NDP 2024: Family a motivation for participants who volunteer to take part in parade

SINGAPORE – Since 2012, Ms Angelynn Tan Huifang has flown the Sembcorp flag at six National Day Parades (NDPs), sacrificing time with her family in order to rehearse in the lead-up to each parade.

This year is extra special for the 43-year-old head of procurement at SembWaste, the company’s waste management business. With her encouragement, her husband, Mr Donny Chia Tong Khiaw, 45, who is in his third year at port operator PSA International, is also taking part in the parade.

Representing their respective companies on Aug 9 while standing just two contingents apart, the couple, who have two sons, aged 14 and 17, are among several volunteers taking part in the parade and ceremony named United We Stand.

The segment will feature 35 marching contingents and more than 2,100 participants.

Speaking to The Straits Times at a media event on July 6, Ms Tan said that a few days after her company asked for volunteers in March for the 2024 parade, Mr Chia’s company also looked for participants.

“I asked him to join so that he will know what I have been doing,” she said.

With the couple required to sacrifice more than 10 Saturdays in order to attend rehearsals, Ms Tan said they sought and received the blessings of their elder son before agreeing to both sign up.

For Mr Chia, a gate operations supervisor, NDP 2024 is an opportunity for him to relive his time as an army regular when he participated in various parades, including being part of the presidential lance guard in 2005 – his most memorable parade experience thus far.

Ms Tan said her husband’s prior experience is helping him cope with the rigours of his role in 2024.

“The marching to him is not that challenging because he is an ex-regular. So it’s more the banner drill that is the challenging part that he needs to be familiar with,” she said.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) contingent will include Lance Corporal Noor Arfand Noor Azlan, 21, a full-time national serviceman (NSF).

His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all in the SCDF – or Singapore Fire Brigade as it was previously known – but did not participate in an NDP while in the force.

“I feel like this is an opportunity for me to represent my family in this respect,” said LCP Arfand, adding that he did not hesitate to volunteer to be part of the 2024 parade.

Needing to sacrifice several Saturdays, he said his family members support him by making adjustments so that he can go for rehearsals.

For example, they moved their regular family lunches from Saturday to Sunday.

Their support has extended to heading to the Padang, as his father, mother, sister and brother attended a rehearsal on June 22.

“They are really proud of me being in the parade. On the actual day, they will be watching from home to look out for me,” LCP Arfand added.

Another participant who volunteered to take part is Corporal Muhammad Shahrizuan Hidayat, 22. The NSF will be part of the Presidential Gun Salute (PGS), which will fire 21 times in salute as the President arrives at the parade, as a military honour.

CPL Shahrizuan said he felt honoured to be representing his unit, the 23rd Battalion, Singapore Artillery, at NDP 2024.

“This is my first time participating at an NDP, so I feel proud to be doing this for my friends, my family, and for my country,” he said.

Volunteering for NDP was definitely one of the highlights of his national service stint. 

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that not everyone can be part of,” he added. 

He will be part of a six-person crew using four 25-pounder artillery guns for the PGS, and his role is to be the first of a human chain of three passing forward the blank shells and loading them into the ceremonial guns before they are fired. 

The guns will be on board Mobility 3rd Generation (M3G) rafts when they carry out the salute. 

The M3G is a high-mobility wheeled vehicle that functions as a mobile platform for crossing waterways, and can be configured either as a motorised raft or a float bridge.

For the PGS, five M3Gs will be joined together to take the guns into Marina Bay and to provide the platform for the guns to fire from. The M3Gs will be operated by personnel from the 35th Battalion, Singapore Combat Engineers (SCE).

Among them is First Sergeant Gautham Senthil Kumaran, 25, a platoon sergeant at 35th SCE. He said the PGS has been conducted on board M3Gs since 2009, and it has been a crowd favourite since then. 

This is the second time he will be participating in an NDP, although it will be the first time he is involved in the PGS, which he says is a great honour for him.

“I take a lot of pride in my participation, and I am actually excited for D-Day,” he said, referring to Aug 9.

This year’s PGS involves 169 participants and will sail around the Marina Basin and engage spectators at the Promontory @ Marina Bay. It will also be the longest sail-past within the Marina Basin to date. 

The 5.87km route will take 67 minutes to complete, excluding the time spent firing the salute. It will include landmarks like the ArtScience Museum, Promontory @ Marina Bay, and the Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay. 1SG Gautham said the longer route will ensure that the PGS can engage more Singaporeans.

The key challenges have been ensuring that the planned timings for their segment are adhered to, and moving in the waterway from Kallang Basin to Marina Bay, which is often crowded with civilian vessels like kayaks, he said.