Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong addressed the nation for the annual National Day Rally decked in a turquoise/emerald-green shirt and white slacks - a rather odd colour combination,  I thought, given its remoteness (at least the green part) to the nationalistic red and white that the occasion called for.

Then it dawned on me - could it be that the choice of green for the PM's sartorial ensemble that evening was not so much the result of serendipity but that of conscious strategic planning, the kind that rigorously takes place behind the execution of every government policy?

Just as desperate housewife Gabrielle Solis was courted by mayor Victor Lang in a strategic gambit by the mayor to ensnare the Latino vote, the PM's green top could perhaps have a certain sociopolitical significance to it, viz. that of assuaging, if not appealing to, the minority Malay-Muslim ground that National Day is not all about having the country awash in all things incarnadine.

With red also being an auspicious colour for the Chinese, the injection of green, being the colour of Islam and the preferred colour of the Malay-Muslims, could perhaps attenuate any sub-conscious sentiments, howsoever minute, the community may have that National Day is taking on an ethnically Chinese disposition.

So with the PM addressing the nation just over a week earlier in pink, green seemed a most comely colour for the Rally.

But perhaps I watch too much tv...  

Incidentally, could the PM's choice of pink the week before be in any way construed as an attempt to engage the 'pink' members of his audience, given the recent and on-going brouhaha on gay rights?

Hmmmm...