During the forum, Mr Lim said explained that Singapore takes an eclectic approach
to ensure it remains successful in the global
community.
He said: "We learn from the best from the West and the East and we
put them together in what we call the eclectic approach. It means
you pick the best features of the world, put them together and
adapt to it.
"We must always make sure that Singapore will be successful. One
reason today why Singaporeans have this high standing in the global
community is because of our success in Singapore. Therefore, let us
on one hand ensure that Singapore will always be successful and at
the same time, making sure that we keep learning the
best from the
West and the East and make it something uniquely Singapore. That
'uniquely Singapore' is really our biggest
strength.
No lah. It's because Singapore is controlled by peranakans.
Please don't talk nonsense.
But yet at
the same time, I must be able to speak enough of their language so
that I can explain to them in what way we're different, why we're
different and more importantly, why we can learn from each other
and leverage on each other.
In
other words, being bilingual, in my view, is very
important.
Rubbish propaganda such as this, you go and talk to those
depoliticised, non political people still can.
Go and talk to those political people, it will be completely
worthless.
THE BABAS OF SINGAPORE
What makes Singapore different? The majority of
Singapore's population is ethnically Chinese, but Singapore is
largely free of corruption, has sound institutions and the rule of
law dominates. It's nothing like China.
The
answer lies in a historical division in Singapore's Chinese
community between the babas and the
sinkeh.
The sinkeh, comprising the majority of the city-state's
population, were the recent immigrants from China, or whose parents
were born in China. They spoke Chinese, lived like Chinese and
considered themselves overseas Chinese. In Indonesia, such Chinese
were called the totok.
The
babas, on the other hand, also known as Straits Chinese, were
Chinese more in name than practice.
They were the descendants of the very
early Chinese immigrants (Hokkiens from the Fujian province) to the
straits settlements of Malaya (Penang, Singapore and Malacca). They
assimilated with both the local Malays and the colonising British,
whom they especially admired. The babas developed their own
culture, cuisine and language - Malay liberally sprinkled with
Hokkien.
The sinkeh were the traders, the coolies and the
shophouse owners. The babas became the lawyers, the civil servants
and the politicians; they attended the local English-language
schools run in the tradition of the UK's public schools, and Oxford
and Cambridge.
If the sinkeh received an overseas education at all, it
was in Nanking or another university in China.
Although the sinkeh
dominated Singapore's population, it was
the babas who dominated public
decision-making.
In effect,
a baba minority captured sinkeh Singapore, and
that minority's attitudes were more those of Victorian England than
China.
It was
the babas who were the framers of Singapore's rules and
institutions.
Many of Singapore's most prominent Chinese have had
baba backgrounds. Lee Kuan Yew, who became prime
minister of Singapore aged just 35, is the most obvious
example.
He
claims a Hakka heritage, although his upbringing was that of a
baba: at home, he spoke English with his parents and baba Malay to
his grandparents. "Mandarin was totally alien to me and unconnected
with my life," Lee said of his
childhood.
For
Lee, Chineseness was an acquired skill and later a political
necessity.
He was
not brought up as a Chinese with a focus on China, but as a baba
who looked to England.
He followed the conventional career path of a baba and
went to London to study law. And so Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore
became Harry Lee of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. His father had
given him and two of his brothers English, as well as Chinese,
names.
Did Lee
run Singapore as a piece of Asia mired in Chinese ways? No. He ran
it in a manner to which a British colonial administrator would have
aspired.
That other great framer of Singapore's institutions,
Goh Keng Swee, who rose to become finance minister and deputy prime
minister, is the epitome of the baba elite. Goh was born in 1918 in
Malacca, the epicentre of baba culture, into a baba family. His
parents were English-oriented Chinese Methodists.
The baba influence is now more subtle, but still there.
Singapore's current prime minister Lee Hsien Loong has the
strongest baba pedigree of any of the country's leaders.
http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/news/648273/
http://www.asiawind.com/pub/forum/fhakka/mhonarc/msg01319.html
http://tomorrow.sg/archives/2009/02/17/peranakans__going_the_way_of_the.html
SINGAPORE: Having a good command of Chinese is increasingly
important in an environment where the use of Chinese becomes more
pervasive.
