What a difference 15 years makes

As my regular readers will know, I have been living away from Singapore for 15 years in total now. Well, given how my blog has made me take a greater interest in current affairs in Singapore, I am going to write a piece today comparing and contrasting some of the key differences between 1997 when I last lived in Singapore and the Singapore of today. When I spend time in Singapore (and I did a lot last year), it feels like I am going home - especially when I go back to Ang Mo Kio to visit my parents, little seems to have changed in the immediate surroundings. The landscape just looks so incredibly familiar - take a look at the photo below. This was taken 4 years ago in 2008 (haha I had so much more hair then) - I had been away from Singapore for already 11 years by then, but during this walk around Lower Pierce Reservoir, the vegetation still looked so incredibly familiar - as if nothing had changed since I was a child.

Yes that's an old SAF grey singlet I was wearing then!

Political opinion has changed, but how much has it changed? The last general election I witnessed in person in Singapore was on the 2nd January 1997. Back then, the results were a forgone conclusion when the PAP won 81 out of 83 seats with about 65% of the vote. Hence the last general election in 2011 was a huge let down, given the way the opposition seemed to have got itself organized at last, the PAP still somehow managed to win 60.14% of the vote. There does seem to be a lot more dissatisfaction with the government today then back in the 1990s - this can mostly be attributed to the way people voice their opinions on social media. It can come in various forms - from long essays on blogs to one-liners on Twitter or Facebook. I suppose people did speak up back then as well, but back in the pre-internet days, our comments were heard only by the people we interacted with in person. The closest thing to any kind of 'forum' was the letters page in the Straits Times - boy, how things have changed in 15 years, eh?

Another major change I have observed was a dilution of national pride in the last 15 years - here's the irony. Singapore - as a country - is actually a lot richer in 2012 than it was back in 1997. Back in the 1990s, I remember how people used to refer to Singapore as the second richest country in Asia after Japan - but today, Singapore is one of the richest countries in the world after having pursued aggressive economic growth, unlike Japan. But why are people unhappy despite this economic success? How did we end up with this paradox then?

Ironically, the economic growth of the last ten years has evaporated optimism. After all, back in the 1990s, we had this attitude of, "if you think we're great now, just imagine what we can achieve in the next 10, 20 years!" Despite having achieved and even exceeded expectations in terms of economic growth, the price paid was too high: letting in too many foreigners, overcrowding in the city, a widening wealth gap - just to name a few things. In the HDB estates, many Singaporeans are not seeing any real improvements to their living standards despite these incredible statistics. They have just realized, "oh shit, is this what it is like to be a poor person in a rich country? I thought everyone would be better off if we enjoyed economic growth."

Perhaps it was naive, but I remember Singaporeans genuinely having a real sense of optimism that they will have a better future and their children will have a better future back in the 1990s. That sense of optimism is at best diluted, at worst replaced by a worry of trying to make ends meet as a low-income family in a very expensive city. Back then people genuinely had faith in the government to make things right - that attitude is far less prevalent today. Heck, my father who had voted PAP all his life voted for the opposition for the first time in his life in 2011. He gave me quite an earful when I asked him what he thought of the PAP today and well, I'll not quote him but he did use a rather expressive phrase in Hokkien to describe the PAP (no, not that one) - that's when I thought, woah my dad has totally lost his faith in the PAP. I thought we were more likely to get a snow storm in Ang Mo Kio than for my dad vote for the opposition - but there you go. Stranger things have happened.

Another rather sad development was also the increase of xenophobia in Singapore - I have mentioned before that my parents are rather racist (especially towards white people), but I thought, okay, that's the kind of attitude I associate with older Singaporeans. My siblings and I are anything but racist - we have friends of so many different ethnicities and nationalities. I guess the key difference is that my siblings and I speak English as a first language and are able to communicate in English with ease with people from the rest of the world whereas my parents don't have that luxury. I thought this difference in attitude was purely a function of our education and future generations of Singaporeans would not be racist at all - well guess what? Sadly, I was wrong. Remember what I said about the optimism of Singaporeans back in the 1990s? Yeah, that's what I am talking about.

The optimism of the 1990s has all but evaporated today. Where did it go?

I have condemned the nasty racism and xenophobia I have observed in Singapore - such as this deplorable attack on Filipinos that got me so very angry. Things weren't perfect back in the 1990s, of course there was racism in Singapore then - but many Singaporeans back then, like me, would have expected there to be much less racism in 2012. Instead, xenophobia and racism has been on the increase as the new migrants have failed to assimilate with the locals - leading to increasing social tensions between locals and new migrants. Of course new migrants should make a greater effort to assimilate, but by the same token, acting in a vehemently racist manner isn't going to scare them away either - it just makes Singapore a far more hostile, unfriendly society.

Another turn for the worst is the increased pressure on students - gosh, I thought kids of my generation had it bad, but it's nothing compared to what students today face. A while ago, this student wrote in to me for advice on his university application in a panic because he was worried that he may end up with AAB instead of straight As. And I'm like, good grief? AAB!?!?! Please lah, what are you panicking about? AAB would be great results - well at least they were in my days but he was talking as if he would have no future should he actually end up with a B amongst his A level grades. Are students really pushed that hard by their parents, teachers and the system today? There have been countless articles about just how much tuition students are subjected to from a young age and it just makes me depressed, thinking about what kind of future my autistic nephew will have in a society like this which seems to intolerant of students who do not fit the mould of straight-A scholars?

What kind of future is there for Singaporeans who are not brilliant students?

