a love post.

[catskilt]

With election fever high right now and everyone in a patriotic mood, I want to contribute by posting a bit about Singapore! 

When I was a young and dumb kid, the trend was to hate Singapore. "I want to move away, I want to emigrate, I want to go to Australia" in addition to "weather so hot, everything so expensive, kena sai". Singaporeans are expert at criticizing Singapore - you don't have to look overseas for haters! We're our own best antis.

But in recent years I've grown up a bit and opened my eyes and now I can say openly and unashamedly, I love Singapore. I love my home. I love its food, its "chin chai" (easygoing) culture, its diversity, its tolerance, its harmony, its heart, its beaches, its skyline, its greenery, its ships out at sea. Okay, so I don't love the weather, and I don't love Channel 5, and I don't always love the people (though I do love the people too, sometimes), and I don't love the cockroaches/ants/lizards who also call Singapore home. I may love Taiwan or Japan, and the US has a lot more open spaces and pretty houses and friendly people.

But Singapore is home. It's an island that our grandparents have worked their asses off in factories, boats, markets, schools, to build a country. It's a place where our mothers and fathers grew up in, played five stones, hung off buses, ran around in fields. It's a country with an amazing history (despite our early attitudes of "Singapore history damn boring"); it has gone from virtually a swamp to a highly developed and prosperous country. It is safe for women to walk alone in the wee hours of the morning, it is a haven for so many people from surrounding countries, it speaks any amount of languages, it has minimal corruption, it has had some fantastic political leaders and statesmen. This hasn't happened overnight, and no, it is not the typical development for most countries. Singapore is a country that has achieved its own peace, security, and comfort through physical hardship, through the terrors of war and occupation, through poverty, through racial riots, through political tension, through intelligence and diplomacy, through endurance and perseverance and hard work.

And so I want to say to Singaporeans: SINGAPORE IS NOTHING TO BE ASHAMED OF. Singapore is worth your passion, love, and loyalty. Learn more about Singapore before you bash it as we've been socialized from a young age to. Take some time to read its history, to think of what your grandparents have done for Singapore, to think of the many, many people who have come from all parts of Asia and integrated together to build this amazing diverse community. Think of your Chinese, Malay, and Indian friends. Think of how the CBD lights shimmer on the Singapore River. Of the sunsets at East Coast. Of the glittering skyscrapers at Raffles Place. Of the talkative taxi uncle. Of the old men playing chess in coffeeshops. Of the auntie in the wet market smiling when she recognises you as a regular customer.

It's a beautiful country. And despite what happens in the elections, despite what the PAP may say about the opposition destroying Singapore, despite what the opposition says about PAP already destroying Singapore - remember it is up to us, first and foremost, to love our country, protect its own interests, preserve its beauty, and maintain it as a place that other people from around the world wish to visit, work, and live a part of their lives in.

Comments

I would totally Like this if this was a facebook note

[kawaiitensai.livejournal.com]

Hahaha here I am procrastinating while trying to mug. XD

Awesomely written, and I agree. Singapore is our home, and whatever we make of it, whoever makes the policies, we will still live on and call Singapore home. ♥

Once all the the mudslinging is over by the end of the week, all of will return to our normal lives and move on. I am already tired of all this politicking and I just wanna hurry up and vote already and carry on haha (I still haven't decided who to vote for yet tho). And some more since I'm in Marine Parade all my MPGRC friends are posting Nicole Seah all over the place. And when I go to her facebook page it resembles allkpop/kpop fandoms where all the comments are supportive and when someone posts something rational questioning NSP plans they automatically get labelled pro-pap. /endrant

So anyway I hope you're doing great over there! ♥

[htenywg.livejournal.com]

If you get on Facebook and The Online Citizen and mrbrown and Temasek Review, you'll see that the image of Singapore is radically changing from the young person's point of view. Civil society is rising up the way it did with AWARE and there are a lot of clever things being said that shows that the younger generation of voters cares about the country they live in and is, in some sense, getting more patriotic.

The only fear I have got is if the PAP makes a clean sweep of everything again. I think that will disenfranchise all the voices who want to be heard, and draw the rift between the silent majority and vocal minority even more. Also, have you seen the way the PAP has been insulting the electorate and the opposition? The New Paper outright fabricated a story on Chee Soon Juan and the SDP rally a couple of days ago, and they're facing a huge backlash from online now. The only problem is that nobody knows how many people are getting this balanced view. Netizens will always be loud and crazy but everybody else who isn't on the Internet is going to take TNP's views as truth. That's terrifying.

There are people who also disagree that we should keep encouraging foreigners to come, because policies don't take care of Singaporeans enough anymore. What's the point of maintaining our own country for others to come to if we don't get classed first?

I love Singapore, I really do, and that's why my heart aches for it. I thought in 2006 that the PAP would be afraid by the fact that they nearly lost Aljunied to the WP and would wake up its idea, but it doesn't seem to be the case. I'm sad and disappointed for the current state of what once was the best political party in Singapore, for the political party that made people the success it is today, and for the state of the media in Singapore. Sure life will return to normal after 7 May, but what is normal? Will it really stay the same? What will happen in the next 5 years, which will propel the events of the next GE?

Damn it I have a 60% exam in 3 hours, I shall be going away now. Haha.

[sanjihan.livejournal.com]

Sing it, sister. I seriously loved Singapore, and I wasn't really there long so I can't really count for much. But I thought it was a beautiful country full of beautiful people, and a really heart-breaking past and hard-fought freedom. I can't wait to go back.