The Mumbai Terror attacks remind us of these 2 NE messages –
“We must preserve racial and religious harmony.
We value our diversity and are determined to stay a united people.” – The Mumbai Terror attacks were aimed to harm the religious harmony between Hindus and Muslims in India, in order to convert Indians to extremism. This reminds us of the suspicion Singaporeans had towards Malays after the 9/11 attacks. We must not let terrorists disrupt the relationship between groups of people. If we allow ourselves to succumb to fear and suspicion, we are allowing the terrorists to succeed.
“We must ourselves defend Singapore.
We are proud to defend Singapore ourselves, no one else is responsible for our security and well-being.
” – We must be ready for terrorist attacks. Even though Singapore might seem secure, it might not always be. Just because we never faced terrorist attacks does not mean we should be complacent. Instead, we must always be alert, ready to respond to attacks by terrorists. If not, we might end up like Mumbai, where terrorists took the government by complete surprise, and the government be unable to react quickly to the attacks.
