Debated in Parliament on 9 May 2016.
Mr Lim Biow Chuan asked the Minister for Defence whether the National Day Parade Organising Committee will consider allowing greater priority for Pioneer Generation citizens when they apply to ballot for National Day Parade tickets.
Madam, the National Day Parade (NDP) is a major event in the national calendar and receives tremendous support from Singaporeans. It is heartening that Singaporeans are eager to be part of the celebrations, with the number of ticket applications for NDP overwhelmingly exceeding the seats available each year. This year, we expect about 165,000 Singaporeans to be able to watch the two previews and the parade on the actual day, or three times more than past NDPs, at the Marina Bay Floating Platform or the Padang. This is facilitated by the larger seating capacity of the National Stadium as well as the additional preview session.
Indeed, the Pioneer Generation should be honoured and thanked for their sacrifices, achievements and immense contributions for building the Singapore we know and have today. However, as a national celebration for all Singaporeans, it is important that every Singaporean be given an equal chance to attend the NDP. We are mindful that preferential allocation of tickets would not be in line with this intent to include all Singaporeans as part of the nation's birthday. As it is, while the number of available tickets has increased, so will the number of applicants and it is inevitable that many will still be disappointed. To give greater priority to the Pioneer Generation, or about 450,000 Singaporeans, will lead to reduced chances for other Singaporeans.
So, the NDP Executive Committee (ExCo) endeavours to include as many Singaporeans as possible to experience NDP. As with previous NDPs, live telecast will also allow Singaporeans to watch the show at home. Singaporeans can also look forward to participating in NDP through the engagement efforts which the ExCo will unveil in the coming months.
Mr Lim Biow Chuan.
Mdm Speaker, I have a question for the Senior Minister of State. The feedback that I have is that many residents say that they have balloted many times for the NDP tickets but have never been successful. Would the Ministry consider, for those who have never ever successfully balloted before for an NDP ticket, just to give them the opportunity to experience NDP live in the stadium, can they be given, say, triple or double chances, just to give them the experience?
Madam, I can appreciate where the Member is coming from. I think we all would like to give everybody the opportunity to experience NDP. It is going to be quite difficult to ascertain who has never ever had a chance to attend an NDP over the last 50 years of our Independence. It is going to be quite a difficult process to put in place in the first place. What we have done is that, since 2013, those who have been successful in balloting in one year are then taken off the register for the subsequent year. So, we try to give opportunities for those who have not balloted successfully in one year to ballot again the next year. Those who have been successful in that year will not be allowed to ballot again the next year.
So, that is the best we can do to try to limit access of one group who has succeeded in one year, and possibly expand the opportunities for the others. But I think Mr Lim Biow Chuan would probably appreciate that it is going to be very difficult to first ascertain what is that frame of number of people who have "never ever". And everybody would probably say "I have never ever been successful" because we cannot possibly ascertain that. Because everyone who ballots or applies for tickets can apply for one, two, four or six tickets. So, the success is by one person, but six persons would have gone. So, it will be very difficult to ascertain that. I think the system we have today is fair and we will continue to try to facilitate a fair system where everybody gets an equal chance of being balloted for the tickets.
Miss Cheng Li Hui. Sorry, Mr Ang Wei Neng. You have a question?
It is a supplementary question, Mdm Speaker for the Senior Minister of State. Instead of one year of barring, that is, if you are successful in one year and you cannot benefit next year, why not extend it to three or five years, for that matter? Is this a system's constraint or our own constraint?
I guess the argument would go either way. One would say, "Barring me for one year is sufficient. I try again. It is not that I am going to get the chance of getting successful one more time." But it is from feedback that we have put in place this system of barring them for one year. We can study it further; we can study the probability of one being successful even if we had blocked them for two or three years. The point we recognise is that we want to give Singaporeans the opportunity to get access to the NDP. This year, for example, more will get a chance because the capacity is bigger, and we will look into the system and facilitate as much as we can.
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