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Republic Polytechnic’s
‘Banner of pride’ heralds Singapore’s youngest
poly’s burning ambition to play a definitive role in
today’s educational landscape. Unfurling the giant
bunting made up of 162 squares contributed by every
department and student group at The Republic took
all of five minutes, but the behind the scenes
preparations occupied many Republicans long after
the school day ended.
This idea was mooted by
Centre for Culture & Communication’s Deputy
Director, Dr Gan Su-lin just a month earlier at a
management meeting and soon after, paints and 1
metre cotton squares were flying about before one
could manage to utter, “Bunt…what? Gathering a team
to contribute ideas and distribute the workload led
to a motley crew from Office of Corporate
Communications, office of student & graduate affairs,
Office of Planning and Technology as well as
assorted student leaders from the various Interest
Groups, clubs and sports teams being assembled to
put the giant patchwork flag together.
 After
hours of dedicated hard work, Republic Polytechnic
was proud to be able to be able to finally display
its giant patchwork flag on 6 August to over 2000
students and staff. Media like Straits Times and
Channel News Asia were present to capture the
visually arresting spectacle.
Kicking
off the festivities was a kompang party led by our
Principal and CEO, Prof Low Teck Seng. He was
ushered in to the rhythmic drumbeats of our Malay
Cultural Group. Then after, both our Principal and
Deputy Principal did the honours by releasing two
Singapore flags out of a total of 14 national flags
to be released that day.
After
the ever familiar rendition of the National Anthem
was played and the recitation of the Pledge,
climactic excitement started to build up as everyone
looked forward to the releasing of the giant
centrepiece facing carpark A.
 Prior
to that, students and staff alike had been eagerly
checking out the flag to spot their entries. Cries
of exclamation and laughter were heard as a reaction
to seeing one’s handiwork displayed so clearly to
the rest of the world. 5….4….3…2…1! And the
unfurling started…amidst much tremulation reflected
in gawking faces, the flag came down slowly to be
seen in its full 20 metre glory! Celebrating The
Republic at The Republic…we have done it!
Republic Polytechnic's very own Chinese lions danced
and celebrated with the staff and students to the
thump-thump of drums later, delighting the engaged
crowd with all its moves!
In what we can
truly call an RP project which involved staff
and students working in one cohesion and not
involving any commercial vendors at all,
Republic Polytechnic can proudly say that we
have succeeded in this project. To quote
Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam,
Acting Minister For Education words, "They dared
to do, and dared to succeed. This is the spirit
that we must carry with us into the future."
Republic Polytechnic despite her tender age of 2
years old dare to succeed.
To end off this event,
those outstanding flags were awarded prizes of pizza
and/or lunch vouchers:
List
of winners:
Best Non-Sports & Non-Aesthetic
Club – Rotaract Club
Best Aesthetic Club or IG –
String Ensemble/Music.Republic
Best Sports Club or IG –
Kayaking Club/ALC
Best Academic Department –
Centre for Culture & Communication
Best Administrative Department -
Office of Human Resources.
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