Mothership Memo is Mothership’s daily brief on the important headlines of the day. We will also contribute our views on the issues at hand.

No National Day Parade 2014 Theme song

There will be no new National Day Parade (NDP) theme song this year. Instead, the NDP 2014 committee will use old, familiar NDP songs to complement this year's theme, Our People, Our Home.

According to executive committee chairman Colonel Wong Yu Han, "this year's theme is about celebrating our people who have the will to stand up for our independence, and who care for each other".

Singapore's 49th birthday will be held at the Marina Bay Floating Platform on Aug 9.

The NDP theme song is a practice that goes back at least 16 years. It is brave of the NDP committee to break with tradition. Was the NDP Committee concerned that Singaporeans would find fault in the new theme song? 

The NDP theme song is an important national platform to showcase Singapore musical talents, from its song composition, lyrics to performance. Every local singer worth their salt have sung an NDP theme song. Stephanie Sun? NDP Songs 2002 & 2003. Corrine May? NDP Song 2010. Hady Mirza? NDP Song 2008? Taufik Batisah? NDP Song 2005.

Even when Singaporeans panned the songs, they served as creative outlets for budding musicians to showcase their talents - check out Pitch Feather's cover of last year's NDP song.

Anyway, NDP committee's move should not discourage local talents from composing their own National Day songs. The most prominent success story was singer-songwriter Shabir Tabare Alam who funded, composed and sang a Tamil National Day song, before it was finally accepted by the NDP committee. PM Lee had also supported such initiatives from local musicians. In 2012, he highlighted this folksy National Day song and helped to make it viral. 

Two new applicants for NMP post

Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM) General Manager Dr William Wan and pre-school teacher trainer Philip Koh have submitted their applications for the post of Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP). Applicants will go through a Special Select Committee chaired by Speaker Halimah Yacob. Successful candidates will be recommended to President Tony Tan, who will appoint the NMPs.

As the spokesperson of the SKM, Wan has written several letters and commentaries published in the newspapers on how Singapore can improve in kindness and graciousness. Perhaps being an NMP will help put Singapore's current state of kindness and graciousness on Parliament's agenda.

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