Recast the S’porean identity based on inclusivity, fairness — not materialism

In a recent dialogue with youths, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Chan Chun Sing called on Singaporeans to foster a national identity beyond materialistic concerns. In particular, he invoked the spirit of the Pioneer Generation, who surmounted tough times, to drive the Republic towards SG100.

Such a call is not new. Concerns about rampant materialism and anxieties about the pace of life were discussed during the Our Singapore Conversation initiative from 2012 to 2013. One also recalls the Remaking Singapore Committee in 2002, whose mandate was to move Singapore beyond the “five Cs” of careers, condominiums, clubs, credit cards and cars — all integral elements of the Singapore Dream as understood then.

Unfortunately, Singapore’s success has always and still is almost exclusively understood in material and tangible terms. The city-state makes an impression on the global stage largely in terms of numbers, scores, rankings, and indices, and is mostly admired — and resented — for them.

It is ironic that a national identity deliberately defined in material terms, once unabashedly celebrated, is now being lamented in various quarters, including the Government. This is even more ironic because the Government played a major role in defining Singaporean identity in material terms. In 1959, founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said:

“The mass of the people are not concerned with legal and constitutional forms and niceties. They are not interested in the theory of the separation of powers and the purpose and function of a politically neutral public service ... If the future is not better, either because of the stupidities of elected ministers or the inadequacies of the civil servants, then at the end of the five-year term the people are hardly likely to believe either in the political party that they have elected or the political system that they have inherited.”

Needless to say, “the future” is understood in material terms: Housing, schools, infrastructure, healthcare and so on. Our national security narrative is written in terms of defending our country, family and HDB flat. Even our defining cultural attribute, being kiasu, is understood as losing out on material things.

So therein lies the genesis of the Singaporean identity that is grounded in materialism and a transactional political contract, where citizens expect the Government to offer them a better life in material terms. And, of course, at some point, “the mass of the people” will start getting interested in “the theory of the separation of power”, along with the other intangible though no less important goods of progress.

IDENTITY AS A SOURCE OF MEANING

Why does national identity matter so much?

Identity is a source of meaning for people. It renders individual experiences into a collective one. It locates us in space and time, and provides the demarcation between “inside” and “outside”, “us” and “them”.

A national identity defined in material terms is no less legitimate than one framed in terms of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” or liberte, egalite, fraternite.

But the problem arises when growing numbers begin to feel disenfranchised by the very identity that was articulated to galvanise a people in the first place. For a materialistic identity, disenfranchisement begins with worries about jobs, homes and retirement adequacy.

Fears over children being left behind in a globalising and hypercompetitive world then manifest themselves in a high-pressure, high-stakes education system that stresses out children, teachers and parents alike.

Then, the ultimate act of resistance of the excluded is to challenge the status quo identity with alternative ones. Identities rooted in resistance arise out of a sense of alienation and resentment against exclusion, whether social, political or economic, real or perceived.

Historically, they have taken the form of religious fundamentalism, ethno-nationalism, and radical politics on both the left and the right. Marginalised groups have also retaliated by defiantly wearing as badges of honour terms that were used to denigrate them, such as “queer” for the LGBT community.

The voices calling for a more fulfilling pace of life and more diverse notions of success in Our Singapore Conversation are clearly nowhere close to being as violent or radical as what I described above. Still, can they be read as nascent gestures of resistance, or even surrender, by people subliminally uncertain whether they can attain the materialistic Singaporean identity?

And are Mr Chan’s comments an observation that a national identity based on materialism is becoming noticeably problematic, and that we need to transform our materialistic norms and values pre-emptively and progressively, rather than merely react to insecurity, anomie and possibly anger?

FAIRNESS AND INCLUSIVITY

In this, Mr Chan is in good company with another founding leader, Mr S Rajaratnam. In his famous 1972 speech setting out his vision of Singapore as a global city, Mr Rajaratnam also warned about the “Achilles’ heel of the emerging Global Cities”:

“Laying the economic infrastructure of a Global City may turn out to be the easiest of many tasks ... But the political, social and cultural adjustments such a city would require to enable men to live happy and useful lives in them may demand a measure of courage, imagination and intelligence which may or may not be beyond the capacity of its citizens.

For those people who cannot develop the necessary capacities, the Global City may turn out to be another monster, another necropolis.”

As Singapore looks to SG100, as we cement our status as a global city, we must recast our materialistic Singaporean identity as one that fosters an authentic sense of solidarity, one which treats as equal those who might otherwise have been deemed the lost and the last in the current narrative.

Unless we renegotiate a Singaporean-ness that is underpinned by fairness, inclusivity and diversity, without naively denigrating material concerns, growing social cleavages and the ensuing instability will be the Achilles’ heel of our global city.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dr Adrian W J Kuah is Senior Research Fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.