As a student living in a foreign country, I often speak to fellow Singaporeans about home. When I ask them what is it they miss the most, they invariably mention their family, their friends, the shopping, and always, the food. I have always found it curious that the love, memories and things that overseas Singaporeans remember are of people, places and things. I don’t think anyone I’ve spoken to actually misses ‘Singapore’ per se. I wonder why.
There are two extremes, I think. Some, blindly and with no qualifications, believe that Singapore is the best place on earth. Others, hate Singapore with a passion, likening it to the gulags that Stalin used as holiday resorts for his enemies. And in between these two extremes, lie the vast majority of Singaporeans living, working and studying overseas. The irony is that being able to see the world often shifts those lying on the extremes towards the middle. There is no heaven on earth, not Singapore, and not anywhere else. We didn’t make this world, we just live in it, the best that we can.
Opposition politics in Singapore is a no-win proposition. There is no point trying to change the system when the system retaliates to preserve the status quo. The most effective form of voting is with your feet. Hence so many have left, are leaving or are planning to leave.
A friend I made over the internet is facing the threat of a lawsuit over opinions published in his blog. And the powers that be wonder why people are giving up. Criticisms are often difficult to bear with, but people criticise because they care. If they cease to have opinions or to criticise, then it means that they have given up all hope.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…
Hope. Why do we have hope? That more jobs will be created next year? That there will be more COEs released next month? That I will be able to afford a place to live? That I will get married with my partner and have 2.1 children? That the value of my home will increase so that I can sell it and upgrade?
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Patriotism is an alien concept to Singaporeans. How many of you remember the ‘discipline master’ commanding us to sing the national anthem loudly during school assembly? For the men, how many of you remember officers and RSMs ordering us to sing the national anthem loudly with ‘pride’? Do we even know what the words mean?
Pride in? What are we singing for? That we have top rankings in many things, such as the best airport and seaport in the world? The freest economy? Broadband penetration? Number of container ships processed? An efficient judiciary? Number of people executed every year? Criminal conviction rates etc etc?
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Americans cloak themselves in their flag, affectionately named ‘Old Glory’ or ‘Stars and Stripes’, for the very same reasons why they have a constitutional right to burn it. It is a symbol for Freedom and Liberty, values for which their soldiers have fought and died in 2 world wars, in Korea and Vietnam, and most recently in Iraq.
Once a year I see a profusion of red, white, crescent and stars, and after that, it is an interminable 364 days of gray before the red, white, crescent and stars appear again, in all its artificial plasticky goodness.
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
They say that America is not a country, but an idea. An idea that Americans live for, are willing to shed blood for, to die for, to draw a line in the sand and say, “This is mine, and you shall not have it!”
Freedom.
What is the idea that is Singapore? The 5Cs? Asian values? Foreign direct investment? Gross Domestic Product? What is this idea that is Singapore, that makes this place different from any other? Our childhood memories? That place is long since dead and gone. Our family and loved ones? People are mobile, and there comes a time when they pass on too. Surely it cannot be char kway teow, roti prata and satay? I can find close substitutes elsewhere.
If we assume that all individuals place an infinitely high value on their own lives, then it stands to reason that any idea that has a tangible, calculable value is not worth our lives defending. It is only something that is priceless, an idea, a value that is so precious and fragile, that is so essential to human existence and yet so easily taken away from us, which we would be willing to lay down our lives for.
Freedom.
I learnt that Singapore is a place where free speech is not a right, where efficiency in a judicial system means being able to dispose of ‘condemned’ human lives within 6 months rather than delay any longer. I learnt that diversity, non-conformity and deviations are not tolerated. I learnt that you must be the official definition of anything, in order to be something, otherwise, you are nothing.
What does it mean when power can silence the voices of the weak, the poor, the downtrodden and the disenfranchised? What does it mean when the scales of justice have lost their calibration for truth? What does it mean when vanity and ego can extinguish the very right that makes us human, that distinguishes us from animals, the right to think, to form opinions and to speak?
Ask yourselves, what do we stand for? What is this idea that is Singapore? Are we an idea that is calculable, finite, and ultimately, disposable? Or will we be an idea that is priceless, incalculable, worth living and dying for?
That inspires and gives strength to the human spirit, to enable us to speak truth to power, to draw a line in the sand and say “Freedom is mine, and you shall not have it.”
I?m an individualist anarchist. In most peoples? books that would qualify me as a ?doctrinaire libertarian”. I got reminded why recently by watching a Babylon 5 episode, the 4th-season one in which Sheridan is interrogated by an EarthGov psychologist who uses torture, isolation, and drugs, to try and break him. But more frightening than the torture is the ideology that comes out of the interrogator?s mouth; the command that truth is fluid and must bend to power; the disingenuous disclaimers of any responsibility for the hell Sheridan is being put through; and beneath it all like a constant drumbeat, the seductive invitation that if Sheridan will just surrender his will to the State, his pain will end.