As a result, many more Singaporeans today are not just thinking about working abroad, but eventually moving away from Singapore altogether. This was far less common back in the 1990s - back then, sure people went to study abroad but always with the intention of returning to Singapore. Even those without a job offer in Singapore gladly returned to Singapore after graduation then, because they knew that Singapore was the kind of place where a young graduate would be able to find a good job. This is far less the case today in 2012, given the increased competition for jobs in Singapore from foreigners, many more young Singaporeans are looking much further afield for employment opportunities. After all, all you need to do is to walk down any street in Singapore and see the number of foreigners in Singapore today, if they're happy to come to Singapore to find work, then the only way to respond to that is to go abroad and find work elsewhere. Such is the way of the world in 2012 - the rules of the labour markets have changed.

Gee, I felt that it's all been bad news so far, how about some good news? It's nice to see that local sportsmen & sportswomen are finally given the kind of support they need to pursue sports professionally. This was a far cry from the bad old days in the 1990s when I felt I had to fight against the system, my teachers, the school and my parents just to continue pursuing gymnastics at an internationally competitive level. I was able to go see my friend Lim Heem Wei compete at the London Olympics and it was such a thrill to be able to be there, in person, to cheer her on from the front row. Now Heem Wei received far more support from the government than I ever did back in the 1990s. The other change however, is that whilst Singapore is winning medals at the Olympics - there is so much controversy around the fact that these medals were won by Chinese-born table tennis players like Feng Tianwei. Back in the 1990s, the thought of a foreign import winning medals for Singapore would've been unthinkable.

Okay those are some of the things which have changed - now here are some of the things which did not change much to my amazement. Despite Singapore being one of the richest countries in the world today, Singaporeans still have a massive chip on their shoulders when it comes to suspecting white people on looking down on Singapore. Yes, all that despite Singapore having a GDP per capita higher than Switzerland, USA, Germany, Norway, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK, France etc. There still seems to be his suspicion of white people having this racist attitude towards Asians and this tends to be directed at local women who have white boyfriends/husbands (aka SPGs). Back in the 1990s, I could see why people acted like that - I remember having to explain to some students at my British university where Singapore was and I remember trying to strike the balance between being reasonably modest but still giving them the impression that Singapore was a bloody rich country. That was back in 1997 - have things moved on since in the last 15 years? Apparently not, judging by the evidence.

Something else which hasn't changed much is the way there is still so little local culture that is successful. I remember this old joke: what is the difference between Singapore and a tub of yoghurt? There is more culture in a tub of yoghurt. I remember how in the mid-90s, Singapore desperately claimed that Vanessa-Mae was the first Singaporean superstar despite the fact that she moved to London at the age of 4 - well, has there been another Singaporean superstar who has achieved world wide fame yet? I can think of Annabel Chong, Fann Wong perhaps? Ivan Heng? Lim Kay Siu? Or even Sun Ho, for all the wrong reasons? I do know that Munah & Hirzi have quite a big following in Malaysia as well - but who else is there? Aren't we long overdue for a Singaporean superstar?

Another aspect of life in Singapore which hasn't changed is the long working hours. Back in the 1990s, we were talking about how the internet is going to change everything - people were going to be able to source information so much more quickly and have a wealth of knowledge at their fingertips. We thought that the future was going to be all about technology and we were going to be able to use our brains - work smarter, innovative and be more creative. Perhaps we were both naive and overly optimistic, but back then, we genuinely thought that by 2012, people in Singapore would not be working as hard as we would be able to outsource all the labour-intensive work to poorer countries in the region and we would simply be the hub of the region, the central control, the CPU, the brains in charge - delegating and organizing everything with the help of the internet and as a result, we would be both richer and have far more free time on our hands to enjoy the fruits of our labour. Oops, that didn't quite happen. Unfortunately, people are still working ridiculously long hours today in Singapore.

Yet another aspect of life in Singapore which hasn't progressed much is our attitude on sex and sexuality. Back in 1997, with many Singaporeans having experienced the freedom of the internet, I would've thought that this would make many Singaporeans a lot more progressive in terms of their attitude on sex & sexuality. However, given the really nasty way Vivian Lee was attacked by many Singaporeans over the Alvivi scandal or the kind of homophobia that the LGBT community in Singapore still face, well, sadly, not much has changed since 1997. Singaporean society still has a long way to go, especially in terms of their attitude towards women. That's really sad, given how I remember we had such hopes as teenagers in the 1990s for things to get better in Singapore on these issues.

I am shocked that Singaporeans kicked up such a big fuss over the Alvivi saga.

Something else which hasn't changed at all is the way Singaporeans speak English in 2012. Back in the 1990s, we witnessed a big difference between the way us teenagers spoke English back then and our parents. To a large degree, we were a lot more fluent and confident in English - being the first generation to speak English as a first language; compared to our parents who often learnt English as a second or third language, the difference was really stark! Hence rather naively, back in the 1990s, some of us thought that our next generation would not only become totally fluent in English as a first language (speaking British or American standard English), but also be competent in a few other languages like French, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and German. Guess what? It didn't happen.

The current generation of Singaporean children are either similar to their parents in terms of their linguistic ability or worse off. Many Chinese-Singaporeans over the age of 30 would have some knowledge of their Chinese dialects (Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hainanese, Hakka etc) - but very few Singaporean children today actually know more than a few basic words of their Chinese dialects. Hence the next generation has taken a step back on that front - not only have they failed to make any progress on the languages their parents already do speak, the next generation are also unable to speak any Chinese dialects which is really sad as these Chinese dialects have been around in Singapore for generations and we are witnessing the generation who will wipe it off the face of Singapore. How many of you can understand the famous clip below without any subtitles?

So there you go, as they say in French, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose - those are just some of the things which have changed and others which have not in the last 15 years. What do you think? Are there other changes which I have missed out? Do you remember the 1990s? What were your hopes and aspirations for Singapore back in the 1990s? Think hard and try to recall, then leave a comment below and share what you do remember, thanks! Kum siah!