I recorded this year’s National Day Message at the Botanic Gardens. This was where my parents brought me to watch the first Aneka Ragam Rakyat, or People’s Variety Concert, on 2 August 1959. These were a series of free, open-air concerts with a multicultural theme. They were organised by the newly elected PAP government, to start us on our journey of becoming one people, one nation. We have come a long way since then. However, the pandemic has strained fault lines in our society, and sharpened d