PAP is a useless and worthless party at nation building?
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Singapore spirit blows hot and cold
Insight Down South
By SEAH CHIANG NEE
If Singaporeans fear they will one day be overwhelmed by migrants in their own land, the statement from a minister that Singapore is not a country, leaves them even more uncertain.
IN THE midst of a historical demographic change, Singapore’s hard-headed government seems less inclined nowadays to talk about national identity than it once was.
This is a departure from the earlier post-independence years, when promoting values like patriotism and nation-bonding were top priorities.
Today, they remain important goals but are more discussed among citizens than the policy-makers.
Many Singaporeans are worried about the erosion of national fervour in an island state bloated by the recent arrivals of hundreds of thousands of foreigners.
On the government’s part, priority seems to have shifted – at least for now – from promoting nationalism to persuading Singaporeans “to embrace foreigners”. I suppose there’s a time for everything.
It probably seems untimely for the authorities to preach an intensification of national feelings at a time when so many foreigners – and new migrants – are settling here.
“They are caught in a bind. Harping on national sentiments now could be seen as isolating the new arrivals,” said a neighbourhood doctor.
With its short history, Singapore still needs to continue to build a national identity among Singaporeans citizens or risk losing its economic achievements, he said.
The question is: How, when citizens may soon become a minority?
Recent conflicting remarks by ministers have not helped to clarify to citizens where they are heading – or indeed if Singapore is a country or merely a global city.
Law (and Home Affairs) Minister K. Shanmugam surprised everyone when he told visiting American lawyers that Singapore was not a country.
He was defending the government’s human rights records. The minister said Singapore was viewed as a deviation from the democratic norm because it was seen primarily as a country.
“This is where most people make a mistake. I have tried to explain that we are different. We are a city. We are not a country,” he said.
It sparked off a public debate, especially among young national servicemen sworn to defend the nation. Baffled party members sought an explanation.
In an indirect effort to control damage, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said Singapore could not afford to have a ratio of more than 40% foreign workers.
“We felt we are more comfortable with that than thinking we are nothing but a global city. We are also a country,” he said.
In an earlier unrelated event, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said that despite its achievements, Singapore was not yet a nation.
“Are we a nation yet? I will not say we are. We’re in transition. Please remember this is an ideal which we may not completely reach, but because we have this ideal, we’ll continue to make progress,” he said.
All this talk has not gone down well with Singaporeans, who find it incomprehensible and reflective of government uncertainty.
Songshus blogged: “From my observation over the last two or three decades, it seems to me that our government is only trying to succeed economically.
“We should also develop on other fronts that would bind our people together, and promote cultural and identity awareness.
“The average Singaporean really does not know what future direction we are heading towards.”
Critics of the government, however, are less surprised.
For years, they have accused the People’s Action Party (PAP) of governing Singapore like a profitable corporation, even paying themselves as Board members.
Increasingly during the past decade, the political leaders had been talking more of Singapore as a global city.
During his recent visit to Moscow, MM Lee said his vision of Singapore was that it would no longer be seen as just an Asian city one day – but as cosmopolitan and connected to the world.
In view of this line of thinking, Shanmugam’s description of his country as a city – not a country – should not be surprising.
The question is: what will happen to the national identity that the PAP had wanted to forge from day one of independence?
Can it work with so many foreigners coming and going as though it were a hotel?
Some analysts noticed that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who faces a tough general election soon, recently talked of wanting to build – not nationalism – but “The Singapore Spirit”.
Not many people remember now, but in 1989, Singapore’s leaders called for a “national ideology” to prevent a “harmful drift towards Westernisation” and promote a national identity.
No one bets it will be revived anytime soon.
While moulding a national identity has not been a popular leadership topic these days, the same cannot be said of Singaporeans. Many are pushing for a stronger rallying effort.
During National Day, another popular discussion centred on the question: “Will the rally make us feel for Singapore again?”
Some Singaporeans believe the country now has an identity crisis as a result of foreign arrivals now making up one third of the population.
Others agree that while it is causing some social dislocation, “we should not blame the whole problem on the government”.
Muhamad Nur appealed to all to treat Singapore as a nation – not just a city. “This is our only solution.”
A visiting student from Switzerland, Christabel, disagreed with those who declared that Singapore has no identity or is a sanitised corporate state.
“Remember as a country, you are only around 40 years old. Identity will come naturally, given more time.”
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so is $inkapore a nation, a country, or a city...................??? OR MAYBE A MNC?????
si beh luan leh...........
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Singapore not country then why serve NS?
PAP not interested in nation building then at least abolish NS ma.
How can an anglo dog like Harry Lee Kuan Yew ever hope to succeed in building a nation of majority dialect chinese?
His mentality is mentality of a dog, then try to impose a dog mentality onto majority of non dog people.
How to succeed like that?
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Originally posted by Ä«Õß:¸ïÀë:
so is $inkapore a nation, a country, or a city...................??? OR MAYBE A MNC?????
si beh luan leh...........
Not MNC. Its billion profit making SME.
