The annual National Day Rally (NDR) will be held this Sunday, Aug. 20, and it looks like Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has been busy preparing his speeches.

Held every year since the first anniversary of Singapore's independence in 1966, this year's NDR will be Singapore's 52nd.

The NDR has come a very long way. But what was it like way back in 1966 when founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) delivered the first ever NDR speech?

Unlike in the present day, where the NDR is held after the National Day Parade, NDR 1966 took place on the eve of the first National Day - August 8, 1966.

And while the recent NDRs have been held at ITE Central in Ang Mo Kio since 2013, the venue back in 1966 was the National Theatre, which no longer exists today.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="460"] The old National Theatre. Source: Wikipedia[/caption]

NDR 1966 had a distinctly different character from the present day NDR

The rally speech delivered by LKY was made during an interval between a line-up of various cultural performances, as shown in this snippet from a Straits Times article dated August 10, 1966:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="768"] National Day Rally & Cultural Show 1966. Source: NAS[/caption]

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What did LKY say at that NDR?

Speaking in Malay, English, and Hokkien, LKY kept his speeches short. His English speech had only about 1,564 words, compared to Lee Hsien Loong's English speech at last year's NDR, which hit about 14,000.

In total, LKY's first NDR speeches lasted only about 37 minutes, in contrast to two hours in the present day.

Multiracialism was the overarching theme of LKY's short speech.

No regrets in being separated from Malaysia for belief in multiracialism

After a brief recap on how Singapore separated from Malaysia in the previous year, LKY had this to say:

"It is useful this evening not so much to go back to the past – the whys and the wherefores – to apportion blame but more to search deep into our hearts to ask if the things we set out to do were right or wrong; were good or bad. And I say that we have no regrets.

We are completely unrepentant that we set out to build a multiracial and, for some time, a multilingual, multicultural community, to give a satisfying life to the many different kinds of people who foregathered here in over 150 years of the British Raj.

And we, in the end, on balance decided to carry on with our multiracial experiment – if you like to call it – just in Singapore alone rather than be forced into large-scale conflict in Malaysia. Nothing has altered, not the basic data nor our basic thinking. What has altered are the circumstances in which we now find ourselves."

 Singapore's economy was surging forward

There was progress in spite of everything:

"From 1961 to 1963, we fought for merger, to sink ourselves in the identity of a bigger whole. Between 1963 and 1965, we found ourselves gradually embroiled in something which we half suspected but never quite admitted was possible within such a multi-racial situation. And in 1965, with decisive suddenness, we found ourselves asunder.

All the while, despite all the political unpleasantness that followed, we were making progress. Imports went up and so did exports.These are facts and figures, not fictions of the imagination of my colleague, the Minister for Finance.

They have checked against every indent that goes in and out of the Port of Singapore Authority. They have checked against our revenue on the same rates of taxation; the number of factories, the people they employ, the goods they produce, their value; the housing being built. And they tell a story which we have very little to be ashamed of. Almost in spite of ourselves, we have forged ahead; revenue has gone up 10 per cent; the economy is surging forward."

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="512"] Source: NAS[/caption]

Racial harmony through "integration"

LKY called for racial "integration", instead of "assimilation":

"We believed – and we still believe – that that salvation lies in an integrated society. I use the word advisedly – 'integrated' as against 'assimilated'. I would not imagine for one moment a Singapore Government trying to assimilate everybody. You know, 75 percent Chinese trying to convert 10 percent Tamils and Hindus and Tamil Muslims and Northern Indian Muslims into good ‘Chinamen’ – or not even good old Chinamen: good old ‘Overseas Chinese’, Singapore brand, Singapore type.

I would not try it; it is not worth the effort. Nor would I try it with the other groups. Certainly, not my colleague like Encik Othman who has been here for many, many generations; or even my colleague like Tuan Haji Ya’acob from Kelantan where he was born.

Why should we try the impossible? But I say integration is possible – not to make us one grey mass against our will, against our feelings, against our inclinations, but to integrate us with common values, common attitudes, a common outlook, certainly a common language and eventually, a common culture."

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="768"] Source: NAS[/caption]

The call for Singapore society to be "integrated" still persists today. Here's what Lee Hsien Loong said in his 2012 NDR:

"Singaporeans have to show a generosity of spirit to one another, including to the new arrivals. And the new arrivals also have to make the effort to embrace our values, to commit themselves to Singapore and to integrate into our community. We will welcome into our midst, into our family but you must make the effort too. There are success stories in integration." 

Setting the stage for future NDRs

The reason the NDR is held every year since then is laid out in these two separate paragraphs of LKY's speech:

"I think it is reassuring on an anniversary to weigh the odds to see how we have performed, the promises against the performances. And my experiences of Singapore and her young, active, energetic if somewhat exuberant people is that given honest and effective leadership, an honest administration within which to bring forth themselves, they will make the grade."

"Every year, on this 9th August for many years ahead – how many, I do not know – we will dedicate ourselves anew to consolidate ourselves to survive; and, most important of all, to find an enduring future for what we have built and what our forebears will build up. Thank you."

There was no live telecast of 1966's NDR. It was only in 1971 that the live telecast of the NDR began.

You can watch LKY delivering Singapore's first-ever NDR speeches from the National Archives' site here.

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Top image from NAS.

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