Singapore, Aug 9 (PTI) Singapore celebrated 60 years of independence, SG60, with a National Day Parade (NDP) by the Armed Forces and civil units at the Padang on Saturday, marking the diamond jubilee of the city
state.
President Tharman Shanmugaratnam led the celebration, joined by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, his cabinet members and the members of parliament.
Singaporeans, dressed in “Red” being considered a lucky national colour, crowded around the Padang, a main field in the central business district facing the waterfront of the posh Marina Bay, for a first-hand view of the colourful parade.
Leaders of three neighbouring countries were among the guests at the NDP. Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Rural and Regional Development Zahid Hamidi joined the Singaporeans at the celebrations.
Also present at the celebration was the Regent of Johor State of Malaysia, Tunku Ismail. The southernmost state, Johor, is linked to Singapore with two land bridges and is now part of the growing regional economic corridor with the city state.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has also congratulated Singapore on the 60th NDP.
“Congratulate FM Vivian Balakrishnan, the Government and people of Singapore on their 60th National Day. Cherish our enduring friendship and multifaceted cooperation,” he said in a post on social media, shared by the High Commission of India here.
Singaporeans also witnessed military hardware display and the follow-on display of State Flag Flypast by the Air Force, as well as “drop-in” at the venue by the parachutists.
The traditional gun salutes were fired to celebrate the prosperity of the island-turned-cosmopolitan city over the past six decades, which has hosted the best corporate and talent from around the world.
Spectacular military formations, heartfelt anthems about Singapore and magnificent aerial displays by the Singapore Armed Forces Parachute Team or Red Lions were telecast live across the island of over six million people of multi-ethnicity.
The celebration was lit up by fireworks over the Marina Bay after sunset over the lighted-up city centre towers, which host global multinational corporations, demonstrating the city-state’s status as an Asian financial hub.
In an interesting twist to the National Day celebration, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) shared an Instagram reel of a Tamil song from the movie “Coolie”, on Aug 8. The reel captioned “Reporting for NDP 2025 duties” has taken social media by storm, racking up more than 4.3 million views in just over 20 hours, according to media reports here.
The reel features a catchy Tamil track titled “Powerhouse’, composed by music director Anirudh Ravichander from India’s Tamil film industry. Tamil is one of Singapore’s four official languages – the other being English, Mandarin and Malay. PTI GS RD RD RD
