Otherwise u have to name me someone who is below 30 and
cannot read and write. Personally, I don't know anyone who cannot
read or write and is below 30
Stupid - or
smart?
One view from Taiwan: They're good
collectively, but individually they're lost. By Seah Chiang
Nee.
Apr 23, 2006
SINGAPOREANS
are affluent, educated, but are they really survival smart?
In a world of harsher living, this question that never dies has
again grabbed the public focus here with a general election less
than two weeks away.
At
the core of the debate: Without natural resources, the Singaporean
increasingly has to depend on his own guile, not only a good
education, to survive; has he got it?
It’s
not a new debate. In the past decade, the Education Ministry has
changed the education system to teach independent thinking and
entrepreneurship to correct some fundamental defects in the average
worker.
The
average Singaporean is good at academic studies and works hard, but
falls short on individual initiative and streetwise qualities,
relying too much on the government for help.
Revisiting
the debate is controversial Taiwan lawmaker Li Ao, who recently
ranked Singaporeans rather lower in natural intelligence to the
people in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
“Taiwanese
are scoundrels, but lovable, Hong Kong people are craftier,
(Chinese mainlanders are unfathomable) and Singaporeans are
stupider,” he said, adding that it is partially due to
genetics.
The
original migrants who came here from China were of “poor
stock”.
Minister
Mentor Lee Kuan Yew once told Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping that the
ethnic Chinese in Singapore were descendants of illiterate coolies
and farmers from southern Fujian.
This
had made them less able than the people of Hong Kong or Taiwan,
whose ancestors were mainly businessman or technocrats.
Singaporeans
could function well only as a group, not as individuals, Li told a
Chinese newspaper. They would never be non-conformist or stand out
above the crowd.
“If
you ask me, other than Lee Kuan Yew, his son Hsien Loong,
politicians aside, I can only think of a cute girl, (pop star)
Stephanie Sun, there aren’t many other outstanding people. The
impression that I get (of normal Singaporeans) is
stupid”.
Singapore’s
system, Li said, stemmed from the ancient Chinese political
philosophy of legalism, which emphasised on the rule of
law.
“Singaporeans
do not break rules, but they also do not stand out,” he said in
Mandarin.
He
said Lee Kuan Yew had wanted to build a British-style democracy but
because the people were not up to scratch, they only knew how to
toe the line.
His
report card on Singapore has shaken up the people at a time when
election fever is rising, indirectly touching on a campaign issue –
government control on society.
Predictably,
Singaporeans have reacted angrily to the terms “stupid” and “poor
genes”, dismissing them as a popularity stunt that takes no account
of their successful, modern achievements.
This
“genetic weakness” doesn’t aptly describe today’s diverse, more
mature and worldly-wise generation.
But
some critics say there is some truth in what Li said, but insist
that the fault lies not in genes, but in years of political and
social conditioning by a top-down government.
One
writer however, said: “A better word to describe the Singaporean is
naïve, which comes about because of a paternalistic and rather
efficient government.
"Everything
is so structured and laid-out that the people do not need to fight
for a living, blunting their ability to compete. They’re lulled
into thinking the outside world also behave like
Singapore.”
Businessmen
from Taiwan and Hong Kong are more alert to opportunities, as well
as cheats, compared to even the capable Singaporeans, whose
preoccupation is getting a high salary.
They
know where to take the short cuts when faced with a problem;
Singaporeans will just sit and wait for better days.
Under
the Lee Kuan Yew leadership, the collective good comes before the
individual, so the republic’s success is a “collective creation”,
Li added.
The
individual is often lost on his own. It has led some critics to ask
whether the Singaporean has an original viewpoint of his own beyond
what the government says.
“I
won’t say we are stupid. We are just not daring and street-smart,”
commented a Singaporean studying abroad.
In
his university, other Asian students would walk up to the
microphone and talk about some cause, not the Singaporeans, he
said.
Li
Ao is not alone in his views. Singaporean columnist Wong Lung
Hsiang said it reflected what he heard in China that “Taiwanese are
shameless, Hong Kongers are heartless, Singaporeans are
ignorant”.
In
Greater China, law-abiding Singaporeans have long been seen as
gullible.
In
a commentary in November last year, Wong advised Singaporeans to
treasure their own system at home, “but when you are away, you
should know how to adapt to others”.
What
Chinese Singaporeans have inherited from their grandparents is
peasant culture, explained “peasant judge” online.
“Peasants
don’t care for much else except a bowl of rice on the table, a roof
over their heads, and the chance to go out to the rice fields to do
the daily back-breaking chores day in day out.”
Politics,
too, is affected. Almost everyone goes to the polls with his
rice-bowl in mind.
It
occupies the citizen’s mind a lot more than his counterparts in
other countries, who are more passionate about issues like justice
and equality.
“Just
imagine, well-informed Singaporeans advocating a one-party rule,
saying it is good for the future. If this is not stupidity, what
is?’ asked redbean.
This
could be a recipe for future trouble should a foreign predator one
day use this character weakness to take over the
country.
All
he needs to do to retain the people’s compliance is by keeping
their stomach full and their mind empty.
