It was .... substanceless.
The PM's rally speech is traditionally the time for him to announce important new developments, ideas and policies for the nation. But this year, none of that happened.
Instead all PM Lee really talked about was racial and religious harmony, and in a way that contained nothing new. It sounded the same as the nation-building chapters of my Primary 3 Chinese language textbook, many, many years ago.
Last Friday, a Lianhe Zaobao reporter had actually emailed me with a list of interview questions. He had been planning to write an article about how the government was using "new media" to reach out to Singaporeans. One of the journalist's questions for me was as follows:
"(3) You will probably have your thoughts about PM's NDR after it's been delivered. In addition to publishing your views on your own website, would you consider emailing the relevant authorities or posting your comments via official channels such as the Reach facebook, forum or twitter, to tell the government how you feel about this year's rally speech?"Well, my answer is no. I have no comments on what the PM actually said, because he hardly said anything at all.
I have a really odd feeling about this. I could be reading too much into it, but it almost feels like .... like he's deliberately choosing to avoid certain issues. The really important issues.