A completely uncritical pledge to my new home

(The Singapore flag - Red color standing for universal brotherhood and equality of man whereas white signifies pervading and everlasting purity and virtue. The crescent moon represents a young nation on the ascendant. The five stars stand for the nation's ideals of democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality. - Shame on me, but when I first saw it in high number during the advent of National Day 2006, I thought there was an 'invasion' of Turkish people in Singapore...no comment)

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS A BETTER WORLD?

"We, the citizens of Singapore,
pledge ourselves as one united people,
regardless of race, language or religion,
to build a democratic society
based on justice and equality
so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and
progress for our nation."

This is the pledge every Singaporean knows and (according to what a friend told me a few days ago) is used to perform on every single day during school career. As I am about to move permanently from Munich to go back to the place I grew so fond of, I take the chance to revive this blog, which was always meant to illustrate the small, little anecdotes and facts I found worth mentioning from my Caucasian point of view in this 'Asian Switzerland' (as read on FT recently).

Let me therefore start by dissecting the pledge above a bit and looking at every line from a very subjective German pair of glasses.

(The pictures in this post all belong to one huge, beautiful wall painting which is open to the public at Raffles MRT station; this part depicts nicely how unity is lived in Singapore among different culture groups...Malay in the background, Chinese Singaporeans and an Indian Lady can be seen)

"We, the citizens of Singapore,
pledge ourselves as one united people,
regardless of race, language or religion,

It is still very interesting for me to see that a heterogeneous society such as Singapore, where the citizenry has every skin color imaginable, can work out without clashing into some sort of violence. It can be regarded as one (maybe the most) important achievement of this tiny place that it manages to integrate most culture groups and races without producing hatred and racism. My simple guess is that a society that is based on racial variety (such as Singapore or the United States) has to enforce strict rules in law and public culture to enable a spirit of tolerance; in comparison, the mostly homogeneous society of Germany with a lived so-called 'Leitkultur' (leading culture of the majority) of Christian-Caucasian-Western heritage has a hard time integrating a good number of immigrants (for example from Turkey) and struggles finding a way for many years.

to build a democratic society
based on justice and equality

Obviously, Singapore found its very own way of leading its people into at least economic prosperity. Some things such as the defacto rule of the People's Action Party (PAP) and certain aspects such as freedom of assembly (missing) or freedom of the press (well under control) do not match Western understanding of how things 'should' be run and draw regular attention and criticism in the Western press. Certainly, Singapore built a society that is based on justice (one very stable piece of infrastructure that contributes to the steady growth of Singapore) and equality especially across the culture groups and races. Would Germans or other 'Western' societies call it a democracy though? Most likely not, but it can be easily overlooked that in this grown-up, but young society people don't want to be educated by the West to become like them, but instead actively seek their own way to establish 'order, stability and security'...things Singaporeans clearly value much more than living with more 'freedom' to self-express or facing the higher uncertainty of very liberal societies. The classic trade-off between freedom and security has found a different, stable equilibrium in Singapore, I would say.

(clearly this picture depicts the sides of progress, [military] strength and solidarity...all intended pillars of society in Singapore)

One thing I found out by talking to many Singaporeans over the past years is that people in this country often see it rather as the place where they live...without necessarily having the deepest emotional bonding to it. From my perspective there is quite a 'utility view' present towards state and government...'Dear PAP: Give me a good place to live in, a safe environment, my yearly tax payouts then I will not bother you and you can live in peace with me'.

This means in essence that Singaporeans are quite a pragmatic people who expect from their government mostly to 'deliver'. However, if this kind of unspoken arrangement works quite effectively using a 1-party-rule which can provide economic prosperity without the nastiest corruption affairs, why the hell not? 'Never change a running system' is probably what many people think and live...and which gives them no serious reason of ever supporting the opposition which would only add an unstable (unknown?) component/variable to daily life.

so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and
progress for our nation."

Singaporeans clearly achieved more prosperity and experienced progress in many ways during the past years. Does this have an effect on happiness though? This is the troublesome part...as we all now, having 'something' finally will only induce happiness itself for a short time and then will leave you back wanting more. As anywhere else, prosperity and progress can provide for a foundation of happiness, but it's up the people to make the best out of it within the framework they live in. It's those same old values of friendship and family...well-placed in a modern society which can round up the package and turn it into something 'whole'...

Thomas Jefferson once said: "The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government." From that perspective, Singapore is doing a good job and I am HAPPY to come back!

Enough of politics today ;)

Cheers,

Maik

(Singapore's MRT....Mass Rapid Transport)