City of Effort and Dreams
Singapore is a good choice for putting up your feet on the way home from anywhere in the world, and provides a window to the variety offered by Asia. It may be too orderly and clean in this city-state, a let-down for some who expect something more exotic and thus label Singapore antiseptic; however, the English language is widely used here, although it is but one of four official languages and the city’s verdant greenery reminds one of Australian capital cities. In an island in which you can ride its suburban commuting line (the Mass Rapid Transit or MRT) in under two hours, Singapore packs a lot in sightseeing, choice of food, shopping, architecture, sampling of different cultures and modern convenience. However, the attractive prices of a shopping haven past from the seventies are long gone. And be prepared for the humidity outdoors, although I miss the short evening thunderstorms that break out to provide a sense – and aroma – of relief.
Short of natural resources, Singapore nevertheless bursts with ideas and people-ability. Tiny in size, its outlook and planning is necessarily strategic. It has been governed by the same political party since the late fifties. Beneath the veneer of relative social harmony amongst its four primary ethnic groups, lie over forty years of what is worst described by some quarters as social engineering and control. The city-state is surrounded by larger countries with perhaps different cultural and religious emphasis, and has for years obtained its primary source of water supplies from the Malaysian peninsular.
Singapore thinks business foremost, and in recent years has relaxed its previous relative perceived strait-jacket culture in order to continue to sufficiently attract the necessary talent from outside its confines. Although it has always publicly celebrated major festive occasions of the main residential ethnic groups, it has realised that to be a vibrant world-class city, it has to be liberal in approach and mindset. For example, for a start, now you can bring in chewing gum from outside but still cannot consume it in public. Holding of major rave parties for the queer members of the community had been officially okayed, a contrast to the more restrictive views of its predominantly Muslim neighbours in South-east Asia. Integrated resort complexes are being built, with gambling casinos as planned centrepieces, things which were frowned on before.
Singapore considers the whole of Asia as its domestic market and has been actively engaged with the emerging huge economy of Communist China for over three decades. It remembers its past, when it was founded, as a trading post, by Sir Stamford Raffles for the British East India Company, to take advantage of its entrepot location between India and East Asia, between London and Sydney. Singapore instinctively knows that it has to be cosmopolitan, and grew up doing so.
The government encourages thinking ahead of the next potential corner in comparative advantage and competitiveness. The whole country is wired with convenient cyberspace connections at an affordable cost. It even has a team to play in the Australian National Basketball League. The government investment arm, Temasik Holdings, places its substantial funds around the world, including Australian, UK and American businesses. To perform on a leading edge, it requires standards – and the Singapore Government monitors those benchmarks like a hawk.
Still, there is this big problem of lack of land space – and ninety percent of the population live in high-rise units. Resident car drivers are used to paying for the right to enter the central business districts during peak traffic hours on working days. Traffic congestion was tampered by the relatively high prices of cars and now the population drinks New Water, which has ten percent of its amount containing recycled water components.
Singapore follows the tradition of city states from history, and has been watching Dubai, Shanghai and Hong Kong, amongst others, very closely in terms of global competitiveness. What it lacks in physical space, it makes up in intellectual challenge, innovation and services. Singapore always likes to attract the right level and kind of resources it plans and wants.
The Government inherited the mindset of draconian laws utilised by the British colonials to combat communist insurgency and social disorder – and still wields the stick of the rotan, a rattan branch that inflicts pain on skin with an unforgettable terror, while having no qualms in imposing zero tolerance and death by hanging for drug smugglers. It monitors its changing demographics continuously to ensure a continuing optimal mix of social groups that tampers political sensitivities and enhances economic drivers. It has decided that it requires an increase in population by another two million.
It does not have a burgeoning hinterland like Guangdong Province in Southern China – and tries to make up for that by eyeing attractive regions around the globe for investment purposes. Some quarters viewed the recent ownership of Thailand’s largest telecoms company by Singaporean interests as a new form of intra-nation economic control and order.