Speaking to students at a forum, Minister in the Prime Minister's
Office, Lim Swee Say urged them to take a greater interest in
Chinese.
The future of the world may not necessarily be China-centric, but
Mr Lim said China will be a part of the future, adding that China's
growing influence should not be ignored.
Fielding questions in English and Mandarin, Mr Lim dished out
practical advice on how to work with the Chinese.
Mr Lim said: "Try not to impress the Chinese that you can be as
Chinese, or even more Chinese than them. There are 1.3 billion
China Chinese, so they don't need another one more. For example,
I've seen some Singaporeans going to China try to impress the
Chinese when they're using their language, their knowledge about
China and so on. Yes, the Chinese will be very impressed but what's
next? The reason why they want to engage us is not because they're
impressed by our language or our knowledge of them. But rather,
what they're looking to us is to bring something that they do not
know.
"In other words, my own philosophy is that when I'm in China, I try
to let them see the difference between us. I want them to know that
I look at things differently. I look at the way how technology is
being used, the way business is being run and so on differently. I
look at the way we run Singapore society, community which is
different from China. But yet at the same time, I must be able to
speak enough of their language so that I can explain to them in
what way we're different, why we're different and more importantly,
why we can learn from each other and leverage on each other. In
other words, being bilingual, in my view, is very important.
"If I am monolingual and expert only in Mandarin, I think I would
be limited use to the Chinese because as I said, there are 1.3
billion of them. They do not need one more."
Students asked a variety of questions, from China's impending
leadership renewal, its rise in economic power, and what Singapore
can offer as a small country.
One student asked if China and the West can establish a bridge
itself, what advantage does Singapore has.
Mr Lim said the role of bilingual and bicultural Singaporeans goes
beyond being a bridge.
He said: "We're not trying to position ourselves as an effective
interpreter. This is not our role. Our role is to be part of the
process of creating something together. Language understanding in
my view is just a basic necessity.
"The reason why the West is running fast to learn Mandarin is
because they feel that without the language as a tool, they're at a
big disadvantageous position. So they're trying to minimise their
disadvantages. The East are learning fast to learn English because
there're many things that they want to reach out to the West.
They're not able to do so because language is a barrier. That's why
they're learning the languages."
But Mr Lim added that it will take more than just language or
culture for both societies to come together.
During the forum, Mr Lim said explained that Singapore takes an
eclectic approach to ensure it remains successful in the global
community.
He said: "We learn from the best from the West and the East and we
put them together in what we call the eclectic approach. It means
you pick the best features of the world, put them together and
adapt to it.
"We must always make sure that Singapore will be successful. One
reason today why Singaporeans have this high standing in the global
community is because of our success in Singapore. Therefore, let us
on one hand ensure that Singapore will always be successful and at
the same time, making sure that we keep learning the best from the
West and the East and make it something uniquely Singapore. That
'uniquely Singapore' is really our biggest strength.
"Fifty years from now, it doesn't matter whether the West can speak
better Mandarin, or the East can speak better English. We'll always
have a role to play, in terms of helping to provide a bridge or
more than a bridge."
This is the largest forum since Business China launched the
China-Quotient Student forum in 2010.
Business China said this is a reflection of the growing interest in
China among youths.
Shameless Lee Kuan Yew's propaganda from top to bottom. See also
feel like vomiting.
Aiyo, all anglophile western propaganda garbage, how to win my vote
like that? Go fuck off better lah.
One hand tell people to take interest in chinese, the other hand
tell people we are east west rojak.
No wonder the end result is all garbage.
If the head is rotten, the body will also be affected.
Let a cultural freak like Harry Lee Kuan Yew to run dialect chinese
policies, the end result will be rubbish. It is inevitable.
Banana is banana.
Shit is shit. Cannot escape one.