Speech by Minister for Defence Chan Chun Sing at the Tanjong Pagar GRC, Queenstown and Radin Mas SMCs’ 61st National Day Dinner on 15 Aug 2026 at Tanjong Pagar Community Club

Dear Residents of Tanjong Pagar GRC and Queenstown and Radin Mas SMCs,

A very good evening to all of you, and thank you for joining us tonight for our nation’s 61st birthday. In the usual Tanjong Pagar tradition, this is an occasion, a special dinner, where we take time to reflect on our journey as a nation, and also to look ahead and reaffirm our commitment to building a better future for Singapore. For those of you who have come to this dinner regularly over the past few years and during Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s time, you would know that this is the time when we have frank conversations on both our challenges and our opportunities for Singapore. Tonight will be no different.

Let me start in our national language, Malay, first. For those of you who may not understand Malay, do not worry. Tonight, I prepared some translations for you on the screen.

Malay

Selamat petang, dan terima kasih semua kerana bersama-sama hadir di sini.

Sedang kita melangkah ke dekad baharu ini, kita boleh berbangga dengan bagaimana masyarakat kita terus berkembang, tahun demi tahun, mengalahkan mana-mana statistik.

Sedekad yang lalu, seramai 6 daripada 10 belia Melayu berumur 25 hingga 34 tahun mempunyai kelayakan posmenengah atau lebih tinggi. Hari ini, angka itu adalah 8 daripada 10 orang — sementara bilangan yang memperoleh ijazah universiti telah berganda. Di seluruh masyarakat, penjawatan dalam pekerjaan profesional, pengurusan dan teknikal telah meningkat daripada kira-kira seperempat kepada hampir empat dalam 10 dalam masa sepuluh tahun sahaja.

Semua ini tidak berlaku dengan sendirinya. Ia memerlukan usaha keluarga, organisasi seperti MENDAKI yang bekerja secara senyap di sebalik tabir, dan pemerintah yang terus melabur — tahun demi tahun, generasi demi generasi. Pertumbuhan stabil ini paling ketara dalam kalangan para pemimpin yang telah dihasilkan oleh masyarakat kita — pemimpin yang bukan sahaja berkhidmat untuk masyarakat Melayu, bahkan juga seluruh Singapura.

Anugerah Hari Kebangsaan tahun ini telah menampilkan ramai daripada masyarakat Melayu, yang telah membanggakan negara. Contohnya – Dr Iskandar Jalil dan Dr Ab Razak bin Chanbasha. Selain mereka, pucuk pimpinan masyarakat kita ternyata merangkumi seluruh bidang seni hinggalah sains, menunjukkan kekuatan dan kepelbagaian para pemimpin Melayu kita.

Kekuatan sesebuah masyarakat bukan sahaja diukur oleh pemimpin yang dekat dengannya. Ia diukur oleh pemimpin yang diberikan masyarakat tersebut kepada seluruh negara. Saya amat berbesar hati dengan pertumbuhan masyarakat Melayu dan saya menggalakkannya supaya terus berkembang dan cemerlang. Terima kasih.

Now, let me continue in Mandarin.

Mandarin

大家晚上好。今天的华语分享只有八个字。我们现在在丹戎巴葛，希望看到 ‘老有所养，老有所为’。

‘老有所养’是新加坡政府对人民的承诺。不管是建国一代，或者是立国一代，只要国家在我们的有限能力范围之内，我们一定承诺把我们的年长者照顾好。这不只是一个政治领袖的承诺，政治团队的承诺，更重要的是，这也显示了我们东方人的优良传统，就是尊老敬贤。所以在场的每一位年长者，你可以放心。