Singapore planners focus on the next best thing not foreseen by others – and act on them. It is hungry for being always at least one step ahead, as illustrated in the social phenomenon called “kiasu”, basically a Hokkien dialect word meaning being afraid to lose out, whether to the neighbour, to the classmate, to the colleague, or to the perceived competitor. If manufacturing has gone to other, lower cost countries, Singapore moves on – to be a regional mecca for education, medical treatment and biotechnology.
Singapore thinks green – and provides one of the best examples of coordinated landscaping anywhere. The green is also reflected in its compulsory military service for all males who are in their late teens. Females of the same age group are not required to serve, and this has led to an imbalance in suitably pairing off highly educated ladies to men of their age. Singaporeans travel overseas in record numbers, starting as students and culminating with emigrating to become residents of other countries. Various people leave a nation for different reasons of discontent, perceptions and need – and Singapore replaces outgoing numbers with a purposeful mix to optimise social forces and bring in the changing skills mix required. Its national airline recovered from traumas of SARS, terrorism risks and financial rationalisation to be the first buyer in the world for the Airbus 380.
The Government at one stage warned its citizens that the island state may have to re-merge with Malaysia if necessary to survive through an economic crisis – and this comes from the Switzerland of Asia, with the second highest standard of living in Asia after Japan. Singapore has torn down many of its heritage architecture – but has also salvaged much of its unique melting pot culture, notably the Confucian way of thinking, Straits Chinese icons and British framework of laws.
An ordinary day for a Singaporean does not consist of downing the cocktail Singapore Sling at the landmark Raffles Hotel or one of riding in police speedboats that patrol harbour and territorial waters in the fight against terrorism. More likely, a typical routine commences with kaya toast, followed by a short ride on the MRT or bus to a busy day in a business, profession or employment which involves contact with demanding local or international people. Shopping complexes, tourists and crowds are an accepted part of the landscape, together with encouragement or pressures to perform well and the continuing reassessment in balancing time between making monetary gains and recovering from urban-related stress.
The nation’s icon of the Merlion, a mythical creature best described as a combination of a lion and a fish, may best symbolise Singapore and its success. It represents what has to be done to create what the city-state is today: a wonder of a reality to astound, and to be able to think beyond convention. In the annals of warfare during World War 2, the British navy was so preoccupied with protecting Singapore’s southern flanks from sea attacks that the Imperial Japanese army infiltrated by land from the north via the Malayan Peninsular. Singapore remembers that – and knows that nothing is possible – without smart human exertion and having a sufficient level of motivating hunger.
Short of natural resources, Singapore nevertheless bursts with ideas and people-ability. Tiny in size, its outlook and planning is necessarily strategic. It has been governed by the same political party since the late fifties. Beneath the veneer of relative social harmony amongst its four primary ethnic groups, lie over forty years of what is worst described by some quarters as social engineering and control. The city-state is surrounded by larger countries with perhaps different cultural and religious emphasis, and has for years obtained its primary source of water supplies from the Malaysian peninsular.
Singapore thinks business foremost, and in recent years has relaxed its previous relative perceived strait-jacket culture in order to continue to sufficiently attract the necessary talent from outside its confines. Although it has always publicly celebrated major festive occasions of the main residential ethnic groups, it has realised that to be a vibrant world-class city, it has to be liberal in approach and mindset. For example, for a start, now you can bring in chewing gum from outside but still cannot consume it in public. Holding of major rave parties for the queer members of the community had been officially okayed, a contrast to the more restrictive views of its predominantly Muslim neighbours in South-east Asia. Integrated resort complexes are being built, with gambling casinos as planned centrepieces, things which were frowned on before.
Singapore considers the whole of Asia as its domestic market and has been actively engaged with the emerging huge economy of Communist China for over three decades. It remembers its past, when it was founded, as a trading post, by Sir Stamford Raffles for the British East India Company, to take advantage of its entrepot location between India and East Asia, between London and Sydney. Singapore instinctively knows that it has to be cosmopolitan, and grew up doing so.
