Monday 14 July 2014

Sorry, World Cup fans, today is not a holiday

This picture surfaced online yesterday.



The message reads:
My fellow Singaporeans, I Tony Tan Keng Yam, President of the Republic is declaring a Public Holiday on the 14 July 2014 to allow Singaporeans to have a chance of watching the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final between Germany and Argentina.

At the same time, this allows all Singaporeans to bond with their family members, neighbour and friends to make Singapore a much more bonded society. I have discussed this with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and he agreed with me. With that, all Government offices will be closed on 14 July 2014. I wish you all a happy holiday.

Best regards,
Tony Tan
President of the Republic of Singapore
I believe some Singaporeans believed this to be the real thing. I'm sure many wish it were.

I'll go out on a limb here and say it's not.

But I guess Andy's father can give himself a holiday.

As a result of this picture, my last blog post about schools starting later today because of the World Cup final has received about 3,000 page views from people googling "tony tan keng yam declare public holiday today", "14 july singapore holiday" and other variations.

A screen cap of my stats is below:



As you can see, someone even searched "malaysia world cup public holiday".

Please disregard the two hits for "ann kok porn".

The President's Office has since released this statement:
It has come to our attention that there is a letter circulating on mobile and online platforms in the name of President Tony Tan Keng Yam declaring today (July 14) a public holiday. We would like to clarify that the President’s Office did not issue such a letter.

Public holidays are announced by the Ministry of Manpower...
Well, at least now that the World Cup is over, we can stop cheering on foreign talent and focus on celebrating ourselves for National Day.

And go back to arguing over gay penguins.



EARLIER: World Cup final: Late school start is for Andy or Andy's dad?

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