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More people prefer privacy over neighbourliness: Poll

SINGAPORE — Interaction among neighbours has slowed over the past year, with fewer people welcoming neighbourliness around their estate and more guarding their privacy, a recent survey showed.

SINGAPORE — Interaction among neighbours has slowed over the past year, with fewer people welcoming neighbourliness around their estate and more guarding their privacy, a recent survey showed.

The Singapore Kindness Movement, which commissioned the research, found that about one in four respondents (23 per cent) exchanged greetings with their neighbours more than three times a week, compared with about one in three (29 per cent) in the previous survey. One in 10 (11 per cent) chatted with neighbours more than thrice a week, which is fewer than the 17 per cent in the last survey.

The poll was conducted among 3,066 Singaporeans, permanent residents (PRs) and foreigners, through face-to-face interviews: Between July and August last year, and between last December and this January. 

Respondents’ perceptions about graciousness, neighbourliness, foreigner integration and parents’ role in teaching gracious behaviour to their children were assessed.

The results, released on Tuesday (June 27), also showed one in 10 respondents admitted to not greeting their neighbours, while 14 per cent did not converse with them at all. 

Just 26 per cent of respondents wanted greater neighbourliness, down from 29 per cent from the year before. On the other hand, there was an increase in the proportion of respondents — 15 per cent — who wanted their privacy, up from 11 per cent in the last survey.

When it came to assessing the preference for neighbourly ties, there was a difference in opinion. Three in five Singaporeans and PRs believed that their present situation was “good enough”, whereas only about one in two non-residents felt the same way. 

Stressing the importance of good neighbourliness at a media briefing on Tuesday, Dr William Wan, general secretary of the Singapore Kindness Movement, said that the threat of terrorism has made it necessary to know one’s neighbours. “If we don’t know our neighbours, how do you know who that stranger is and what they are doing next door?” he asked.

In general, when it came to their relationship with their neighbours, 89 per cent of the respondents were satisfied and very satisfied with it, whereas 9 per cent were on the fence. The rest were dissatisfied with their neighbourly ties. These results were similar to those of the previous survey. 

Pet peeves attributed to neighbours include noise (51 per cent), littering (49 per cent) and wet dripping laundry (33 per cent), though fewer respondents indicated that they faced such encounters over the past year. 

Dr Wan pinpointed littering as an area of concern, and that cleanliness has been taken for granted. “Every day when we (get up), we find that (our estates are) all cleaned up. It doesn’t impact us, you see. The only way to stop littering is the source, and the source is us,” he said. The survey also found that public perceptions of gracious behaviour in several areas had slipped over the past year. 

These pertained, for example, to cleaning up after meals in public spaces, where efforts to get diners to clear their own trays at hawker centres or coffee shops have not picked up.

Dr Wan said: “We already told the contractors to train their cleaners. The cleaners are all jittery, afraid to lose their jobs. 

“We’re making their jobs better so that they can clean the place better, clean the crockery better, be more hygienic. They’re so worried ... That, to me, is the biggest challenge.”

SURVEY SHOWS LACK OF TIME A CHALLENGE FOR PARENTS

While more than half of parents surveyed said they did not encounter any challenges in inculcating gracious values in their children, a sizeable portion cited the lack of time spent with their kids as a main challenge.

A Singapore Kindness Movement survey showed that 54 per cent of the respondents, from a pool of 557 parents local and foreign, said they did not face any difficulties in this area.

Around one-quarter (26 per cent) cited a lack of time with their kids, while 17 per cent said that their children’s values were swayed by other parties, including their siblings and schoolmates. 

The survey also showed that 52 per cent of the respondents actively set an example for their children all the time. 

Similarly, 55 per cent said that they would always correct their children’s behaviour. Around half constantly reminded their children to be polite (56 per cent) and to behave in public (52 per cent).

In terms of the integration of foreigners into local culture, the survey found that permanent residents (40 per cent) and non-residents (39 per cent) felt that the mingling between locals and foreigners in a social setting had waned over the past year.

In contrast, 46 per cent of PRs and 50 per cent of non-residents felt that there was regular interaction in a social setting in the previous year. 

A lower proportion of Singaporeans (18 per cent) said that they interacted with foreigners socially, identical to last year’s results.  

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