National Day Rally

The National Day Rally (Chinese: 国庆群众大会, Rapat Umum Hari Kebangsaan) is an annual address that the Prime Minister of Singapore makes to the entire nation, on the second Sunday after August 9, the country's National Day. A yearly event since 1966, the Prime Minister uses this rally to address the nation on its key challenges and its future directions, and can be compared to the State of the Union Address delivered by the President of the United States.

Prior to 2005, the rally was a continuous speech from 8 pm (SST). From 2005, the Malay and Chinese versions were delivered at 6.45 pm with a break at 7.30 pm while the English version was delivered at 8 pm.

Opposition MPs were invited to the rally for the first time in 2007.

Also, the rally will be made on the last Sunday of August in 2010 and 2012, to facilitate the Youth Olympic Games and the Ramadan festivities, respectively. It may also be available in HD from 2012.

Venue
The rally was delivered at the Kallang Theatre before 2001. After 2001, the venue has been shifted to the University Cultural Centre at the National University of Singapore. It was also constituted during the parliament sittings. The 2013 edition will be delivered from the ITE Headquarters and College Central.

2010 National Day Rally
The 2010 National Day Rally was held on 29 August at the Parliament House, Singapore. Similar to the past rallies, The speech was broadcast live on TV and radio, as well as webcast live on the websites of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and REACH. It was also viewable on smartphones and on Channel NewsAsia and xinmsn Mandarin. During the speech, there was active discussion by Singaporeans on Twitter and Facebook.

Highlights of the speech are available on the PMO website.

2011 National Day Rally
The 2011 National Day Rally was held on 14 August at the Parliament House, Singapore. Similar to the past rallies, the speech was broadcast live on TV and radio. A live webcast on the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and REACH's websites. This was also viewable on smartphones live webcast for mobile devices. The English rally was also shortened till 9.32pm.

2012 National Day Rally
The 2012 National Day Rally was held on 26 August at the Parliament House, Singapore. Similar to the past rallies, the speech was broadcast live on TV and radio. A live webcast on the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and REACH's websites. This is also viewable on smartphones live webcast for mobile devices. Unlike the traditional rallies, it is also the first time that ministers will deliver their speech at 6.45pm, before the Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong delivers his speeches at 8pm. The Prime Minister concluded his speech at 10.10pm.

2013 National Day Rally
The 2013 National Day Rally was held at August 18 at ITE Headquarters and College Central in Ang Mo Kio. Similar to the past rallies, the speech was broadcast live on TV and radio. A live webcast on the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and REACH's websites. It was also viewable on Channel NewsAsia, xinmsn Mandarin and Toggle. The Prime Minister delivered his Malay and Mandarin speeches at 6.45pm, and went on to deliver his speech at 8pm. He concluded his speech at 9.52pm.

Broadcast
As a national event, the rally is usually broadcast live from 6.45pm till 10pm (SST), with a break between 7.30pm and 8pm, across MediaCorp channels. However, most English rallies were over-run and most programmes on MediaCorp had postponed to the following week but some programmes were shown immediately after the English rally. Most programmes on MediaCorp would resume earlier at 9:30pm or later at 11:00pm if it over-ran.

The rally was broadcast from 2001 to 2004 on SPH MediaWorks channels as well.

Transcripts of the rally speech are usually available for viewing after the event at MediaCorp news portals, Singapore Press Holdings news portals, the website of the Prime Minister's Office and the online press centre of the Government of Singapore. Highlights of the speeches will usually be reported by Singapore newspapers in the following days.

Response
An article titled "Singapore's National Day Rally Speech: A Site of Ideological Negotiation" analyses the inaugural National Day Rally speeches of three Singapore prime ministers. It locates these speeches in the continuous ideological work that the People’s Action Party (PAP) government has to do in order to maintain consensus and forge new alliances among classes and social forces that are being transformed by globalisation. Increasingly, these speeches have had to deal with the contradictions between nation-building and the tensions between the liberal and reactionary tendencies of the global city. The article is available here.

In 2008, the English language telecast of the Rally, initially scheduled for live broadcast at 8pm on August 17, was postponed to the next day. This movement was to facilitate Singaporeans to watch women's table tennis team take on China in the finals at the Beijing Olympics. The Rally itself proceeded as usual at the University Cultural Centre, but was only broadcast the next day.

In the 2009 Rally, Singaporeans used the Twitter hashtag #ndrsg to tweet about the Rally.