Singapore: Singapore marked 50 years of independence yesterday with nationwide celebrations including a huge military parade and fireworks display besides paying tribute to founding leader Lee Kuan Yew.
Some 250,000 spectators took part in festivities from 6:00pm which will include some 2,000 marchers, 50 military aircraft and 177 tanks and other security hardware. The procession, were capped by a fireworks display, the high point of a jubilee year largely choreographed and funded by the government, which is expected to call for general elections soon to extend its rule against a divided opposition.
The celebrations kicked off yesterday morning when sirens blared at 9:00am before national TV and radio stations broadcast a 2012 recording of Lee Kuan Yew reading the declaration of independence. “At 50 years, as we stand at a high base camp, we look back and marvel at how far we have come,” Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said.
The prime ministers of Malaysia and Thailand, along with Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla will attend along with officials from China, Australia and Japan.
Former colonial ruler Britain will be represented by Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and Prince Andrew, while the United States has sent former trade representative Ron Kirk.
Lee Hsien Loong, who took over as premier in 2004, on Saturday said the festivities will “celebrate how we turned vulnerabilities into strengths” and “journeyed from third world to first”.
The People’s Action Party, co-founded by Lee, ruled since independence and is credited with turning Singapore into one of the world’s richest countries. But it has also been criticised for silencing free speech, including by detaining political opponents or launching punative legal actions against them.
Lee, a British-trained lawyer, came to power in 1959 as prime minister when Britain granted the island a degree of self rule and stayed as premier until 1990.
AFP
