Prowess, pride and peace: A National Day Parade ride to remember

Straits Times

23-06-2025

Members of the media riding the Leopard 2SG Main Battle Tank as part of the media experiential ride in downtown Singapore on June 21. ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO
SINGAPORE – 'You could take a little trip around Singapore town, in a Singapore city bus' – so go the lyrics of Singapore Town, a popular National Day song first performed in 1967 by The Sidaislers, a singing group from St Andrew's Cathedral.
On the afternoon o f June 21 , I found myself going around downtown, not in a Singapore city bus, but aboard a Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Leopard 2SG Main Battle Tank – one of 66 assets taking part in the mobile column drive-past for the 2025 National Day Parade (NDP).
Equipped with a 120mm main gun and a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun, the tank was one of several vehicles that members of the media were invited to ride in that day.
Other SAF assets included the Bronco All Terrain Tracked Carrier – an articulated armoured vehicle developed by ST Kinetics and the Defence Science and Technology Agency – and the Light Strike Vehicle, a fast and lightweight anti-tank vehicle that can be mounted with a variety of weapons.
I jumped at the chance to ride the Leopard 2SG tank, which I had seen so many times at NDPs over the years.
Although I served my national service in the army, the largest SAF vehicle I had sat in is the five-tonner truck – though I did belt out 'C-130 rolling down the strip' during my basic military training, a marching song inspired by the C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft.
Standing in the Leopard 2SG as it rolled along a 3km route from Nicoll Highway to St Andrew's Road and back gave me a new vantage point to view familiar landmarks such as the Civilian War Memorial, the former City Hall building and the Esplanade.
Seeing such vehicles on the roads here has become a familiar spectacle during the annual National Day celebrations, stirring feelings of pride and excitement for many Singaporeans.
However, I realised the sight of tanks rolling down city streets will evoke very different emotions elsewhere in the world. They are harbingers of fear rather than celebration, often associated with political turmoil, loss and deep uncertainty.
In Singapore, the destruction of our city has only ever been fictional – depicted in the movies Ah Boys To Men and Independence Day: Resurgence . But in the Middle East, Ukraine and far too many other places, war has reduced cities to rubble and left lives in tatters.
That sobering contrast made me grateful for the safety and security that my family and I enjoy in Singapore – a peace protected in part by the same vehicles, artillery, as well as the men and women we will see at the Padang on Aug 9.
Zhaki Abdullah is a correspondent at The Straits Times. He is on the health beat, in addition to occasionally covering science, environmental, tech and Muslim affairs issues.
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