Singapore The Society and Its Environment
Vendor grilling satay, skewered pieces of meat dipped in a spicy
peanut sauce
MIRROR GLASS BANK TOWERS overshadowing Victorian-era
government
buildings symbolized Singapore's transformation from a
colonial
port to an independent city-state with the highest
standard of
living in Southeast Asia in 1989. Singapore's status as a
newly industrializing economy
(
NIE--see Glossary)
was signaled by its
landscaped complexes of owner-occupied apartments and
streets blocked by the private cars of affluent citizens. The
citizens
increasingly considered themselves Singaporeans rather
than Chinese
or Indians or Malays, and the multiethnic population
increasingly
used English as the common speech in schools, offices, and
the
armed forces. Singapore in the 1980s had become a byword
for
orderliness and effective administration, a place where
stiff fines
discouraged littering and citizens of all ethnic groups
were
subject to common, impartial standards of merit and
achievement.
Government efforts at social engineering extended beyond
slum
clearance and the creation of housing estates to such
matters as
men's hair length, the language families spoke at
breakfast, and
the number of children born to women with university
degrees.
Singapore's leaders reacted to the unanticipated 1965
separation from Malaysia, which left a city without a
hinterland,
by deciding to "go cosmopolitan." This meant seeking a
place in the
world rather than in the regional economy; it also meant
maintaining a certain social and cultural distance from
neighboring
countries while deliberately fostering a new and
distinctively
Singaporean culture and social identity. By late 1989
Singapore was
cosmopolitan, prosperous, modernized, and orderly. Its
population
was educated in English, worked for multinational
corporations, and
consumed a worldwide popular culture of film, music, and
leisure
activities. English was, however, a second language for
most, and
many distinctively Chinese, Indian, and Malay customs,
practices,
and attitudes continued. In contrast to many countries of
the
region, Singapore's avowed social values were secular,
democratic
(within certain limits), and nondiscriminatory.
The content of the distinctive "Singaporean identity"
and the
proper balance between cosmopolitan and traditional values
were
issues that both preoccupied the leadership and would
continue to
shape the society in the 1990s. There was much public
discussion of
social identity, ethnicity, and the proper relation of
Singaporeans
to worldwide popular culture. Such discussion, often
initiated by
political leaders, tended to dichotomize habits and
behavior into
mutually exclusive "Asian" or "Western" categories. The
initial
premise was that Singapore should be a modernized but not
a
Westernized society, and that it would be a mistake for
Singaporeans to become so thoroughly Westernized and
cosmopolitan
as to lose touch with their Asian roots and values. Such
concepts
as tradition and modernity, local and cosmopolitan, had a
distinctively Singaporean meaning as was indicated by the
widespread use of such terms as "Asian traditions" and
"cultural
ballast." The meaning of these concepts, however, remained
to be
defined more precisely by the discussions and day-to-day
decisions
of Singapore's citizens.
Data as of December 1989
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