India Se Media Managing Director and former Straits Times journalist Shobha Tsering Bhalla had the honour of being chosen to be a poster girl and spokesperson for Singapore Promise, about the journey to Singapore citizenship. This is a video where she speaks about the Singapore Promise.

“You know why it feels good to be a Singaporean?” she asks – and answers: “I feel very international. Being a Singaporean I don’t feel I’m confined to being one type of person. It’s such an international island, an international place that I feel Singaporean and I feel many other things like I’m Indian, East Asian, an Asian. So I feel like I’m part of the global village — more than I ever felt anywhere else. Singapore is tolerant of religious beliefs, of everything else. It does not tolerate antisocial behaviour.

“That made me decide this is where I want to bring up my children. We had already decided when my son was 12 that he was definitely going to do national service. We felt it would make him a man. Safety for my daughter: I remember when she was 10 she would come back from tuition, and if it was a little late in the evening, I’d say ‘’Take a taxi home’. I felt totally secure in the knowledge that she’d be coming home safe. We’d never dream of doing this anywhere else in the world. The Singapore Promise to me means one thing — because it’s such an international city, so global — to be tolerant and kind to people of all religions and all races because Singapore contains all religions and all races and has been most tolerant of any nation. There are no riots, no strife, because of your belief or your language. And that is what Singapore has taught me.”