Daily Lesson from Life 25 February 2009

" What's worth giving up your life for? Wed, Feb 25, 2009 The Straits Times

Defence is key

I FEEL strongly about securing the military defence of our nation, not only for the present generation, but also for generations to come.

It is with all seriousness that I will always be faithful to my Specialist Creed: 'I will defend Singapore WITH MY LIFE!'

Nicholas Lim, 19, has a place in NTU's Nanyang Business School

Protect racial harmony

DO NOT let the 1964 race riots fade from memory. When racial tensions simmered to the fore, there were chaos and bloodshed throughout the streets of Singapore.

With a multitude of races rubbing shoulders alongside one another in tiny Singapore, harmony is crucial to the continuity of peace and prosperity. If it were to break down, life here would not be bearable.


Truly, racial harmony is something I'll defend with my life.

Nurul Jannah, 19, is a third-year Media and Communications student at Singapore Polytechnic


My family first

THE truth is, if Singapore were faced with a mortal crisis, my first thought would be to protect my family and myself. One of the shared values in National Education is 'society above self' - but this runs counter to gut instinct, whether or not we admit it.


My sense of self-preservation and pragmatism so greatly outweighs abstract notions such as patriotism and selflessness that I can scarcely imagine myself laying down my life to defend anything outside my inner family circle.

Eugene Ang, 19, has a place to read Law and Economics at NUS


Ideals worth defending

IF ANYONE were to defend something with his life, it should be the ideals and principles that allow him to attain his fullest potential.


Examples such as Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Tibet prove that it is all too common for those in power to institutionalise discrimination, snatching the fruits of labour out of the hands of those who earned and deserved it.

Singapore, on the other hand, has always heeded the sweet call of egalitarianism. Everything that I have gained in life is a fair reward for my efforts, and possible because of pragmatic meritocracy.


Eef Gerard Van Emmerik, 20, has a place to read Law at SMU this year."

A long quote indeed. 4 reasons why these young lady and gentlemen will defend with their lives. Each has it's merits. Each has his or her reasons. Each firmly believed they are right!

There lies the beauty of diversity. Accepting reasons from all and sundries. The truth is, the question is a faulty one. There is NO ONE thing you will defend with your life. There are a number of interrelated and interconnected things or people that we need to defend with our lives. OK. Not with our lives but to be very firm and persistent so that when we failed to keep to one of them, the other majority will still guide us to do the right things!

Lessons for me are:

1. accept diversity is good. At the same time it also means you have to accept reasons of doing certain things that run counter-intuitive from your own response;

2. hence the need to fully understand and appreciate why others hold those different views and behave differently from you;

3. most critically, if you are the leader, you need to help these diverse group of people to realize that actually all that they hold dear and will defend with their lives need to include those that the other person hold dear and will defend with their lives. The simple reason being: their lives are interconnected and interrelated. Moving one of them will cause ripples and repercussion across the whole group. A group that live side-by-side and cheek-to-cheek!

May Singaporeans defend with their lives the values and things that their fellow citizens hold dear! e.g. defense must be strong, racial harmony must be there, meritocracy without arrogance, and the importance of family!