大家都知道，最近世界局势是挺乱的，生活费也不断地高涨。不过我们可以肯定地和大家分享，只要我们的经济继续不断繁荣成长，我们将会把现有的资源好好地处理，跟大家一起分享，更好地去照顾我们年长者，也更好地照顾有需要的新加坡人。在接下来的日子里，财政部将会继续把我们的财政资源管好。在可能的范围之内，不管是CDC补助券还是其他的帮助方面，我们会继续照顾好我们的年长者，还有我们的弱势群体。所以不管是在公积金方面，或者在其他种种补助计划方面，我们也会继续地做到这一点。‘老有所养’这一点在这八个字里面是相对容易的，因为只要我们同心协力，我们就能把有限的资源管理好。

不过今晚我要着重的是接下来的四个字，‘老有所为’。在选区里走动的时候，很常看到有许多其实没有那么老的人，都来跟我讲说：“我已经老了，我已经老了。每次我听到这句话，我就跟他们说，姜是越老越辣 - 你现在没有超过一百岁，不能说是老。所以不要以为退休了之后就没有用了。反而，退休了之后还是有一段很长的路可以走，还是可以继续为国家和社区做出贡献。我们在丹戎巴葛集选区，在女皇镇也有许多的试点计划帮助我们年长者，不只是照顾好，是更好地利用他们的资源和他们的精力来帮助其他的弱势群体，也帮助其他比他们更老的年长者。所以这是我们希望看到的。

政府会继续把我们的年长者照顾好。不过，我们也希望我们的年长者也能踏出一步，更好地利用你的时间、精力，还有更重要的是你人生的历练，来帮助社会有需要的一群，好不好？所以今天在场的所有年长者，以后你见到我，你不要说你老，你要跟我说：“我是姜，我是越老越辣，我越老，可以做得越多，做得更好。好不好？

English

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me now continue in English.

The world around us is indeed undergoing profound changes. Tonight, I want to share three sets of challenges of challenges and opportunities that we as fellow Singaporeans must pay attention to. Today, it is not an exaggeration to say that the world is a much more dangerous world relative to our past decades. Yet, today, it is a world that Singapore can emerge stronger, if we continue to get our act together. I will speak about the challenges and opportunities in three domains: our security, our economic livelihoods and our cohesion.

Navigating a Changing World

First, our security. In my mind, it is quite obvious that big power contestations will intensify. They will increasingly deal with others in a transactional manner from their narrow interests rather than to uphold a global system that they do not feel benefits them adequately or as they wish. Beyond their own geopolitical and economic contestations, we can increasingly expect them to want us to be on their side. Their question – “are you with me or with the other side” – will become increasingly common. As I have shared in previous Tanjong Pagar Dinners, those who are irrelevant will have to choose sides. Those who choose sides will soon become irrelevant.

We should be cleared eye that we cannot expect others to deal with us on the basis of sympathy or charity. Instead, we must have real capabilities, and our own value-adding propositions and perspectives for others to take us seriously and want to work with us as a responsible, reliable and trusted partner. And so, the path ahead for us is clearly set out. We have to remain closely connected with the rest of the world, whether they agree with us or not. We must deeply understand how the major and other powers interact with one another. We must understand not just what they do, but more importantly, why they do what they do. Only so can we develop propositions that can make Singapore a desired partner.

Now, this requires us to be realistic about our own capabilities and imaginative about what is possible. Let us be honest, we will not be able, nor should we, try to fulfil every demand that others place upon us. But we must be able to offer alternatives that make others want to work with us, especially, or even, when there are things that we do not agree on or we cannot fulfil their desires on us. Where differences exist, we must work to manage them and to see and try our best if we can redirect the negative energies into something more constructive. Where common ground can be found, we must continue to grow them. This is how we must remain relevant, not just to the two big major powers, but also to all other countries, the medium powers, or the smaller countries who might want to consider working with us.

This is the reason why the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF), and all the other ministries are making sure that our officials, not just the political appointment holders, continue to actively travel, connect, and host other people in Singapore so that we can glean a deeper understanding of the reasons behind what they are doing. Through that, we hope to be able to find win-win solutions that can advance Singapore's interests.

