10 facts about Singapore:
1) Raffles did not find’ Singapore. Singapura already existed and thrived as a trading port which was a part of the Malay World.
2) Raffles did not come to modernize the country; he came to colonize it.
3) We are probably one of the few countries in the world that glorifies our colonizers: other people spew vulgarities at their colonizers, we build statues of Raffles.
4) Singapore was not a ‘fishing village’ in 1965. We were already of the best-performing economies in Asia by then.
5) While Singapore strives to be multiracial in intent, in reality we are not that multiracial in content. 77-14-8-1 (roughly) is the population make-up (CMIO). It is no surprise then to hear that majority of Singaporeans firmly believe there is zero racial discrimination whatsoever; because 77% of the population have never experienced it.
6) The UN special rapporteur on racism/xenophobia concluded after a visit to Singapore in 2010 that “while there may be no institutionalised racial discrimination in Singapore, several policies have further marginalized certain ethnic groups.” The government swiftly refuted the findings of the report.
7) Singapore is one of at least four countries that uses the Party Block Vote (GRC) system as part of its electoral system. Yes, we always like to think that we are ‘unique’ and ‘exceptional’, but sometimes reality tells us otherwise.
8) Many Singaporeans feel superior to their neighbours; so much
so that they are obsessed about defining themselves in opposition to these countries.
Sad, but true.
9) Both the government and opposition have their sets of hardcore supporters (though the former probably outnumber the latter). If PM Lee put a status ‘The sky is blue, #sg50‘, or Chee Soon Juan wrote ‘Democracy bla bla bla tyranny bla bla bla’, both would have many ‘likes’ and comments stating ‘what a great observation. We need leaders like you. Majulah Singapura!’
10) Many Singaporeans who are critical of the government at home, defend the same policies when they are abroad and foreigners raise these questions. Yes, this is not entirely rational, but nationalism is irrational anyway.
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We do not need to be intellectually dishonest and/or to rewrite history to be patriotic.
Oh. Happy birthday, Singapore.
Source: Walid J. Abdullah
