FROM SURVIVAL TO PROGRESS – SINGAPORE - 2001

I confess that after staying in South East Asia for a while, heading to Singapore was an idea that didn’t please my mind at all. Big cities in South East Asia (e.g. Bangkok, Georgetown, Medan) are, as a rule of thumb, noisy, chaotic, polluted and dirty. That’s why I was avoiding them, preferring, quieter and smaller places. For my surprise, Singapore is completely different comparing to other big cities in South East Asia. It’s clean, organized and not polluted. If I had to describe Singapore in a simple way, I would say that it’s kind of “Asian Switzerland”. One of a kind place. Within the places I’ve been so far (Western Europe and South East Asia), Singapore is the #1 for living and working.

Some of its history:

Since the 13^th century, Singapore was seeing as a thriving port place, thanks to its geographic position. Disputed by many countries since then (Melaka, Portugal, Netherlands) it ended up as a British colony in 1824 after a good paperwork. Sir Stamford Raffles and his good diplomatic relationship, granted the British settlement and the development of the harbor for the English East India Company in Singapore from 1819 to 1963.

The British supremacy was disrupted in 1942, during the II WW, when Japan easily took over Singapore for 3 and a half years.

When the war ended, the British returned. This time, its colony was a complete mess. Lack of food, electricity, water, destroyed homes and unhappy population was the scenario. That made the population pissed off and awake for the politics, willing to clean the mess and control their destiny. Four main political parties were struggling to gain power. To make things worst, communist were promoting riots. It was a complete mayhem.

Trying to end the communist threat and to gain independence from the British, Singapore merged unsuccessfully with Malaysia for 2 years from 1961 to 1963. Their political, economic and political differences made it impossible.

On 9^th August 1965, Singapore split from Malaysia and finally became an independent tiny island-nation. Such a small country (less than 650 sq kilometers or less than 405 sq miles), without natural resources and British support, forced them to face daunting issues such as defense, unemployment and housing.

I have always said that to make a sustained big change, it takes 2 generations. Singapore with its international policy, brakes that rule, attracting many first tier companies and nowadays is one of the most important commercial / trading hubs in the world. More than that, they are leaders in the communication, banking and petrol industries.

-Transportation

--Public transportation is reliable, fast, simple and good value. Like in Europe, they use the integrated concept: MRT, buses and LRT together, using the same payment method and integrated logistics. You use an electronic card that you can load a minimum of S$ 10 (US$ 5,5) to a maximum of S$ 90. The MRT cost varies between S$ 0,80 to S$ 1,80 depending how far is your journey (automatically calculated and deducted from your card-account)

--Owning your car is almost a luxury. It’s unbelievably expensive. An ordinary car can make you easily US$ 50.000 short. What hurts the pocket is the license, which is valid for 10 years. And to make owners even “happier”, they automatically charge you (around S$ 1,70) every time you go downtown. Every car and motorbike has an electronic device that you insert your personal card. When you pass through the downtown gates, it automatically deducts the fare from your card. What happens if you don’t insert the card? The system takes a picture of the license plate and a “think-twice-fine” will be duly delivered to your mailbox.

-Military Service

Military service is compulsive for every man in Singapore and lasts for 2 years (minimum). You can postpone it, due to educational reason, but when you finish, you have to start it. Male foreigners that were raised in Singapore can enlist in the military service and get the Singaporean citizenship.

For the government, at least, the military service is seeing as a very important issue and they focus their minds and money to make it look “cool” and worth doing for the will-be soldier. Examples:

-In the Singapore Discovery Centre, a place mainly for kids and teenagers (I liked it though :)), they have the whole ground floor devoted to the military service. Of course the attractions were guised as push buttons for the entertainment for the would be “Rambo”.

-An advertising campaign scattered in the MRT’s billboards shows some office shirts or attendant’s cap with funny honor badges such as: “Distinguished Service Order – Bravery in the Face of Rude Customers” and in the right side the question: “Is this what you want to be recognized for? Be somebody”. See picture below (in the Word version). The complete Navy’s campaign advertising can be seen in my Web Site in the Album section (left side menu) http://communities.msn.com/GeorgeHollandsWebSite/join?iid

-Press

The reason why you can read so many essays in the newspaper praising Singapore is because the press is tightly controlled.

-People

Singapore has many different ethnics and religions that coexist pacifically. That’s one of its highlights. Diversity.

-Main ethics: Chinese (77%), Malay (14%) and Indian (7%)

-Religion is, as a rule, ethnically associated: Buddhism and Shenism with mostly Chinese, Muslim with Malay and Hindu/Muslim with Indian.

-Indians are the mostly seeing ethnic doing the “not dreamed” job such as cleaning.

-Chinese people organized themselves in communities (even in secret “communities”) since the early times to help themselves economically and socially. That’s one of the reasons why you see “Chinatown” everywhere. Chinese people always manage to plant their flag.

- Filipino, Malay, and Indonesian labor are highly deployed in the house keeping and babysitting markets. In the job classifieds they are ubiquitous.

-Traveling in Singapore

Traveling in Singapore in terms of transportation is great, but in terms of budget accommodation can be quite difficult. The government is closing all budget accommodation (yes… somehow they can do that). They pay a lower market price for the building or the place and that’s it. “Take it and leave it” or… Don’t take it, but leave it anyway”

Thankfully, I stayed at Galen’s place, an American that I met in Ko Phi Phi (Thailand). Great hospitality.

-Housing:

One of the Singaporean government prides is the home ownership of more than 90% of the population. Most of them are small apartments, but a very decent place to live. To dry the clothes, people just hang them on a stick, put them outside the windows and let mother-nature do the rest. From outside, aesthetically speaking, it looks…. “different”. :)

-Education:

Singapore has just 2 public universities: Nanyang Technological University and National University of Singapore. They accept just a small fraction of the students, letting the rest with three options:

1. Do a technical education in another place

2. Get your diploma overseas (huge market: loads of English and Australian universities advertised in the classifieds section)

3. Become a worldwide video game champion

In Singapore, the 12 year old kids do a once in a life chance exam that will impact their life dramatically. It’s similar to the German’s exam, but in a younger age.

Miscellaneous

-An Asian habit that really makes sense is to take off your shoes before going inside the house and even in some shops. It makes so much sense that even two year old kids know that. : “George is wearing shoes!!” protested Kylie (Galen’s/Lora’s daughter).

-Literacy rate: almost 100% (they invest in kids and grown up education)

- World's fourth highest per capita income!

-In the exhibitions of the Singapore’s history (in the Singapore Discovery Centre and National Museum), they show with pride how Singapore became such a developed country and overcame all the odds of a little country and, more important, they always remember that there will be always challenges and difficulties to be coped now and in the future.

A simple phrase that summarizes the way of thinking of the Singaporeans, by Lee Kuan Yew, former Prime Minister of Singapore in the 60’s, that strove against all difficulties (colonialists, communists, corruption, homing an etc) to make the foundation of the Singaporean thriving history.

“God helps those who help themselves… Britain has promised to help only as much as their economy will allow them. More important is that we help ourselves…”

Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore in the 60’s