Dear readers, a question came to mind, and its very basic nature confounds me.
“What does your country believe in?”
I ask this not to make a mockery of the nation or pass some snide hidden remark; I ask this because I find myself unable to give an answer.
Over lunch a few colleagues and I engaged in small talk, and somewhere someone commented that as a nation we sat on the fence regarding a lot of issues.
It is true.
We don’t seem to have a strong stand on the China - Taiwan issue. You don’t see our leaders being very vocal about terrorism. In fact, we tend to slink away in a corner, hoping to stay unnoticed, playing it safe.
However, we are extremely vocal about internal matters. The smallest measure of political dissidence draws the heavy guns like a shark to a drop of blood in water. A large majority of newspaper headlines cover our economic growth and how well we’re doing.
As a people, we’re afraid to stretch outside of ourselves. We’re the Asian family down the street; whose parents cane their children and tell them to mind their own business while the husband in the next house beats the living daylights out of his wife.
“Don’t put your elbows on the dining table. Don’t shake your legs. Sit up straight. Don’t stare at other people.”
I used to take pride in the fact that Singapore, while insular, tried to hold on to her own principles even if she didn’t impose them on others. WIth the casinos being built here despite the public outcry against it, my faith is shattered.
Nihilo sanctum estne? (Latin for “Is nothing sacred?”)
We are empty, without and within. Maybe I’m wrong. I’m almost begging you - convince me that I’m wrong.
I may not agree with America’s brash handling of world affairs. I may even fear for my safety and that of my family if I lived in London or Australia; with them being ardent supporters of the “war on terror” and all. But I wouldn’t have to be afraid of accidentally doing something. The prevalent message I get from our leaders is this: don’t screw it up. Everyday, every moment, every message seems to boil down to this. Don’t screw it up. We’ve come a long way. Don’t screw it up. We’re a multi-racial society. Don’t screw it up.
Don’t talk, don’t speak. Don’t do anything.
So dear reader, please help me out here. Please. I want to want to stay in Singapore.
What do we believe in? What are we passionate about?
it’s hard to put “what we believe in” and “passionate about” together.
what we believe in? not rocking the boat. not breaking the rules. keeping mum as long as it’s tolerable. personally i think we’re still very very “traditionally asian” in our thinking. its not abt the “casual” sex, it’s not abt the gays - all that’s really a minority that pple (and the govt) cause a big ruckus about.
but the average singaporean’s quite happy to just live a steady, peaceful no fuss life - even if it means keeping quiet about many things around him, else long as he and his family’s still fine. u don’t hear pple complaining about the underpriveleged in singapore itself, do u? or about how not enough is done to help the lower-class families in singapore? no, everyone’s happy as long as nothing ugly’s heard and nothing’s seen. i guess that’s also how we’ve been trained for years now.
what are we passionate about? truly passionate about? sadly i don’t know. the above mentioned points have made us a very docile bunch. passion. more of the lack-there-of.
as a young adult in singapore having to make new decisions when it comes to work and life, i can see why most people want to play it safe. singapore’s clean, safe, secure and so damn stable. which is so much more than you can get somewhere else. so i guess pple think keeping quiet and not questioning something out loud is a fair enough trade.
i’m sure there are exceptions though, people who keep wanting to do something new, who keep looking for new challenges. but like you said, the singapore environment isn’t very forgiving when it comes to failure, so very few pple dare to try.
ah i know.
does being passionate about food count? :D
Wise Lucian’s questions. Made me think too.
Small pickle: Singapore’s leaders are vocal about terrorism.
Perhaps the strength of this little country comes from within, quiet, unassuming. We do not have great elocutors who can galvanise with the spoken word, nor endow with a visionary speech. In fact, most speeches are written, read and then printed.
The fact that the local press is the standard of a small town newspaper in terms of coverage and literary discourse (compared with say the New York Times, FT or the Times) belies a certain culture of self censorship- long engendered by a population that was largely immigrant, toiling for a meagre subsistence under colonial rule and then thrust abruptly on its own, without a hinterland, in an archipelago made of largely different people. In other words, Singapore stands for minding one’s own business, and improving one’s own lot before going around minding the neighbour’s business.
It’s why we get continuous estate upgrades (around election time), government offices run fairly smoothly (try losing a wallet in Singapore- IC returned in 1 day, credit cards cancelled and replaced without fuss).
I don’t believe this will change anytime soon- but an active expatriate community, and more exposure to the outside world will help sow the seeds for future generations to take our message to the world- keep your house in order, before you tell others to do so.
Money. End of.
Thanks for all the comments, for sharing my disillusionment as well as enlightening me. Special thanks to Ken, for pointing out the things I take for granted. It provides a glimpse of the Singapore I’ll miss should I ever decide to settle down elsewhere.
Interesting thoughts. I think if there is one thing we believes in, it is integrity. And I hope it will always remain that way. I’ve poked fun at the Straits Times journalist that they are impossible to bribe because they will tote the line anyway, but there is something to be said about being “impossible to bribe”.
True, we don’t seem to have a moral or ethical perspective in our governance, but I don’t think that this is because we are not moral or ethical as a people, but that we don’t know how to fit this morality with our forward-looking, economy-enlarging goals, not yet anyway. I hope and pray that with time, we will be able to integrate these goals.