The interrogator is never named. Like his prototypes in Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, he is a case study in the banality of evil ? the true face, the night face, the real face of the State. And what is truly terrifying is that the interrogator is not a mere thug but a man with a subtle and flexible mind. There is an angle on the world from which all his lies and acts of coercion issue from a coherent moral position ? but it is one that promises everyone but his masters hell on Earth, forever and ever, amen.
In this episode J. Michael Straczynski gives us a fictional depiction of a type that is all too real. Anyone who has read Arthur Koestler?s Darkness at Noon or Aleksandr Solszhenitzyn?s The Gulag Archipelago knows that if anything, JMS (who clearly did his homework on the real-world techniques of brainwashing) understates the soul-destroying depths to which the ideology of statism can sink, trapping the interrogator and his victim in a machinery of coercion that will ultimately consume them both.
The moral climax of that episode comes after Sheridan says ?You know, it?s funny I was thinking about what you said. ?The pre-eminent truth of our age is that you cannot fight the system.? But if, as you say, truth is fluid, that the truth is subjective, then maybe you can fight the system ? as long as one person refuses to be broken, refuses to bow down.?
?But can you win?? the interrogator asks, almost gently. Sheridan, knowing it is likely to mean he will shortly die under torture, rasps out the bedrock libertarian reply
?Every?time I?say?no!?
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11 Comments
Great post. I am deeply sympathetic with the spirit of what you wrote though, but I am not sure I would agree with every detail.
I’ll confess to be among those who remember the people, places, things more than anything else.
But why presuppose that there has to be a “Singapore per se”? What sort of things would go into the X in “Singapore per se =X” so as to satisfy you? From the rest of your post, I think you tends towards X is an idea (or set of ideas).
Even if it has to be an idea, it be an abstract idea? In the case of the US, it is–liberty, the pursuit of happiness. I suspect that in this regard, the US is in the minority among the world’s nations. There are very very few nations founded so explicitly upon ideas, accidents of history (or the inscrutable will of the almighty, if you will).
[What abstract ideas does China--not the PRC, but China, zhongguo, shenzhou, huaxia--stand for? (The PRC stood for ideas all right, but ideas discredited.) Their poets speak of shan he / jiang shan (the mountains and the rivers) as the metonym for their country. Hard to get more concrete than that. What abstract ideas does Switzerland stand for?]
And finally, even if it has to be an abstract idea, why must it be freedom? Why can’t it be freedom qualified by other values?
I don’t have answers, only questions…for now anyway. My hunch is that in the breast of those who love her, Singapore does stand for a set of ideas, just not the usual suspects of freedom and equality per se, but ideas that are at once beautiful and terrible…
I don’t suppose you can blame people for missing the “people, places and things”, etc cos those are indeed what make up Singapore, no matter how concrete. Abstract aspects, as you call them, are indeed intangible but nonetheless important. Freedom is something that is very much popularised by America and the whole novelty of liberty. Freedom has come to be almost synonymous with America. However, isn’t the very idea of freedom subjective and abstract by itself? What it means to you could mean something totally different to another. If I understand you correctly, free speech is an important part of freedom to you. For another, free speech could be something he/she could care less about. One might just want to be free from the chains of life one is entagled in. For another, it might even be a fight to protect one’s very own existence on earth. As such, I find that patriotism can only be loosely linked to freedom. Somehow, it seems as if patriotism is linked to freedom only when a person’s existence on earth is threatened. Patriotism then, is not an idea that goes hand in hand with freedom, but essentially a rush of feelings brought about by a threat to what people have come to associate “freedom” with. In the end, is freedom just something that the people wish to emulate America through? Is it something that people just aspire to obtain because Americans have promulgated it relentlessly and made it somewhat a novel model, to a certain extent even uniquely American? Singapore has no statue of liberty and has not engaged in “recent” military warfare with another country. In that sense, the younger generation perhaps cannot be blamed for not feeling the sense of “patriotism” as their “freedom” has not been threatened to a large extent. Deep down I think I understand where you’re coming from but I feel that these words perhaps could be interpreted in the true essence of their meanings.
P.S. Thanks for your note.
well, I certainly remember ‘people places things’ but I do remember how the air is almost viscous and the permeating heat.
While I certainly understand your argument and agree with it some extent, I reckon we show a form of reverse-patriotism. We hang shit on Singapore, but if anyone makes comments about say, how we are nothing but a red dot on the world map with nothing to contribute we get up in arms.
and what is “Singapore” as well without its people (since we have no natural resources) and as a locality (as someone else mentioned)? It would really be a red dot on the map.
That said, on a personal level, I find that there is nothing to keep me in Singapore. No reason for me to stay. I love the country, but not enough to stay there permanently when I find myself a stranger in my own land.
I’ve always had this romantic notion that Singapore will eventually evolve into a virtual community. The physical Singapore will never be the one we would recognise due to extreme changes that will take place in order to sustain the economic survival of the country.
Singaporeans do share common passions. We love the interaction and keeps in close proximity with fellow Singaporeans. We will remember the bond forged by sharing the common nationality of being Singaporean. We will treasure the precious memories of our time in Singapore. However, that is as far as we can go. We will just be a constantly migrating tribe, always looking that perfect place but yet keeping it all together as a niche community of being Singaporeans.
