Over today’s lunch, my colleague asked me if I love my country. I told him I did but I didn’t like it or rather disliked certain aspects of it.
I asked him how he felt about China. His answer was the same but he added:
You only really dislike aspects of something if you love it. If not you don’t care. You don’t bother. You hate the whole thing.
My government has constantly talked about whether Singaporeans were stayers or leavers, whether we have a national identity, whether we have people who are loyal to the country …
At the same time, the government seems to want to suppress dissent and negative opinions about stuff in the country and more specifically about the government.
True, not all dissent and negative opinions are equal. Some come from people who hate the country who don’t really care if the country changes and even if they do, they probably won’t be satisfied.
But, a lot of it is really coming from people who dislike only certain aspects of the country. We still care.
Suppress the voices, and very soon, two things will happen - the voices of those who care will disappear (we don’t hate or love the country, we become indifferent) and those who hate the country will just get louder.
joe | 25-Apr-08 at 2:11 pm | Permalink
Sir, they know.
They are willing to take a risk. That is why, they are doing everything within their powers to hold you down even if you start to hate the country. The trick is to get back at you with the rice bowl - economical tie-down. If you ever notice, most of the time, the minority are struggling to earn enough to live in Singapore. There are structural barriers to stop people from becoming too comfortable and think too much on politics.
But this will change. They are becoming “too big in their heads”.
alex tan | 25-Apr-08 at 4:45 pm | Permalink
exactly. the government always thinks that online bloggers are trying to put the government down.
if we hate singapore, we wouldn’t care a shit to blog anything about it.
iantimothy | 25-Apr-08 at 4:52 pm | Permalink
hey alex, thanks for leaving a comment. Hope NS is going well for you.
iantimothy | 25-Apr-08 at 4:53 pm | Permalink
hey joe, the problem isn’t just struggling to earn enough to live in Singapore. The problem is also we have been installed with a mindset on what is needed to have the good life. So we focus on the wrong thing.