One United People
In a little over a month, singapore will be celebrating its 42nd National Day. Of course there will be the pageantry of the NDP complete with the national press breathless with praise and bombastic self congratulatory editorials and reports.
No doubt ST will be filled to the kazoo with photos of flag waving citizenry and the national leaders filled with self-satisfaction will arrange for another pay raise for a job well done.
Its all very superficial and shallow because the next day, life will go on as usual. After 42 years of nationhood, more than half of today’s youth wants to migrate if given the opportunity while 37% consider themselves unpatriotic. After years of having to recite the national pledge everyday, singapore today is no more united than it was the day that it was born.
42 years.
42 years of nothing. 42 years of getting stuck in first gear. 42 years of going from a nation to a multinational.
How did we go from Singapore to Singapore Inc?
I guess you start by paying your leaders like CEOs and corporate executives.
On the surface, singapore has the second highest standard of living in asia. Supposedly we are among the richest nations on earth. Yet beneath the gleam and glamour we have the gini coefficient of a third world country that only gets worse and worse. The inequality of our wealth distribution is even worse than indonesia and china. 2 countries supposedly wrecked with endemic corruption and a supposedly inefficient bureaucracy.
So what happened? Once upon a time, didn’t our PM promise us that no one will be left behind and the PM before him even went so far so as to promise a swiss standard of living
Yet today if you look carefully around you, more and more of the poor are being left behind. The old are reduced to scrounging in rubbish bins for aluminium cans and discarded cardboard boxes while the poor have to fight tooth and nail with cheap foreign labour for shitty jobs that barely pays them enough to survive.
The government likes to trumpet GDP growth, but how much of the fruits from that growth is shared with the poor? How do you expect people to really stand united, if the income gap keeps growing bigger and bigger. Periodic handouts from the government is never going to help the poor break free from cycle of poverty.
And on the other end of the spectrum, we also have ministers and senior civil servants who will make more in a month than what the poor will make in a lifetime. The same people who while drawing millions in salary paid by our taxes balk at increasing public assistance from a measly $290 to $330. The dichotomy couldn’t be more obvious.
It might have been different if the government had allowed for a robust and active civil society to developed where people can get together on their own to affect positive change for society. Unfortunately the government is apt to look upon such initiatives with suspicion and the government is loathe to share power with anyone other than themselves. Instead what we have here is a partisan grassroot movement with a heavy bias towards the ruling party. I could barely say the word grassroot leader without a sneer on my face.
So we singaporeans as a nation has never seen what true unity can bring. And its hard to be united when you’ve never experience it, to experience the kind of power where people standing as one could bring.
No.
Instead what we have here is a passive aggressive kind of unity. The kind of unity that manifest itself in a wholly negative fashion. The kind of unity where people get online to let loose all the anger and frustration on whatever that they feel is giving them the shaft. The kind of anger that results from a sense of powerlessness, of being treated as just economic drone. Those kind of unity you can see it all the time on forums. So as National Day draws closer each day, I asked myself all those years of blindly reciting the pledge- is this the best we that we can do? Is this the best that the government can do?
p.s. I was reading Lucky Tan’s latest post when it occurred to me, this entire entry can best be summed up as this- there can be no unity without equality and our society today has become more unequal than ever.
21 Comments so far
Thanks for the post. Hopefully there can be more posts like these, to balance out the cheery hogwash that will surely flood the mainstream media as you say.
Come National Day, I hope everyone will write about how they really feel.
All the people have misunderstood the intention of government. Preventing unity of the people is what government want to do because if people are united, do you think the partisan and exploitative government be still around talking cock and singing song daily ?
hello, i read your blog regularly, and i too find the phenomenon of income inequality disturbing. with all the propaganda thrown at us, it’s actually still quite disconcerting when one finds out than in real life, singaporeans aren’t as universally well-off as the government wants us to think.
i blog on this as well (and running too!). you might be interested in some of my posts (labels: income inequality and running).
[...] 42 years – from nation to multinational [credit to Insane Polygon for that excellent line] – Insane Polygons: One United People [...]
should be 43 years….
My ideas on how NDP can be improved.
1. From costumes to props to equipment to goody-bags, use only materials that *will* be reused. Forget about designing costumes that is only used once – so what if the material is recyclable?
2. Spread and sit the MPs (without their entourage) amongst the spectators, and let them be the first to arrive.
3. Have a on-the-spot dance party after the closing, MPs to stay & mingle (without their entourage) until at least midnight, and then personally help with the clean-up work.
Absolute equality (eg income) is an ideal and is not possible (or desirable) in this world.
Unity starts with the people taking ownership of their own lives and then their country.
Good article. I like the way you write.
when i was little, i liked the national day parades.
now, after spending some time in other countries … i find the parades bordered on the ridiculous … very much like those i watched in communist china and korea.
quite shameful to be still having such things.
why singaporeans like them, i really can’t understand. another brainwashed syndrome
[...] author of the blog Insanepoly, well known for the 3D rendering of Elite Girl, has written an insightful piece of article reflecting on our 42+ years of nation building. In a little over a month, singapore will be [...]
Regardless of race, language or religion.
To build a DEMOCRATIC society based on JUSTICE and EQUALITY.
so as to achieve HAPPINESS, prosperity and PROGRESS for our nation.
ERP = how can be happy.
bought certification (from where ever see how they perform on the first 3 week) in highly skilled job = potential hazard( chemistry, biomedical, instrumentation) or loss of data security(IT, FINANCE).
above = slower progress(need to teach them how to do stuff)(can be avoided with a proficiency test by HR(pref external) within 3 mth probation period guaranteed good luck if got FT HR staff)
Here’s how NDP can help the poor:
1) Pack 10 eggs (preferably rotten ones) into each goodies bag.
2) Make all ministers (including PM, SM and MM) and MPs walk around the stadiums.
3) Spectators can throw the eggs at whichever minsters or MPs they want.
4) Ministers and MPs must not “siam” (avoid) the eggs.
5) Additional eggs, fermented tofu, rotten cabbages etc. will be sold on the spot.
6) All proceeds donated to the poor.
7) 43 minsters and MPs with the most rotten eggs on them will donate their entire August salary to the poor for Singapore’s 43rd birthday.
now that’s a suggestion…ministers should siam what. It’s their nature to siam some things…like rotten eggs…additionally it’s questionable if the people still really like NDP…anyone who has been to rehearsals probably doesn’t…especially NSFs.
Personally i kinda stopped liking NDP after seeing how it was such a big wayang show in the Army. haha…
Remember what our PM said (i think it was 2006) : “Staying Ahead, Staying Together.”
Well, they are certainly staying ahead, while the rest of us peasants are staying together behind.
[...] I found this article from this post. Interesting read [...]
alamak! it should be 43 National Day.
Everyone WEAR BLACK on National Day. A day to mourn our nation because it is a MNC. WEAR BLACK!
I thought of the wearing black also. But for a different reason. Cuz it is the opposite colour of white
Lorne ah, the rotten eggs idea I like. Can add in the Chua sisters? Need more rotten eggs if they will be there also.
[...] years – from nation to multinational – Insane Polygons: One United People [Recommended] – Feed Me To The Fish: Singapore Cracked [...]
i will wear black.
[...] 8 Jul 2008 – Insane Polygons: One United People [...]