jermynisms

When I was a kid I remember coming back to Singapore after being brought up for several years overseas to be greeted by courtesy campaigns and other national policies aimed at shaping the country in a manner that fostered economic prosperity, progress and social harmony. The yellow smiley face icon, TV commercials and courtesy songs taught in schools seemed great fun. But something was amiss and I could not quite put my finger on it. I was pressured by my parents to go to college to become a lawyer, doctor or engineer as that’s what was best. Never mind the fact that I didn’t want to do that and would rather be leaping and turning.

This something amiss combined with pressure to follow the path to success led to my great rebellion. I deliberately did badly in my exams to ensure I wouldn’t qualify for college and insisted on living life my way, experiencing it as I choose.

Life has been good to me as I discovered several things I’m passionate about and I even managed to dance and choreography professionally. It was however my decision that the arts would not be able to sustain the kind of life I wanted so I embarked on a more professional path dabbling with fashion & events and even flew for several years with the airlines. The road I travelled ultimately led me to what many consider a “respectable” advertising job and a chance to set up life in neighbouring Kuala Lumpur. After living abroad for 4 year, things started to click in my head and I began seeing the world through different eyes.

It dawned on me that all the well intentioned initiatives in Singapore create a snow-globe like island “paradise”. Pretty to look at and live in until one leaves this magical isle to live in outside worlds that are very different and possibly closer to reality. Most soon realise that they’re not in Kansas anymore* and either adjust well quickly or yearn to go home to the more orderly and sanitized environment.

* For those who are too young to remember, this is a reference to a scene from The Wizard of Oz (1939) where Dorothy tells Toto she doesn’t think they’re in Kansas after a storm blows their house into a land colourful, unusual and unfamiliar.

Spending several years away, it’s become commonplace to hear negative sentiments expressed about my countrymen and I wondered why we had such bad reputations.

Here are some conclusions I’ve drawn from watching and observing:

1) Overemphasis On Meritocracy Singaporeans are too money minded and competitive
The educational system is all about grouping like-minded-&-abled kids together and herding them into educational streams laid out which often dictates the future they will most likely have. If kids don’t score well in exams, they ended up in a “normal” stream and then a technical vocational school with a future as an electrician, contractor or other blue-collared worker.

Because of this, parents are fanatically obsessed with getting their kids into the right school, providing tonnes of tuition and using discipline or innovative methods of bribery to get their kids to study harder to ensure they get into the top classes of good schools all for some assurance of a bright future. Other artistic, creative, athletic and non-main-stream pursuits are suppressed or discouraged wholeheartedly.

Given this, how can people not grow up with an unhealthy fixation on doing well, getting into the right places and yearning for a future filled with condominiums, cars and credit cards. The competition for a good placement in schools and showing-off can sometimes get so passionate family feuds erupt because one son got into a particular school and the another didn’t.

The school system coupled with the competitiveness of society plus the focus on material wealth as a gauge of success in life deeply ingrained in the Singaporean psyche make it hard for one to see other options and possibilities. And even if they do see, they may not dare.

2) Correcting Delinquent Behaviour Singaporeans are rude and don’t know how to behave with social grace
Behavioural modification of society is done through a system of fines and policies enforced by officers. Some of the more memorable ones include:
- hiring officers to check toilets for people who do not flush and to have them issues fines on-the-spot to offenders Imagine someone lurking around the corner waiting to jump out on you with a ticket.
- hiring officers to issue fines to people who suck on a sweat or drink a sip of water on the train because eating and drinking are not allowed
- public caning of individuals who vandalise
- banning of chewing gum because people were not responsibly disposing of chewed gum (Singapore is the only country in the world to do this and seems proud of it)

When you correct behaviour this way and treat people like delinquent kids, the natural reaction when they get to a place without similar restrictions tends to be for them to do everything they’re not allowed to in excess to relieve the pent up repression. So is it any wonder this is what many people remember?

3) Social Campaigns & Government Bodies To Tackle Social Issues Singaporeans are shallow and an apathetic bunch
- Courtesy Campaign to get Singaporeans to be more courteous as we were not too gracious at one time
- in anticipation of gambling addiction that may result because of the casinos opening in Singapore, we have the Institute of Mental Health developing a Community Addictions Management Programme (CAMP)
- social skills development for seniors or tax & financial incentives for companies to hire retirees as the cost of living has risen so much that many need to come out of retirement
- Excellent Service Awards aimed at increasing the levels of customer service in Singapore

There have been plenty of other initiatives including the handing out of money to help ease people into the idea of a Goods & Services Tax or during harder economic cycles.

With so many policies and initiatives telling people how to life is it any wonder that people constantly look to the government for assistance and guidance. How then can regulators & policy makers complain that the people are apathetic? The well intentioned and precisely timed policies and governance style has dulled the people’s instincts to think for themselves, to adapt & survive, to live with passion and to give a life that may be outside the prescribed norm a try.

So with all that I’ve said here, all anyone can do is to encourage people to break from the norm, to go out on a limb, to take a gamble on life, to push the limits of their comfort zone constantly, to invest time and energy into living a deeper and more rounded life. These help make us more interesting and give us more stories to share with the young when we’re old.

Hopefully some will listen and then see with new eyes too.

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