What happened to those values?
Today Online 12 Jul 08;
WHAT are our values as a nation? Do we even have shared values?
Others do.
Some countries turn to God to tell them how to feel about each other and everything. Others look to values grown over time.
We Singaporeans have no shared God, no shared political ideology, no long-shared traditions, unless you count the military parade and fireworks on National Day. Even National Service is served by only a fraction of the country, men above 18.
But while it’s safe to say no country has a set of values everybody cherishes, it’s still fair to think we could share some common beliefs and principles after about 200 years of living together. What could they be?
Many people point to the colour of our grass, which is greener.
Our antecedents came here looking for a living, so it’s quite easy to think their children would be focused on the material world. They say, no wonder we so easily describe ourselves as “Singapore Inc”.
But for about 40 years now, we have had National Service. Every family sends its sons to combat training, where they risk their lives for something more than Hotel Singapore — there seems to be something worth fighting for, even worth killing for. What is it?
For many other countries that something is a way of life or just the nostrum: My motherland.
But here, when we think roots, do we think Singapore?
When people abroad ask me where I’m from, more than half the time they accept it when I say, “I’m from Singapore.”
In my motherland though, 100 per cent of the time they still want to know, “Where are you from originally?” (Itell them, Kandang Kerbau Maternity Hospital.)
If our shared values are hard to pin down, it’s not for lack of trying.
On Jan 15, 1991, the world was told what Singapore’s “Shared Values” were, as the five statements of values were described after they were debated and adopted by Parliament.
How deep have they sunk in? Why not have a look at the five values, listed here in bold type?
“Nation before community and society before self.”
Well, a simple MRT or bus ride will be enough to show you how deeply we have embraced that one, with pregnant women, children and the old having to stand while even our boys in green sit, our youth pretend to sleep — what is it in the MRT aircon that makes so many people close their eyes for even a few stops? — and that’s not to mention the person in front of you at any building letting the door slam on you.
As for “Nation before community” — a phrasing that some say was added with the realisation that the original “community before self” could spell disaster in a multi-racial and multi-religious society — if we really believed in “nation before community”, why is there still a need for race-based self-help groups?
And so it goes with three of the other official “Shared Values”.
Community support for the individual. Who knows what this means, and how it doesn’t contradict “Nation before community and society before self”?
Family as the basic unit of society? What sounds so good and wholesome and very anodyne somehow found a downside in Singapore where people were actually punished for not forming a family — with a man at the head of the household.
This kind of thinking led the Housing Board to deny our singles better grades of flats for the longest time.
And for officialdom to deny medical benefits to children of female civil servants until more recent times – on the grounds that only a man could be considered the head of the home.
Consensus, not conflict? Sure, on a daily basis, we avoid conflict but that’s more out of apathy and fear of trouble than a sense of consensus, which requires engagement, something we’re not renowned for.
Just look at the amount of conflict we pay to consume in pop culture. We enjoy every Die Hard and superhero Hollywood throws at us, and then generate swordfights and fistfights aplenty in homegrown shows.
As they stand, it is hard to say we live by the official “Shared Values” or that society would accept laws that impose them, except for the one that says, “Racial and religious harmony” — we have even sent racist bloggers to jail to uphold it. (But we don’t discuss the terms on which we achieve harmony — acceptance or tolerance?)
So then, what are our shared values? You could come up with limitless questions to help define values. How do the strong treat the weak? Where do we find joy? What moves our hearts? How do we feel about freedoms? Responsibilities? What will we fight for?
A lot to think about. If you think talking about it has any value.
The writer is a media consultant who likes to share his views, if not values.
