A shopping list for Singapore on her 41st National Day

I was born in Singapore and have most of my family there, so no one reading this blog should accuse me of presumption. From my perspective as a person of faith, there is no point in celebrating our 41st anniversary as an independent country. We are rich in things but poor in soul.

I take my national pledge as my inspiration:

We, the citizens of Singapore
Pledge ourselves as one united people
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

1) More transparency and openness from the government.

Singapore claims to be a "democracy" - government by the people for the people. However, we have, as all other countries, a system of ingrained privilege. In our national ideology, this privilege is based on "meritocracy". The government offers prestigious scholarships to bright students with good extra-curricular records, they are sponsored for university educations at prestigious universities abroad, and come back to serve a bond. Thus, they are co-opted into the system. However, there is the common perception that they advance at the expense of regular workers.

Our ruling class is also very secretive about its affairs and does not tolerate dissent. Furthermore, Singapore is effectively a one-party democracy. There are 4 opposition seats in parliament and hundreds of PAP members of parliament (People's Action Party, the ruling party).

My problem is not with the one-party system. Perhaps this is a more "Asian" thing, where consensus is valued over discussion. What concerns me is the lack of openness and transparency. Singapore's ministers should be open about their salaries (they are very high, to compete with the private sector and eliminate temptations for corruption). Singapore's government must be open to criticism, and must involve average citizens in making major decisions. If you involve citizens in trivial decisions such as how to fund the local rubbish collection, you can then use that as an excuse for shutting them out of major decisions.

For example, Singapore recently opened two slots for casinos to be built. There was an outcry from the population, but their views were not taken into consideration. My problem is not so much with the casinos; I don't gamble but don't have a problem with people gambling if they can control it. My problem is this. Singaporeans have stated that casinos go against their values as a nation. The government has not listened, it has presumed to dictate our values to us. It claims to value consensus in decision making, but then ignores consensus.

Another problem is the ban on political films, and the restrictions on political organizations. This unjustly advantages the ruling party. They do not need help in publicizing themselves, but minority candidates do. There is also a lot of what Americans would call pork-barrel politics, in that opposition wards are placed last in line for housing upgrades (e.g. upgrades to the elevators, public lighting, other public facilities and housing in opposition wards).

All this must end. Our pledge calls us to build a democratic society. An Asian democracy may have a very different flavor from a Western liberal democracy. But ours is no Asian democracy, not yet.

2) Abandon the pretense of religious and racial harmony

Muslim girls are forbidden from wearing veils (locally called tudung) in public schools, since 2002. The rationale was to promote religious harmony. I fail to see how this does so, especially because Sikh males are allowed to wear turbans, which is a religious obligation for them also. Several girls were suspended over this issue: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia-pacific/1804470.stm

Like all Singaporean males, I served 2 and a half years in the Army, in a Signals unit. No Malays were allowed into Signals. There is, I believe, no official position that has been made public. The rationale that was informally given to us was that if we went to war with Malaysia or Indonesia, Malays might not want to fight their fellow Muslims. In a Signals unit, you can arguably do a lot more damage if you want to sabotage operations than in, say, an Infantry or Support unit. Also, it was only while I was in NS that we got our first Malay fighter pilot.

Singaporeans operate under the assumption that all the races are in harmony. And yet, in my Signals unit, one of my friends made a number of racist comments against Malays. We need to start admitting that we are all racist at heart, and then we need to deal with it.

3) Ditch the materialism

Our beloved government trumpets all of Singapore's economic achievements. On this score, they have done very well. However, as I said, we are a nation rich in things but poor in soul. By focusing on economic development, though, we have neglected political and spiritual development. As far as the lack of political development goes, I fault our government for being too restrictive. The spiritual bit, is our own fault.

When Warren Buffett made his mega-donation, newspapers here were wondering why there were no Singaporean Buffetts. In fact, there were a number, like Lee Kong Chian. Now, they seem to have died out. The Chinese can be very a materialistic people. I know it's not nice to make blanket statements like that, but I stand by this one (note I didn't say every single Chinese person is materialistic).

