Does Singapore have enough people willing to do so?

A true patriot would die for his country.
Does Singapore have enough people willing to do so?

This was the sub headlines of a article in the Straits times Life! Today,

by journalist Ong Soh Chin.

She seemed to have been motivated by the same questions that
the new minister of state for national development, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, brought up in parliament last week. Miss ong quoted the macimillan's english dictionary defining patriotism as "strong feelings of love, respect and duty towards your country".

she put down a series of question which i thought was very interesting:

Does patriotism mean blind obedience? What happens when a country
has leaders who take it down a path of destruction and madness?

Would it be patriotic then to follow their orders or to defy them?

Were the nazis patriotic to Germany?

And the people dying everyday in the middle east- are they considered patriotic?

The article concluded with a twist, timely for all this talk
about remaking singapore, one that sees singaporeans beyond the 5 Cs. i particularly love the last sentence. It said: Singapore's test right now is to learn how to separate state from country when it comes to defining patriotism and duty. For truth be told, you have to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything. But coming back to the matter of dying for one's country, i can only conclude with this-that at the end of the day, its not wanting to die for you country that is important.
It's living for it.

Beautiful. Ravishingly written if i may say.
So good that perhaps suicide bombers might be inspired to stop sacrificing themselves. besides a jihad is not a holy war, its a struggle. I learned about it in the straits times' new column about understanding Islam.How i wish that the suicide bombing syndicate leaders would read the Straits Times.

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