What makes Singaporeans happy (from 2010)

Jan 7, 2010

By Tambyah Siok Kuan & Tan Soo Jiuan, For The Straits Times

THE media gives some insight into what makes Singaporeans happy or upset.

Singaporeans are happy when the Government rolls out a family-friendly Budget. Singaporeans are annoyed by service staff who are not passionate about their work or cannot speak English well. Depending on the performance of their investments, Singaporeans may love or loathe coffee shop talk about the stock and property markets. 

Childish Singaporeans

[From June 2013, when an Indonesian Minister called Singaporeans "childish"because they were clamouring for him to fix the haze problem.]

While I don't agree with the idiotic Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Ensuring Bribes get to the Right People (or whatever his official title is), I can understand why he is irked by Singapore clamouring for effective action. His constituents have long given up expecting their political leaders to do anything, so it is a vicious reality check for him to realise that in other countries you say what you'll do and then you do what you said you'll do.

So when he called Singaporeans "childish", he is saying in effect, "you expect me to do something just because I'm coordinating minister or some such political leader? You are naive! No other country works like your obsessive compulsive mentally disordered little red dot! Grow up!"

Singapore's Global City Strategy - From SG History Unauthorised.

From SG History: Rajaratnam's vision of Singapore as a Global City

From the IPS Singapore Perspective 2022 video:

How did Singapore, the "Accidental Country" become the Nation that it is today?

Home

"Home" (1998) written by Dick Lee, and sung by Kit Chan is a perennial favourite for Singaporeans.

Why?

Singaporeans like "Home" because we are NOT "rah-rah sis-boom-bah" jingoists. 

The political stance of Singaporeans

There was a survey on the political stance of Singaporeans:

"While almost half of Singaporeans were somewhat undecided on their political position, nearly a third leaned towards the left, outnumbering the one-fifth who preferred right-wing politics, a survey has found."

The approach of LKY and the other founders has (historically) been pragmatic. LKY actually started out more left-wing. It was in a sense practical, pragmatic, and a response to a colonial government. However over time, and when the PAP became the ruling party, the tactics of the opposition became irrelevant, and the PAP had to learn how to govern and to use the tactics of the ruling party. And divested itself of the sackcloth of the opposition.

And as the ruling party, the PAP had to adopt policies that WORKED for Singapore, and to abandon frivolous and impractical ideologies. And the touchstone of the PAP government has been to ask, "does it work?" and "would this work better?"

Biculturalism in Singapore, or the Importance of being polylingual or polycultural

I just realised I have not posted in over 2 months!

Not that I have not blogged. I have. I just haven't published.

Because, reasons.

Anyway, here is something I have been working on, off and on for a while - the Importance of knowing a second language, or at least more than one language.

We start with a joke. (Actually, it's all jokes. Not good ones, though. You have been warned.)

1) Chicken. Goat. Bag.

A Malaysian MP (or VIP) was kidnapped. The ransom was paid and the kidnappers allowed the MP to appear in a video to assure his family that he is alive and well. However, for some reason, the video had no sound, so the MP appeared in the video, and first carried a chicken. Then a goat. And then a bag.

When his family saw the video, they were overjoyed!

"He's coming back!"

Only Malaysians and Singaporeans may get this joke.

"If you cut us, do we not bleed? If you praise us, do we not go crazy?"

From TODAY:

Is this for real? Readers get ‘political’ over Nas Daily’s videos on Singapore

21 September, 2018




National pride. Anti-government sentiments. A population who loves to complain and is ungrateful and negative. Credibility of online content. Freedom of speech. No, it is not Our Singapore Conversation in session, though it might as well be with the range of topics that surfaced after travel vlogger Nuseir Yassin, founder of Nas Daily, hit back sharply at those who questioned why he was "so effusive in his praise" of Singapore in various videos, challenging him to take up citizenship to see what it is like to live here. Mr Yassin labelled his critics "crybabies", sparking a social media storm.

Religions - Radical Christians, Radical Muslims. Doing the Impossible

Ricemedia published an online article about Kingdom Invasion Conference 2018. This is a Christian Conference organised by Cornerstone Community Church, and attended by about 2000 people. Here's an excerpt from that article:

I’m at Kingdom Invasion, a mass evangelism conference that is in its sixth year running. On its website, the event is described as a platform to activate believers and churches to “take up the Lord’s mandate” to “bring the Kingdom of God into our world”. The conference also “acts as a catalyst for the prophetic destiny of the nations around Singapore”, fulfilling the prophecy of prominent American evangelist Billy Graham that Singapore would become the “Antioch of Asia” – the theme of this year’s conference.

The speaker implied that there is an urgency to curb "Muslim/Islam" during his sermon.

The Ricemedia article author asked MHA/Police how the speaker was allowed in.

The Ministry of Home Affairs and police did not respond to my queries on why Engle was granted a permit to speak in Singapore, given his notorious background. They also did not clarify what the rules for speaking at religious events were.

As a result, the Police and MHA are now investigating.

Conversation: Nasi Lemak Burger Challenge? What Tokking You?

"Wat tokking you? Challenge, your head lah!"

"What you reading?"

"The stupid paper lah! Got no news or what? Some Malaysian burger place want to challenge Singapore's McDonald Nasi Lemak Burger!"

"Oh yes. I heard about that. Or read about it. What about it?"

"OK, first, McDonald (SG) comes out with the Nasi Lemak Burger. So now this MyBurgerlab (MY) "invented" the The Nasi Lemak Ayam Rendang Burger." 

Being Singaporean

Many years ago (some time in the early 80s, before the world-wide web), I read an article about the Singaporean Identity (in a printed magazine): What it means to be Singaporean.

It was a reflective piece with interviews of various personalities, of which I only remember Toh Chin Chye being one of the more prominent interviewee.

The article concluded (IIRC) that the Singaporean Identity was still emerging, still being defined, and it was a long and on-going process, and it cannot be rushed.

I mused about that for a long while and accepted that it was probably a reasonable conclusion. Anyway, SG was about 20 years old or a little over, then, so it was probably premature to try to pin down a distinct SG identity.

But the point is that thinking about the Singapore Identity is not a new thing and it has piqued the interest of many.

Fast forward to today.

And there is a new study on the Singapore Identity.

Things that make us Singaporean

A response (lighthearted) to What is a Singaporean by Kishore Mahbubani

From a post in Oct 2009.

A Singaporean is someone who drinks water from Malaysia, breathes (smoky) air from Indonesia, eats pork from Australia, chicken from Brazil, rice from Thailand, live in flats builit by Bangladeshi construction workers, cleaned by Sri Lankan and Indonesian maids, surf the internet on IT infrastructure maintained by Indian IT engineers, watch Korean dramas and American movies, listen to Canto-pop from Hong Kong, and whose children and elderly parents are cared for by Filipino or Myanmarese maids.