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Almost half of Singaporeans neutral on PM Lee’s National Day Rally speech: poll

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong speaking at the National Day Rally on 20 August 2017. Photo: Prime Minister’s Office/YouTube
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong speaking at the National Day Rally on 20 August 2017. Photo: Prime Minister’s Office/YouTube

About 48 per cent of Singaporeans were neutral on the National Day Rally speech by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong delivered on Sunday (20 August), according to a survey by Blackbox Research.

The survey, which was released on Monday, finds that 44 per cent of Singaporeans were positive about the speech while the remaining 8 per cent rated it negatively.

When asked about their connection with the three broad segments of Lee’s speech – preschools, the war against diabetes and Smart Nation – 38 per cent of Singaporeans rated it positively, followed by half of them who were neutral and 12 per cent who rated it negatively.

On the question about whether the speech made them positive about Singapore’s future, 35 per cent of them answered positively, followed by 54 per cent who were neutral and 11 per cent who were negative.

The Smart Nation segment was viewed as the highlight by 40 per cent of Singaporeans, followed by diabetes at 34 per cent and preschools at 12 per cent.

The integrated national sensor network, the “eat less and healthily” message and the new centralised training institute for preschool teachers were singled as the most relevant messages within their respective themes.

Commenting on the findings of survey, which polled 500 Singaporeans aged 15 and above, Blackbox Managing Director David Black said, “Clearly, the PM decided to single out very specific but disconnected themes this year. The underlying message seemed to point to the need for improvement in key areas. To that extent, it felt more like ‘Catch up Nation than Smart Nation’.”

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