Acting Minister for Manpower Tan Chuan-Jin led a chorus of local bloggers and even Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in reciting the National Pledge on Twitter on Wednesday, the eve of National Day.
Starting at 8.35pm, Tan tweeted the pledge line-by-line on the micro-blogging platform via @chuanjin1.
Tan finally started with the first line, “We, the citizens of
Singapore,” before continuing the pledge in short, separate bursts.
He was quickly joined in by established bloggers Mr Brown (@mrbrown), aka Lee Kin Mun, and Mr Miyagi (@miyagi), aka Benjamin Lee, who urged their followers to follow suit using the hashtag #PledgeSG.
PM Lee (@leehsienloong) also joined in the movement when he tweeted, "Fully support @chuanjin1’s recital of our national pledge over Twitter", signing off with his initials LHL.
The tweet pledge movement, which lasted about 30 minutes, was well-received and quickly went viral, making it the second top trending topic in Singapore.
Twitter users even joined in the movement by tweeting the pledge in Mandarin, Malay and Tamil.
Zizie Zuzantie, a 22-year-old Social Sciences student at Singapore Management University said, "It was really great to see people tweeting in support. It brings Singaporeans together in yet another way."
"It was exciting and I really enjoyed the experience," said the undergraduate, who tweeted the pledge in Malay.
Mr Miyagi told Yahoo! Singapore that the idea behind the tweet pledge was first thought up by Mr Brown and himself.
“Brown
and I thought it was especially important this year because of what we
perceived as rumblings of discontent and a loss of identity as
Singaporeans,” he said.
He and Brown subsequently involved politicians Tan Chuan-Jin and PM Lee, adding that PM Lee was "very enthusiastic about it and embraced the idea quickly".
In recent days, several ground-up movements have also sprung up to celebrate Singapore ahead of National Day.
Last week, a music video titled “I Still Love You” about loving Singapore, warts and all, went viral and has been viewed about 50,000 times.
Another movement, titled “Stand Up For Our Singapore”, will see over 500 youths spreading the message of graciousness and kindness to the elderly on National Day.
The Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) hit a new record high of 371 at 1pm on Thursday, again climbing into the "hazardous" range of above 300, according to data from the National Environment Agency (NEA).