Adapting to Economic Shifts

Second, I think many of us tonight will also be increasingly concerned about our economic livelihoods. With all the technological disruptions, all the geopolitical tensions, the weaponisation of the supply chains, or even the weaponisation of geography, one should be rightfully concerned about the prospect of our economy. Yet at the same time, in this month at least, we have good news. We have continued to grow strongly despite the difficulties. The question is: can we continue to sustain such a strong and positive economic growth trajectory so that we can continue to create good jobs with good pay for fellow Singaporeans?

To safeguard our economic future, we must continue to diversify our supply chains and markets so that we can never be held ransom by any single dependency. This is not theory. This is things that we have to do each and every day, not just by MTI, but also by all our companies in Singapore. This is to make sure that we stay out of trouble, to stay out of other people's fight, while we continue to fulfil our commercial promises with other countries and other companies.

However, in a turbulent world, stability, consistency in policy and execution, the rule of law, and many of our man-made competitive advantages will count even more. Let's take the turbulence in the energy markets as an example. Our consistent build-up of our energy security and being a trusted node in the global energy supply chains have helped us to grapple with the turmoil much better than many other countries. Yes, in recent weeks and months, our energy prices have also gone up, but unlike many other places in the region and beyond, we are still able to get our supplies. In many places around the world, not only have prices gone up, even with the prices going up, many places were not able to secure their energy supplies.

This is not something that happened by chance. This is something that we have invested quietly over the past many decades, building up Jurong Island to be part of the global energy supply chain, building up the related industries for us to be a global energy trading hub. That even in the toughest of times, we will continue to have access to energy supplies, notwithstanding the price increase. But all this would not have been able to be achieved if we have not been consistent in our policy, nor in our execution to attract global companies to come here to work with our local companies to develop our energy resilience.

All these opportunities did not come easy nor come by chance. They come from years of consistent investment and execution, and ultimately, as they say, fortune only favours the prepared. Only those who are prepared will be deemed to be lucky, but hope is not a method, and hope is not something that we think we will just depend on. On the other hand, Singapore must continue to create value propositions that make Singapore harder to bypass. I say harder to bypass because there is no one thing that will allow Singapore an eternal competitive advantage. It is something that we have to work on, and once we have it, someone else will try to bypass us, overtake us, or make us less critical as a node. That is just the nature of global economics. This is something that we have to keep working on and never think that we have arrived.

To do so, Singapore must continue to stay open. Since independence, our success has been built on our openness not just to trade but also to talent and ideas. In these uncertain times, we cannot turn inwards out of fear. We must continue to stay open and connected so that we can attract the best investments, build globally competitive industry, and create good jobs for fellow Singaporeans, especially the younger generation.

The recent parliamentary debate on whether we should depend more on global or local enterprises is a false dichotomy. Our local and global enterprises work together and reinforce each other's value proposition as an integrated system for us to compete with the rest of the world. The real competition is Singapore with the rest of the world, and the competition is not between local and foreign companies in Singapore. Furthermore, we must always remember that we operate and compete as an integrated Singapore system with countries that are much bigger, much better endowed than us, and this is where we have our job cut out for us. But we never compete on the basis of size or price. We compete on the basis of our promise, our ability to deliver on our promise in a timely manner. We compete on our ability to innovate and our speed and consistency of execution. These are our man-made competitive advantages that we must continue to build upon. The rule of law, stability, cohesion, education, and security.

All these we must not take for granted because other countries will be eager to disrupt, if not overtake us, if we ever become complacent. I understand the concerns about the rising cost of living and the disruption of jobs caused by technology and geopolitics. Many of you would have seen your electricity bills go up this quarter, 17%, alongside a 7% rise in gas. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is also changing the way industries operate and how companies hire and fire, and what skills are valued. These are real challenges that we must address with empathy and resolve. While measures like CDC vouchers provide some immediate relief, the best antidote is still a growing economy and rising real incomes for all. We are committed to using our finite resources to help all our people reskill and adapt to the new challenges and to seize the new opportunities.

