The Usual Place Podcast

PM Wong’s NDR speech lacks ‘bitter medicine’: Jeremy Tan

“It’s not ‘I’ or ‘me’. It’s ‘we’. To keep Singapore going, we must be a ‘we first’ society.”

Natasha Ann Zachariah

Follow topic:

“It’s not ‘I’ or ‘me’. It’s ‘we’. To keep Singapore going, we must be a ‘we first’ society.”

This was Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s rallying call to strengthen the Singaporean Spirit – to put the welfare of the community ahead of individual interest.

It came towards the end of his National Day Rally address on Aug 17, perhaps as a reminder that the way forward is not only paved by policies meant to fix problems.

PM Wong’s first NDR speech after the 2025 General Election emphasised that “when the whole is strong, each of us becomes stronger too”.

This message built on what was put forth during the Forward Singapore exercise –

launched by the country’s fourth-generation team of political leaders

– to refresh Singapore’s social compact and build a shared future.

But how does this rallying call resonate with Singaporeans?

It was PM Wong’s second NDR rally at the head of the government, and his speech drew a range of reactions from political watchers and armchair critics.

Prior to the “we first” narrative, PM Wong spent a good portion of his speech

highlighting a slew of issues and anxieties on the minds of Singaporeans.

From announcing a job-matching initiative to figuring out the way forward with AI, and even tougher action by the Government on the vaping crisis, he peppered the speech with examples and videos.

Was it

a “reassuring, optimistic (and) encouraging” speech

– as one commentator put it – or did the lack of marquee announcements, in contrast to PM Wong’s first outing, disappoint others?

To unpack these questions in this episode of The Usual Place, I will be talking to Dr Rebecca Grace Tan, a political science lecturer at the National University of Singapore, and Mr Jeremy Tan, who ran as an independent candidate for Mountbatten SMC at GE2025.

We’ll chat about what this speech tells us about PM Wong’s style of governance, and why he emphasised that Singapore needs to be a “we first” society to keep going.

Highlights (click/tap above):

2:55 Jeremy and Rebecca’s takeaways from this year’s NDR

4:34 Why Jeremy wanted PM Wong to give Singaporeans the “bitter medicine”

7:45 Were the expectations of big announcements warranted?

9:18 “The disconnect is something that needs to be addressed”: Jeremy

11:25 Addressing the disruption in the labour market because of AI

14:36 SkillsFuture: Rebecca’s take on the upskilling programme

16:15 Does PM Wong’s style of delegating announcements to his colleagues work?

18:45 Jeremy on SkillsFuture usage data so that improvements can be made

21:00 PM Wong’s rally call dichotomy: Empowering Singaporeans, yet slightly paternalistic?

25:09 NDR was the moment to address setting boundaries in policy: Jeremy

28:06 The big question about PM Wong’s We First message: What can be the new approach?