Conservation doesn't seem to be a concern for our government. Material wealth is. In fact, we have 4 million people now on nearly 700 sq km of land, and the government wants 5 million people, so that we can be competitive with our neighbors. When we hit 5 million, what then? Will we go for 6? Will we reclaim land all the way out to our national borders, and then go for 10 or 20? Will we dig underground, establish a lunar colony?

It is obvious how materialism impedes our spiritual development. I would only like to add that the government enthusiastically promotes the use of Mandarin to the exclusion of other Chinese dialects (killing a movie industry that did dialect films is one example of a crime against culture), bans chewing gum, is practically banning smoking ... if they applied the same amount of energy toward a campaign to get people recycling, then everyone would do it. But they have not.

4) Ditch the superstition

As for religion here, it's more superstition than religion. The Christianity that we've learnt (~15% of the population is Christian) is more superstition. For example, Joseph Prince, pastor of New Creation, preaches a prosperity gospel - that God will make you rich. Well, if you believe in the standard God (omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent), then I suppose it could be His will to make His believers rich. But, He could also cure cancer, diabetes, or homosexuality, but seems to choose not to do so, at least most of the time. The more mainstream Evangelicals are better, but their theology still lacks intellectual engagement. In fact, I was admonished by some of my cell group leaders not to take certain subjects, like psychology, in university, because they would make me "too secular." The irony is that Christians back home accuse everyone else of superstition. We'd better remove the planks from our eyes first. That being said, when they accuse everyone else of superstition, they are correct.

Superstitions impede genuine spiritual development. As we have seen two posts ago, superstitions in the form of purity codes can lead us to blame a girl who has been raped and execute her, and let her rapist off with a slap on the wrist.

With that done, we are a stable, multi-cultural nation. We could become a hub for positive inter-faith relations. We are wasting time, worshipping a candy-dispensing God.

5) Lee Kuan Yew, step down

I hate to get ad hominem. But, Minister Mentor Lee should retire. He's the primary architect of Singapore's national character. His authoritarianism has shaped us into a nation of sheep. It has made us very efficient, but it has also made us into followers. And still, he's in power - the title "Minister Mentor" was created for him when Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong resigned and let PM Lee Hsien Loong (LKY's son) take over. In fact, now-Senior Minister Goh took over Mr Lee's title or Senior Minister - another title created just for him.

It all leaves a bad taste in my mouth. There's something to be said for continuity of leadership, but Mr Lee has been around too long. The only good thing I can say is that he's a lot better than Mahatir Mohammed, ex-Prime Minister of Malaysia, a bitter old man, grasping at the power he relinquished, an anti-Semite and a fool. The only good thing I can say about Mahatir is that he wasn't afraid to stand up to the US, something which I wish we would do...

6) Stand up to the US and Israel

We have close military and economic ties to the US and Israel. Israel helped us start our Armed Forces. Good for them. However, the US launched an unjust war of aggression in Iraq. Israel is in defiance of UN resolutions calling it to withdraw to the Green Line, the pre-1967 border with Palestine, and to remove all settlements in the Occupied Territories. We have not stood against these acts of aggression. Have we no guts?

I'm not calling for severing ties with the US and Israel. I'm calling for us to simply speak the truth. The occupations are wrong, morally and legally. They must stop. Only if they stop will the US and Israel know peace. There will still be a lot to be done - there will still be Muslim extremists who want to wipe Israel and the "Great Satan" off the map, but if the occupations end, these idiots will have no excuse to do so and they will finally be exposed as the fools they really are. We can play a part in that Muslims in Southeast Asia, especially Malaysia, are often moderates. We are a place where the Islamic world engages and interacts with other faiths and cultures.

We think that we can afford to be silent, because the conflict will not spill over to our country, our children. This thinking is selfish. It will spill over to us. And even if it does not, we are one human family, children of (I believe) one God who transcends national and cultural boundaries. We owe it to ourselves to resist oppression, because if even one person is in chains, then none are truly free.