The recent news on the strong GDP growth provides some comfort for us in these turbulent times. It was higher than what we had expected, but we are also keenly aware that the growth is not evenly spread across the board. But with overall strong growth, we then can have the means and the confidence to help our industries and families who may be lagging behind. Think of it the other way: without this strong growth, we will be much more circumscribed in our ability to help our own industries and our own people. Never mind the CDC vouchers or even the U-save rebates. So together, our promise is that we will continue to master the resources that we can have to help equip Singaporeans to do the best for themselves and their families in these turbulent times.

Strengthening Social Cohesion

Let me move on to the third topic on our social cohesion, which remains a cornerstone of our success. The man-made competitive advantages I mentioned before are only possible when Singaporeans stay united. If we are divided, no investor will seriously consider putting their investments here to create good jobs for our people. And I meant both local and global investments.

Today, on the internet, we face a flood of information — some of it false, some of it divisive; some of it inadvertent, and some of it malicious. We must always remember that when accessing such information, we need to look at it with a critical eye and ask ourselves what this piece of information is trying to tell us, or shape our perspective, or lead us in a certain direction. What are the interests of the people behind these products? And more importantly, what are our own interests as Singapore and Singaporeans.

Every generation will have its own share of new and old fault lines. In the past, our fault lines may be in the realm of race, language, and religion. Today, we have moved far, but we also have new fault lines between the rich and not-so-rich, new arrivals and old arrivals, and differing causes and aspirations. It is natural that in any vibrant society, there will be different perspectives, but we must never allow such differences to pull us apart. We must always remember that even as we debate and try to reconcile our differences, we have a higher set of shared goals that will drive us forward as a country. That our individual dreams can only be realised if our country provides us the canvas to paint on.

Singapore is stronger today than yesterday because we treasure, honour, and build upon the diversity of our past, the diversity of our heritage, and it is this diversity that gives us our resilience. We are quite unlike other places. We do not ask our people to forget our past or pretend that the differences do not exist. Instead, we embrace them, but we are always clear-eyed about our shared future. Many of you may still remember this story, and many of us will recite this in our pledge every day. Every day in our pledge, we use the word ‘regardless’. Regardless of race, language, and so forth. Many of you might also remember that one of the original versions of the pledge was not with the word ‘regardless’. In fact, there was a draft version, that says, "Forgetting our race, language, and religion" instead of, "Regardless of our race, language, religion." That is a subtle but important difference that says all about how we want to build Singapore.

Singapore will be a place where every race, language, and religion can thrive. We will build a shared future regardless of our past and diversity. But it is not to ignore the past, nor to ignore the diversity. It is upon the diversity that we build something more powerful. That is why being a Singaporean is an aspiration, and a form of conviction. We have always said that we may never share a common past or ancestry, but we can always share a common future based on a set of shared values, meritocracy, service to nation, and so forth. And this is how we will continue building Singapore, even though the information on the internet threaten to overwhelm us by pulling us in different directions.

Closing – Confidence in the Future

To all the residents of Tanjong Pagar GRC, Radin Mas SMC, and Queenstown SMC, let me say this in conclusion. Personally, I am confident. I'm confident about our younger generation, that we have talented, passionate people who are ready to step forward to serve just as the previous generations. Their challenges may be different from ours, but let's give them our best support for them to stand taller and see further, just as the previous generations have done for us.

In Singapore, always remember, we never define our success by how well we do for ourselves in this generation alone. We always define our success by how well we enable the next generation to do even better than us in this generation. So come what may, be it the geopolitical challenges, the economic challenges, or the social challenges, I am confident that we have the ingredients to take Singapore forward and onward to the next higher plane. And I have never wasted an opportunity to tell everyone in their twenties and thirties that you will be the generation that will help take Singapore to cross SG100 and beyond, and that will be my personal goal for this generation. That we will build a generation that not only have the means, but the gumption to want to take Singapore forward to SG100 and beyond.

Thank you very much, and thank you for your service to our country.