Every time I watch a National Day Parade and the festivities surrounding the event, I’m reminded of a drinking session I once had with Vinod Shekhar CEO of Malaysia’s Petra Group. In between our shots of MacCallans Single Malt at the Post Bar, he described Singapore as, “Disneyland under Martial Law.” He justified his statement by saying that life in Singapore is perfect, like Disneyland. However our Disneyland conditions were created by strict laws.
As a patriotic Singaporean, I agree that life in Singapore is good. However, I often contemplate on whether this state of affairs is merely an illusion. Take the fact that Singapore is small island that hosts four (Western, Hindu, Islam and Chinese) of the seven civilisations that Samuel Huntington argued would inevitably clash if they were brought together. Somehow, Singapore has remained peaceful. However, would we continue to enjoy this state of affairs if we didn’t have a government obsessed with ensuring racial harmony?
Global evidence would suggest that Huntington is right. Singapore’s happy multicultural society is an artificial creation. People, it seems only cooperate when there’s a common enemy and will gladly jump at each others throats the moment the enemy disappears – just look at the way Yugoslavia disintegrated when Marshal Tito died or look at Iraq the moment Saddam Hussein was removed from power.
Even in Singapore, we’re finding groups of people to dislike. In the 60s we had interracial riots. Today it’s gripes against Bangladeshi workers and “Study Mamas,” from China. When I first started dating a Vietnamese girl, the whole world warned me that to be careful, after all Vietnamese girls are only interested in milking Singaporean men. Let’s just face the facts – negatives are so much easier to look at than positives.
Global examples are depressing! One might conclude that given half a chance, Singapore’s various ethnic groups would go the same way as Iraq. We had a potential example of this possibility in the shape of the racist bloggers who, in spite of growing up in our multiethnic community proceeded to promote views that were more suited to Mein Kampf than the Bible.
Are things in Singapore potentially this bad? I prefer to be optimistic about Singapore’s ability to maintain its happy multiethnic and multicultural fabric. I’m not alone in this view. People like Dr Amin Kurdi, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador have expressed admiration for Singapore’s efforts to create a, “Dialogue of Civilisations.” As long as we can maintain this, the future will look bright.
For one thing, Singapore’s cultures have been united through prosperity rather than through fear as they were in Iraq and Yugoslavia. Singapore’s government may have a global reputation for being stern but it also has a reputation of delivering the conditions for its citizens to succeed regardless of race, language or religion. While it would be wrong to claim that there is no racial prejudice in Singapore, it is possible for people from different ethnic groups to succeed – just look at Fandhi Ahmad.
Singapore has also reached the stage where we are culturally different from other countries. This is especially true for our Chinese and Indian business people who are discovering China and India. As an Indian lawyer admitted, “I miss my barchor mee whenever I go to India.”
Independent Singapore was an accidental creation and many of the things about Singapore may have been created in an artificial manner imposed from the top. I’m just glad that the feelings Singaporeans have shown for Singapore and each other, regardless of race, language or religion is quite real.
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