The most crucial qn that i can to pose to myself and u, my friend? Are YOU a Singaporean... in that case, what makes u a singaporean.. if not what is holding u back from leaving SINGAPORE, your hometown, your home, your country of birth..
There was this article on http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/.. regarding going thru NS has improved our nationalistic sentiment... are we willing to stand up and sing our NATIONAL anthem with pride, honour and discipline.... One can have either a functional relationship or emotional bond to your motherland... Singapura.. For me... its both.. But talk is cheap, now blogging is cheap as well.. well let me just say examples of what it means to be a Singaporean to me, Manish.
Well.. for me its abt watching Singapore take on Uzbekistan at the Kallang Stadium... standing with my fellow Singaporean... neighbours,friends, students, pak ciks, mak ciks, ah ma, ah su, ah gu.. muthu, ali, mohammad,..Indians, Malays, CHinese, tow kays, ah bengs.. One people one nation one Singapore.. I believe very strongly in the Sporean ethic.. but at the same i am afraid and cautious.... will our Singaporean fabric just disintegrate when it comes to moments of panic.. will my fellow friend whom i have known for many years suddenly not recognize me... will the very malay friend that I knew be able to say Hi to me once again... will my chinese neighbour bother to even stop and say good morning to me and ask me how was my day...
For now... i think all these qns remain unanswered... but i for once.. will always lead by principles... my friends regardless of creed, colour and height or weight or education level, or bank account or ego factor or hair style or fav colour or walking style.. a friend is a friend until u prove it to him/her that you are not worthy of being a friend...
you know wahts another thing that i like abt being Sporean.... THE NATIONAL DAY PARADE... i mean pple say its too squeezy, cramped, too noisy, too this too that.. i say go and take a hard look at urself in the mirror... the very fact that i can sing the same old Singapore songs that I used to grow up with... Count on me Singapore, Stand Up for Singapore.. and so on... makes the NDP so nostalgic for me..
I am a man of passion and I love to see passion in pple, i like when i see enthusiasm brimming inside someone.. i like it when the person is so passionate abt something .. I just love it when i see that level of passion in that person's eyes..
Passion is something that it takes time to fully identify exactly where ur passion lies but once u have realised it.. there is no turning back..
< I like to end off with this quote " Singapore : United we work, Disjointed we chill" Do you think its true... I think at the end of the day.. when it comes to working, you dont see the person's background... however when it comes to chiling.. then suddenly everything becomes obvious... the race, the family, the kind of personality, the upbringing...
anyway.. in the next few entries.. i have a few issues to bring up... get prepared for them..
1) Why do my friends speak the way they do? - An interesting insight into what goes behind the mind of a person when they speak to someone..
The game of 5 qualities... i would give 5 qualities of a close friend and lets see whether u can guess them...
Til the next post, Majulah Singapura!!!
1 comments:
It is good that you feel Singaporean. We shall probably need more people with your spirit. However if you look back at what you wrote about things that helped you feel Singaporean: (1) the soccer match at Kallang Stadium, (2) the NDP, (3) the Singapore songs, e.g. Count on Me Singapore, and Stand Up for Singapore, then you may probably notice something -- they are all pretty superficial right? ;)
If that's all you need to become patriotic, then it would be very easy for the government -- just spend more money to make sure we have good soccer matches, a fantastic NDP, and write really good NDP songs. Have you ever think about how the lyrics of Count on me Singapore and Stand up for Singapore sound to an American? ;) Every single line is nothing more than a brain-washing propaganda and by singing them, we are like chanting the brain wash over and over again into our heads. Check out the American's patriotic song "America the Beautiful": http://www.brownielocks.com/AmericaELVIS.html Note the difference in brain washing-ness? ;)
Most Singaporeans cannot feel for Singapore because we are only policy followers and cannot share in policy making. The government has literally a mind of its own and this mind does not think through the eyes of the middle and poorer class people. Very often we do not know we are slogging for the good of the country or for the good of our rulers. We do not know what the government is doing or scheming. Our reserves have a mind of its own as well -- it takes on a life of its own, craving for survival and growth, and is completely untouchable and unaskable even by the president.
Everyone knows that if you want to fly high in the government, you need to think like the government. Finally you will be handsomely rewarded with wealth and power when your thinking exactly matches the government. Every dialogue session is a session for us to understand the politician and not for the politician to understand us. Does all these not sound at the least a bit strange? In other places, politicians climb to the top when their thinking matches the people, and not a well hidden doctrine.
I think Singapore, being a small country, has lots of potential to outgrow this imperfection. The government would just need to be more transparent about their motivation behind each policy. This requires honesty and sincerity from the government. This trust has not been earned yet, as seen in the incidents of Mas Selamat and GIC's investment in UBS. One day when the trust is earned, I believe patriotism will become more meaningful and less superficial.
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