Our inter-personal bond is unbreakable, but on a level of national patriotism? Its non-existence. We treasure the people, not the land.
Well for me, I guess I’m living my lifelong dream- to get out of Singapore and live and study overseas..
But i’d have to say that the experince in general has made me think and appreciate Singapore more for what it is.. Sure I’m one of those who remember what it is for the things, people and places.. but well I guess thats one of the things that constitute the idea of country, home… Its easy out here to reminisce and idealize the idea of home and all..
Well I guess we were never really built on any particular set of ideals like america was, we were created essentially out of regional politics, forced by circumstances.. So i guess to expect that we should have some great overarching ideal that our country was built upon is kind of idealistic.. but anyways.. i say we should not try to define who we are because at least for me, i feel that thats just something that is very limiting, we can’t boil it down to things, people, places, ideas.. afterall nationalism and national identity is largely based on emotions, its not very tangible at all…
I say singapore is the feeling that you get when you meet other singaporeans overseas, that sense of commonality, through shared experiences, language etc.
well at least for me, my sense of national identity and patriotism (is that too strong a word?) is heightened when I’m out here… thousands of miles away from home.. but that could just be me i guess..
The ability of the human spirit to triumph against all odds. We believe that we can be the best, and we work at it, never letting up, never taking things for granted. We know how close to impossible it is for us to be of any standing in the world, but we try anyway. Sometimes, we approach things the wrong way, but we are but a young nation, still growing and learning. That, I believe, is the idea that is Singapore.
I personally have been overseas and live and study there for some time, examined the subject of being a Singaporean and most importantly the question that everyone else asked you when you go overseas, ‘Are you going to apply for PR?’.
While serving NS, I came to know of protecting Singapore as protecting my love ones and my worldly possessions. For some reason, the notion of country is foreign to me. I do not know why, but I can’t say for certain that ‘Yes I will protect my country’. Seems to me that fellow NSFs I spoke to then can only confirm the sworn protection of ‘people, places and things’.
Before I go into possible reasons why we are all seemingly trying to flee, I asked myself ‘Can I fit in over there?’. Emigration is a huge decision to make, people are driven by persecution, economic resaons, war, et cetera to do so. It’s not just a simple tour of the place and then come running back.
I considered it and the answer is ‘no’. Plain and simple, I can’t describe myself as ‘Australian’, ‘American’, ‘Canadian’, ‘British’. Doesn’t seem right.
Some have adviced, ‘Just get a simple PR, doesn’t cost much and you can flee when things go south!’
I guess eventually, I came back to Singapore, sure, we don’t have lots of things that other countries have to offer. WE do have stuff here that other countries do not have as well.
A lot is being said about the culture and especially the political climate, I say that I will not turn and run, I will stay on and see what I can do, because I am a SINGAPOREAN doing it for Singapore.
Hey, I’m a 14 year old student, female. I’ve gone through life here in top schools, am considered one of the elite and am still.. well, studying.
Every single time I go overseas (at my age with my family), I get homesick in less than 3 days. Even malaysia. Why’s that so? My family’s with me, I’m talking to my friends on msn, my grandfather on the phone every night. Because I consider Singapore my home. The spitting into drains… etc.
My parents are baby boomers, both from decent middle class families. My father works for the government so lets just say he’s more or less always politically correct. My mother on the other hand is less patriotic and definitely has almost no bond to “Singapore our homeland”. Both of them studied in England for 4-6 years. Lets just say my mother would not have left were it not for family obligations.
Perhaps in 15 years time you will find me living overseas. I do hope to go overseas to further my studies, thats for sure. To me, no matter where in the world I will choose to reside in, Singapore is still my home. If I do stay in Singapore, it is one of my wishes to join the PAP. You may be wondering which anal-retentive (as students of my type have been so called) person would want to join PAP? Have I been brainwashed by all the NE in school?
I can truthfully answer no. I always doubt whatever goody two shoes NE that MOE gives us. I want to join PAP because I believe I can ultimately make a difference.
John doesn’t like singapore too.
Hmm I may not like the Singapore system - the education is so rigid that does not allow one to pursue their interests fully, the lack of infrastructure for the handicapped, the lack of freedom of speech that resulted in a closed up society. But I do like Singapore not just for its food but for the sense of belonging i feel here… for the Singlish that is so uniquely ours and the acceptance of all ethic races. Most importantly I thank God for making me a Singaporean, why on earth do I deserve to own a pink IC, when i see so many people trying ways n means to come here either to study or to work… There’s always 2 sides to a coin.. The stability and peace we enjoyed may be at the expense of the lack of freedom.. Metritocracy has its value even if I don’t like the concept.. Juz some humble comments from an ordinary Singaporean waiting to find a job soon….
I have read your blog. I have been fighting with the banks, the legal system and the government of Singapore where I sued the banks for banking negligence. Till todate, I am still fighting because of the several obstacles posed by the government with the blessings of the court.
Read my blog at sgpvictimise.blogspot.com and let me have your comments.
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