It’s a contradiction in many cases. We were all aware of the last Singapore GE that one of the major brought up was that there are too foreigners coming into Singapore, PR holders or anything, yes true, Singapore may be the first world country but life is never easy in some aspects. I may not be a Singaporean but physically evidence of the many times I have been to Singapore, it’s no doubt that it has happened. So what happened?
We are all in the talking of Singapore slowly becoming a westernised city and it already has happened. Even before the first time I came to Singapore, during the 1970s, there is strong evidence that the island really depends on Globalization to survive. That’s the main inconvenient truth Lee Kuan Yew highlighted in his book, They improve their country based on globalisation and the opportunities from outside.
A few examples such as The China sets up Singapore to be their manufacturing and assembly plant site before exporting stuff to the west. Singapore has and must have good ties with China, and even better than Malaysia has. Besides, Singapore imports water since long time ago until when Dr Mahathir raise the price per meter cubic then LKY push the research on NewWater Technology to solve the problem of water dependency. It’s really black and white to see that Singapore needs to survive on Globalization, having its Jurong Port as the top 3 busiest port in the world and also their changing airport as a hub.
Personally, I don’t even see Singapore as a country, I see it as a super good international facilities island with a lot of come and go business purpose event. They are good, perfect in everything, yes they do protect their heritage building better than Penang. But if you would want to ask one about the unique point of Singapore? I don’t know what’s really nice to quote about. There was once upon when 10 years ago when Singapore used to promote their tourism by “Uniquely Singapore”
Seriously unique Singapore? Don’t get me wrong, I never want to offend Singapore and it’s always my respect on their efficiency on anything. I know there are few who is still living to the preservation of their culture. but the truth is that these scenes are hardly seen anymore today.
Today you don’t see any more local. Be it even Local food Courts but the food is seriously not any nicer than Malaysia. You can have Clarke Quay but everywhere is with bars with international standard and people know names by the origin of the countries but never about Singapore even though it’s on her Land. During the 1970s you can have awesome hawker stalls in orchard Road, just like Malaysia SS2 when you have all the tables coming up at night. But the Orchard Road today is a shopping mall city. During then, people will call you by your Chinese name, but now young children will have fancy English names which hardly makes difference anymore to distinguish with the western.
The young ones never realise. But for the generation who have witnessed how Singapore has changed. They know it very well that the youths of Singapore would be having a hard time to read the rapid changes over the years. Be its cultures, traditions, people on the island would be thrilled to learn about other country’s culture as it’s already an international city. That’s the point that I felt as Malaysians even though we have a lot of flaws in many issues but I’m always glad of us for the multiracial scene, and it’s not like the scene of many races staying together in a country which Singapore perhaps have that’s all. Much more to it.
All these while it has been happening. And most of them wouldn’t realise it until perhaps the recent elections. This thing is not new but observed by people nearly 10 years ago. For example about Traditional Names Goes West Amid of Fear Losing Identity. This article was written in 2004, from a narrative point of view of coming to Singapore 40 years ago.
Singapore has much more things to worry compared to Malaysia actually. The overcrowded of foreign experts coming in is but a threat to their economy now. You could say the life is good and stable but in the next 30 years, things will change. Many agreed.