The government encourages thinking ahead of the next potential corner in comparative advantage and competitiveness. The whole country is wired with convenient cyberspace connections at an affordable cost. It even has a team to play in the Australian National Basketball League. The government investment arm, Temasik Holdings, places its substantial funds around the world, including Australian, UK and American businesses. To perform on a leading edge, it requires standards – and the Singapore Government monitors those benchmarks like a hawk.
Still, there is this big problem of lack of land space – and ninety percent of the population live in high-rise units. Resident car drivers are used to paying for the right to enter the central business districts during peak traffic hours on working days. Traffic congestion was tampered by the relatively high prices of cars and now the population drinks New Water, which has ten percent of its amount containing recycled water components.
Singapore follows the tradition of city states from history, and has been watching Dubai, Shanghai and Hong Kong, amongst others, very closely in terms of global competitiveness. What it lacks in physical space, it makes up in intellectual challenge, innovation and services. Singapore always likes to attract the right level and kind of resources it plans and wants.
The Government inherited the mindset of draconian laws utilised by the British colonials to combat communist insurgency and social disorder – and still wields the stick of the rotan, a rattan branch that inflicts pain on skin with an unforgettable terror, while having no qualms in imposing zero tolerance and death by hanging for drug smugglers. It monitors its changing demographics continuously to ensure a continuing optimal mix of social groups that tampers political sensitivities and enhances economic drivers. It has decided that it requires an increase in population by another two million.
It does not have a burgeoning hinterland like Guangdong Province in Southern China – and tries to make up for that by eyeing attractive regions around the globe for investment purposes. Some quarters viewed the recent ownership of Thailand’s largest telecoms company by Singaporean interests as a new form of intra-nation economic control and order.
Singapore planners focus on the next best thing not foreseen by others – and act on them. It is hungry for being always at least one step ahead, as illustrated in the social phenomenon called “kiasu”, basically a Hokkien dialect word meaning being afraid to lose out, whether to the neighbour, to the classmate, to the colleague, or to the perceived competitor. If manufacturing has gone to other, lower cost countries, Singapore moves on – to be a regional mecca for education, medical treatment and biotechnology.
Singapore thinks green – and provides one of the best examples of coordinated landscaping anywhere. The green is also reflected in its compulsory military service for all males who are in their late teens. Females of the same age group are not required to serve, and this has led to an imbalance in suitably pairing off highly educated ladies to men of their age. Singaporeans travel overseas in record numbers, starting as students and culminating with emigrating to become residents of other countries. Various people leave a nation for different reasons of discontent, perceptions and need – and Singapore replaces outgoing numbers with a purposeful mix to optimise social forces and bring in the changing skills mix required. Its national airline recovered from traumas of SARS, terrorism risks and financial rationalisation to be the first buyer in the world for the Airbus 380.
The Government at one stage warned its citizens that the island state may have to re-merge with Malaysia if necessary to survive through an economic crisis – and this comes from the Switzerland of Asia, with the second highest standard of living in Asia after Japan. Singapore has torn down many of its heritage architecture – but has also salvaged much of its unique melting pot culture, notably the Confucian way of thinking, Straits Chinese icons and British framework of laws.
An ordinary day for a Singaporean does not consist of downing the cocktail Singapore Sling at the landmark Raffles Hotel or one of riding in police speedboats that patrol harbour and territorial waters in the fight against terrorism. More likely, a typical routine commences with kaya toast, followed by a short ride on the MRT or bus to a busy day in a business, profession or employment which involves contact with demanding local or international people. Shopping complexes, tourists and crowds are an accepted part of the landscape, together with encouragement or pressures to perform well and the continuing reassessment in balancing time between making monetary gains and recovering from urban-related stress.
The nation’s icon of the Merlion, a mythical creature best described as a combination of a lion and a fish, may best symbolise Singapore and its success. It represents what has to be done to create what the city-state is today: a wonder of a reality to astound, and to be able to think beyond convention. In the annals of warfare during World War 2, the British navy was so preoccupied with protecting Singapore’s southern flanks from sea attacks that the Imperial Japanese army infiltrated by land from the north via the Malayan Peninsular. Singapore remembers that – and knows that nothing is possible – without smart human exertion and having a sufficient level of motivating hunger.
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