoughtful and appreciative humans.

And hey, he may not have always positioned himself at the right train stations, but at least he did it quietly and without fanfare.

Plus, as we shared in our tribute to him, he did deliver the now-open Downtown Line 2 stations (here are 15 places to go for food along the line, btw) to us from his efforts during his term.

So take a bow, Mr Lui — you did good.

 

Top photo from City News.

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