The joke's on us 
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?
Its 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 arent many other outstanding people. The
impression that I get (of normal Singaporeans) is stupid.
Singapores 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 doesnt aptly describe todays 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.
Theyre 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 republics 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 wont 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 dont 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 citizens 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 peoples compliance is by keeping
their stomach full and their mind empty.