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Law (and Home Affairs) Minister K. Shanmugam surprised everyone when he told visiting American lawyers that Singapore was not a country.
He was defending the government’s human rights records. The minister said Singapore was viewed as a deviation from the democratic norm because it was seen primarily as a country.
“This is where most people make a mistake. I have tried to explain that we are different. We are a city. We are not a country,” he said.
Above type of bullshit PAP talk how to inspire the confidence of people like that?
Listen also like some moron talking cock.
Talk like moron, who will attend your rally?
No wonder people see your PAP rally also sian.
Like useless shit.
PAP rally 2006 GE:
Worker's Party rally 2006 GE:
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Not forgetting Shanmugam said that WKS did a very good job when he took over his position.
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S'pore has never been a country.............i've been saying that for many years........
at the highest level........S'pore is still a Crown Colony.............with the Lee Family as governors
at our own local level..............it's a Lee Kill You fiefdom ................
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Harry Lee was reared by the british to be their dog, so he adopted the british dog mentality from young.
After Singapore became independent state, he created Singapore and ruled it as a british dog would.
That is the key to understanding the failure of nation building in Singapore.
He basically imposed a british system onto a non british people. He himself is a british dog, so he had no problems with the british system.
But the attempt to impose an alien british system onto non british people would ultimately serve to alienate the people and the nation state project would fail.
What makes Singapore different? The majority of Singapore's population is ethnically Chinese, but Singapore is largely free of corruption, has sound institutions and the rule of law dominates. It's nothing like China. The answer lies in a historical division in Singapore's Chinese community between the babas and the sinkeh. The sinkeh, comprising the majority of the city-state's population, were the recent immigrants from China, or whose parents were born in China. They spoke Chinese, lived like Chinese and considered themselves overseas Chinese. In Indonesia, such Chinese were called the totok.
The babas, on the other hand, also known as Straits Chinese, were Chinese more in name than practice. They were the descendants of the very early Chinese immigrants (Hokkiens from the Fujian province) to the straits settlements of Malaya (Penang, Singapore and Malacca). They assimilated with both the local Malays and the colonising British, whom they especially admired. The babas developed their own culture, cuisine and language - Malay liberally sprinkled with Hokkien.
The sinkeh were the traders, the coolies and the shophouse owners. The babas became the lawyers, the civil servants and the politicians; they attended the local English-language schools run in the tradition of the UK's public schools, and Oxford and Cambridge. If the sinkeh received an overseas education at all, it was in Nanking or another university in China. Although the sinkeh dominated Singapore's population, it was the babas who dominated public decision-making. In effect, a baba minority captured sinkeh Singapore, and that minority's attitudes were more those of Victorian England than China.
It was the babas who were the framers of Singapore's rules and institutions. Many of Singapore's most prominent Chinese have had baba backgrounds. Lee Kuan Yew, who became prime minister of Singapore aged just 35, is the most obvious example. He claims a Hakka heritage, although his upbringing was that of a baba: at home, he spoke English with his parents and baba Malay to his grandparents. "Mandarin was totally alien to me and unconnected with my life," Lee said of his childhood.
For Lee, Chineseness was an acquired skill and later a political necessity. He was not brought up as a Chinese with a focus on China, but as a baba who looked to England. He followed the conventional career path of a baba and went to London to study law. And so Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore became Harry Lee of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. His father had given him and two of his brothers English, as well as Chinese, names. Did Lee run Singapore as a piece of Asia mired in Chinese ways? No. He ran it in a manner to which a British colonial administrator would have aspired.
That other great framer of Singapore's institutions, Goh Keng Swee, who rose to become finance minister and deputy prime minister, is the epitome of the baba elite. Goh was born in 1918 in Malacca, the epicentre of baba culture, into a baba family. His parents were English-oriented Chinese Methodists.
The baba influence is now more subtle, but still there. Singapore's current prime minister Lee Hsien Loong has the strongest baba pedigree of any of the country's leaders.
http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/news/648273/
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Originally posted by Junyang700:
Not MNC. Its billion profit making SME.
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Originally posted by Vote PAP OUT to Save SG:
Singapore not country then why serve NS?
PAP not interested in nation building then at least abolish NS ma.
How can an anglo dog like Harry Lee Kuan Yew ever hope to succeed in building a nation of majority dialect chinese?
His mentality is mentality of a dog, then try to impose a dog mentality onto majority of non dog people.
How to succeed like that?
I heard from my taiwanese friend (when taking up recent seminar), was told that taiwan ns also the same 20 months, but they gonna shorten it very soon to 1 yr. And in future, will dont have any ns but instead volunter ns man.Isnt it taiwan better in foresight?
They emphasis on economy, on countries moving forwards with local talents fighting with foreigners, thus reduce and eventually no ns for the guys.
Why cant spore follow them?
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Originally posted by likeyou:
I heard from my taiwanese friend (when taking up recent seminar), was told that taiwan ns also the same 20 months, but they gonna shorten it very soon to 1 yr. And in future, will dont have any ns but instead volunter ns man.Isnt it taiwan better in foresight?
