Singapore\u2019s survival is not guaranteed. If you\u2019ve followed Game of Thrones, or Mass Effect, or the Ender\u2019s Game prequels \u2013 the warning is always the same. Winter is coming. The reapers are coming. The Formics are coming. A house divided will not stand. We can all have our differences, but we will need to set aside our grievances to withstand our common enemies. Our common challenges. We are a tiny red dot, a sampan floating on a Malayan breeze. We\u2019re fragile but don\u2019t realize it, and we\u2019ve heard so many people say it that it\u2019s easy to write them off as scaremongering. (And yes, it doesn\u2019t make sense to live with panicked fear. Rather, we need to calmly assess the reality of our situation and act accordingly.)<\/p>\n
Folks from the government will always have their hands a little tied \u2013 they cannot speak frankly about some issues because of the challenges of their position. (Consider, for example how MPs will never openly state that some of their constituents who show up at their MPS sessions are selfish and entitled, because they\u2019ll get all sorts of backlash for it.) (I\u2019m also thinking now about sensitive issues around our Middle East policies\u2013 which I\u2019m hesitant to write about because I don\u2019t know all the details [who does?] and I don\u2019t want to say something unhelpful).<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve thought about this multiple times over the years \u2013 about whether Singapore is something that\u2019s really worth fighting for. And \u2013 after seriously, seriously considering the alternative, I\u2019ve come to think that it is. Singapore has its share of problems and challenges (and the weather\u2026), but it\u2019s really something special against the backdrop of most of the world. I\u2019m not the most well-travelled person in the world, but I\u2019ve been to Cebu, Bangkok, Johor. I went went back to my grandfather\u2019s village in Chennai in early 2016. It was so dingy and dusty. It was interesting to be in the Philippines, where so many of our domestic helpers come from, and to see people jiving to music out in the open, and where shopping malls have security checks to make sure you don\u2019t have any firearms on your person. To Bangkok, the land of smiles, where I accidentally walked right into the middle of a massive protest (which really seemed much more like a big happy party, except for a few newspaper headline photo moments). To India, where the moment you step out of the airport you\u2019re accosted by smiling men who start loading your luggage onto a car, hoping to get some tips out of it.<\/p>\n
The point is\u2026 Singapore\u2019s something special, and it\u2019s very easy to take it for granted. It\u2019s very easy to rely on the Night\u2019s Watch to guard our borders, so we can focus on catching Pokemon or bickering about hawker ceilings or bin centers. And all of those things are themselves important. The people who stay up at night ensuring our survival do so to protect our freedom to pursue the frivolous and trivial and mundane. But we should get involved.<\/p>\n
Here are some of my concerns:<\/p>\n
one\u2013 Changing geopolitics. China is on the rise. That\u2019s great for millions of people who are being lifted out of poverty. But change always comes with costs. China has good intentions I\u2019m sure. Our neighbours do too, and yet we have things like Konfrontasi in our history which results in lives being lost. It\u2019s a point-of-view that applies even to us as individuals\u2013 that we can love our families and friends, but we have to also protect ourselves from what harm they might cause us.<\/p>\n
two\u2013 terrorism. I am not a scholar or academic. I cannot say for sure what caused terrorism. Perhaps it\u2019s echoes of colonialism, some say religion itself \u2013 the crusades and whatnot. Jihad vs Mcworld. These are challenging conversations to have. But you know \u2013when a terrorist or \u2018freedom fighter\u2019 detonates a bomb that kills your friends and family, it\u2019s hard to sit down and look at it through dispassionate lens of global power struggles. When someone sets off a bomb in Singapore, there\u2019s a good chance they\u2019re going to claim to be acting on behalf of a certain belief system. The goal of that is to divide us. To sow suspicion and discord among our citizens. We must not let them.<\/p>\n
three\u2013 Technological advancement. We are currently living in the most complex time in the history of the human species. If the collective we call Singapore is to survive, we will have to adapt. We are seeing reusable rockets, driverless cars, increasingly intelligent AI\u2026 we cannot bury our heads in the ground at all of this. Singapore survived its difficult inception because of its bold commitments to embracing technology (the story of how we adapted to the advent of modern container shipping is probably not told enough\u2013 as well as the rise and fall of computer chip manufacture, and then banking), and it\u2019ll have to continue to do so or risk being left behind. Our taxi drivers are going to be affected when driverless car technology becomes viable, but we shouldn\u2019t use that as an excuse to avoid the future. We should do what we can to help them manage the transition, but we must engage with the future as it comes.<\/p>\n
four \u2013 distractions. It will be tempting to do XYZ. We have to stay focused. We should exploit every advantage that is available to us, because there aren\u2019t many. We should eat healthier, exercise more, keep our healthcare costs down. We should build relationships with one another, share our knowledge and expertise. Do exchanges with \/r\/malaysia, etc. \/r\/ASEAN should be a thriving subreddit, the Southeast Asian community deserves to have its own identity and community in this rapidly changing modern world. We have to build up the social capital now before we need it, so that we\u2019ll be able to better come together to take collective action when necessary. It\u2019s a common joke that ASEAN is an ineffectual organization that doesn\u2019t accomplish much \u2013 but whose fault is that? Why do we blame our leaders? We should step up to the plate ourselves and build our own relationships with one another. Whether you\u2019re a musician, an academic, whatever \u2013 there are all sorts of opportunities to collaborate with one another across our shores, and we should lean towards that. Our children will be glad that we did.<\/p>\n
Singapore is well positioned to be one of Earth\u2019s greatest cities, and I think we don\u2019t appreciate that enough.<\/strong> What\u2019s stopping us? We have some draconian attitudes towards things like sex education, LGBT, marital rape, drugs. We need social capital. Learn, grow, educate ourselves and take ownership of our own future and destiny, not just wait for the Government to do something about it.<\/p>\n We cannot depend on PM Lee and his team alone, or the PAP or the Worker\u2019s Party or a combination of both. We must ourselves defend Singapore. We must all take a personal interest, we must all be active citizens. That\u2019s how we flourish. That\u2019s how we stand out.<\/strong><\/p>\n Most people in the world are somewhat happy-go-lucky, a little sloppy. If we stay focused, challenge one another, we can show the world what Singapore can be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Singapore\u2019s survival is not guaranteed. If you\u2019ve followed Game of Thrones, or Mass Effect, or the Ender\u2019s Game prequels \u2013 the warning is always the same. Winter is coming. The reapers are coming. The Formics are coming. A house divided will not stand. We can all have our differences, but… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-10232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-word-vomit","tag-singapore"],"yoast_head":"\n