Endoh’s Dungeon

As all of us knew by now, it was drizzling as Singapore celebrated her 43rd birthday. I can’t remember when it was the last time it actually rained on a National Day’s Parade. It must have been quite a long time. For some, it was a cooling weather but on another hand, the rain didn’t really cool some Singaporeans like myself. That’s precisely why I am asking, if the sky is crying for Singapore.

Some of you would have noticed the Youtube video that had been circulating around. In the video, Singapore’s Table Tennis hopeful, Lee Jia Wei, was seen allowing the national flag to be dragged along the ground as she led the Singapore contingent during the Olympic Games opening ceremony. Much like some fellow Singaporeans who were outraged, I am equally upset why such an incident happened in the first place.

The incident brought back fond memories of my army days, when sometimes I had to perform flag lowering and raising alongside the Company and Brigade Orderly Sergeants. The first rule I was taught by my seniors, was never… NEVER… ever… EVER… allow the national and formation flags to touch the ground. For a simple fact, if anyone (especially officers) caught us, be mentally prepared to sign endless extras. That’s, no questions asked!

Every year, we are also reminded how not to hang our flags when it is time to do so for Singapore’s National Day. All these, for the plain simple reason of respecting our state flag. A simple piece of fabric in red and white, a crescent and five stars. They represented the entire Singapore. A flag that cannot be missed in the modern world, even though we are nothing more than a “small red dot”.

I’m beginning to read some defenses for Lee and even though the reasons of her physical attributes were valid, I still cannot accept such an incident. Considering the Olympic Games and National Day were barely a day apart, you can be sure Singaporeans will be watching both events even more closely. Given such circumstances, little wonder why Singaporeans are infuriated.

Personally, I felt that it was a regret that the athletes had to be overseas and were unavailable to celebrate National Day on our own soil. That’s by no choice of theirs, representing Singapore in an international sports event. The best thing we can do, is to support their cause there. Yet, this is what we see.

She might be aware, she might not be. No other Singapore athletes alerted her to the disrespectful act too. Still, it shouldn’t happen. Between another blogger and I, we had a little discussion which she asked if anyone actually briefed her about the Do’s and Don’ts. My answer was rather simple, as the flag bearer it is your responsibility to know what you should do. If you’re unsure, then that is your job to check out the details. To blame it on the possibility of not being briefed, it’s as good as shirking responsibilities.

Of course, I love analogies. With my points above was another analogy, that, ignorance of the law does not render you any less guilty.

If the incident alone wasn’t enough, there’s plenty more to offend you even further. The mistake was published in AsiaOne News, with a picture bearing the logo of Stomp. Don’t worry, you will not find the original Stomp article anymore. The moderators had deleted the article with such swift efficiency, that you wished they could keep that same professionalism with many other senseless topics in Stomp.

Interestingly, both AsiaOne and Stomp are managed by Singapore Press Holdings. Now, it appeared as though there are two different standards and journalism principles between entities held by the same company. AsiaOne thinks it is news worthy, Stomp seemed to oppose to that notion. Perhaps, this tells us what the Stomp moderators are really made of.

Back to the “mopping of the Beijing Olympics Stadium” with Singapore’s national flag, there is no way how some of us can accept this incident. If you are unable to live up to the responsibilities, don’t even ask for the job.