They emphasis on economy, on countries moving forwards with local talents fighting with foreigners, thus reduce and eventually no ns for the guys.
Why cant spore follow them?
if u been to kimmen island, u will understand why taiwan needs an army in the past
now �三通 so withdrew the army
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To make yourself happy, please cooperate to make tons of money for the CEO and Board of Directors of the country. I invite you to enjoy pay and pay to destress yourself from the worry of how these buggers manage the country corporation.
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Originally posted by seyKai:
if u been to kimmen island, u will understand why taiwan needs an army in the past
now �三通 so withdrew the army
That is what my taiwan friend told me.He's now in spore working.
Another foreign talent.
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fucking cheeby............... i have waste my 2 years NS and 10 yrs reservist cycle to protect....... er........ protect si mi huh??
KNN!
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It's quite sad actually.
So many years of nation building all gone down the drain due to the policies in the past few years.
Haiz.
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Originally posted by charlize:
It's quite sad actually.
So many years of nation building all gone down the drain due to the policies in the past few years.
Haiz.
These few years we have a Prime Minister BG Lee HL.
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anyone know any cold n nice place 365 day a year in australia with lotsa jobs??
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sporeans are the ones who will vote the PAP out if they hate PAP so much.
so next thing if i were a PAP leader would be to fill up all sporean jobs in spore with foreigners from cleaners,technicians,engineers to managers.
the sporeans who can vote or have any position to affect PAP will be given lesser jobs n removed from spore thru suicide due to hard life in spore and immigration outa spore.
so who is voting for spore in the end??the workforce of 100% non-sporeans really where most arent allowed to vote!
since up to now u dun see any legislations increasing yer salary or improving yer lives in spore...it lall ooks like some guy trying to sell u a broken dvd player in some shadowy shop.
what are u all going to do?????yer votes probably mean nothing now....probably just a waste of yer effort.
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There's no repricocity between the people sg let invice versa in terms of employment....especially the well paid ones...how many of this countries will let sporeans do the jobs that pay more than 3k/mth in their turf without causing discontent among the locals....so we are the suckers and the elites benefit as usual
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The day when the people start exercising their right as a citizen is the day that Singapore is a country.
Or else we no different from the Animal Farm.
It is our forefathers and fathers that have put the elites into power.
Even existing senior citizens are still believing these elites will run the place with the welfare of the people in mind.
But, where else in this planet can a individual stay in position when he was complacent or not doing his job and still keep his million dollar salary ?
Only in some third world county or dictatorship.
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I think people are generally very appreciative of the old guards who did a great job in leading Sg.
However, recently things are going downhill.
Not many people are happy with that, hence the discontent.
Times are bad.
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Originally posted by charlize:
I think people are generally very appreciative of the old guards who did a great job in leading Sg.
However, recently things are going downhill.
Not many people are happy with that, hence the discontent.
Times are bad.
But dont be surprise if sinkies vote back papies and we start this cycle all over again
Fear and greed is a powerful motivator. Fear lossing out, greed for hdb to huat sky high
From wikileaks
"MM Lee said he wishes the USG well in its efforts on North Korea, but he would be surprised if the North Koreans agree to give up nuclear weapons. They might give up a first-strike capacity, but they want nuclear weapons in case the USG decides to seek regime change. They are psychopathic types, with a flabby old chap for a leader who prances around stadiums seeking adulation. MM Lee noted that he had learned from living through three and a half years of Japanese occupation in Singapore that people will obey authorities who can deny them food, clothing and medicine."
"Regarding the Chinese economy, MM Lee said the global economic crisis has hit many countries, but the feel on the ground differs considerably from place to place. The Chinese economy is reportedly in the doldrums, but when MM Lee visited Jiangsu Province on May 24, his impression was one of continued prosperity. Shanghai has been harder hit, with container port traffic down 30-35 percent, similar to the situation in Singapore."
The election goodies coming, sinkies forget the bad times and status quo continues. Trust me.
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Originally posted by Vote PAP OUT to Save SG:
Singapore not country then why serve NS?
PAP not interested in nation building then at least abolish NS ma.
How can an anglo dog like Harry Lee Kuan Yew ever hope to succeed in building a nation of majority dialect chinese?
His mentality is mentality of a dog, then try to impose a dog mentality onto majority of non dog people.
How to succeed like that?
Wah !- how come so many dog languages!
Probably over emphasise on legal and economy instead of human touch version of "nation" building
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PAP is not a useless and worthless party at nation building, look at how much Singapore has prospered over the years.
Luckily PAP always had the support of the capable and talented, unlike the opposition rebels who only had the support of the traitorous and retarded.
I support PAP.
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Originally posted by parn:
PAP is not a useless and worthless party at nation building, look at how much Singapore has prospered over the years.
Luckily PAP always had the support of the capable and talented, unlike the opposition rebels who only had the support of the traitorous and retarded.
I support PAP.
"Luckily PAP always had the support of the capable and talented"
"I support PAP"
so u r the capable and talented one. how many here think so?
seems to me that u r the traitorous and retarded one