The Crisis of Identity in Singapore

Ok, this is the last post before my exams, after which I’ll be in hiatus for a couple of days.

Hopefully things will liven up once again when De Maitre is back.


Anyways, this post of mine is relating to an issue that has been talked about for many, many years, in different forms and in different contexts, but today I’ll talk about it from a slightly new perspective.

I am no soccer fan, and till today I still struggle to understand how this sport, which involves 20 (less the goalkeepers)people running around after a ball, can be more influential in certain ways than governments, than nationalities, than even religion.

But reading the newspaper about how our national soccer team was thrashed 5-0 by Liverpool FC last Sunday, to the delight of Singaporean Liverpool fans, led me to once again look at this issue, and from there, I thought some new thoughts of my own.

It is very ironic to learn that the national team, playing on THEIR home ground, was being treated as the away team. When Liverpool scored goals, it was Singaporeans who cheered. When a Lion was given the yellow card, it was Singaporeans who cheered.

It was at that moment I realised, the forty years of Singapore’s national identity quest has been put to nought by this single event.

What on this planet happened?

I think it is the transnational nature of soccer. Soccer is a game that is distinctively international in nature. The teams have a multi-national composition. The supporters come from all over the world. The sport itself appeals to many nationalities. It’s little wonder that the World Cup is the most watched sporting event.

Given this multinational nature, supporters back teams, not nationalities. This is when sport can unite, but also divide people.

But Singapore is hardly the examplar of the divisive qualities of sport. Look at other countries. Riots, fighting amongst fans, are just cases of how extreme things can become, when passion can descend rapidly into violence. When that happens, countrymen are treated as aliens, fellow citizens treated as enemies.


But looking a little further, I think it also has to do with the Singaporean psyche. Singaporeans have this peculiar fault: That foreign is better.

Singaporeans have little idea of local brands beyond SIA, Creative and Tiger. To worsen the problem, Singaporeans have little faith on local brands that are new, always thinking that they are not comparable to foreign brands.

The situation is changing, of course. Many Singaporean designers and artists have made it overseas, and have been relatively successful, and are recognised within their own fields. But the problem is HERE.

If Singaporeans don’t have faith and confidence in our people, who will?

The point is there is no guarantee that every venture will be successful. But if the opportunity and support is not given simply because of that risk, then the chances of success are nil. More importantly, even the successful brands didn’t always start out successful; it was the process of exposure and gaining experience that they could be what they are today.

It’s our culture’s obsession with instant success that has resulted in this predicament, where we don’t support our own brands, where we don’t support our soccer teams, where many of us foolishly think only a course on law or engineering will make a good career.

Nevertheless, I am not encouraging the economic nationalism or economic patriotism that you see in other countries, where people make do with sub-standard stuff. Quality comes with competition. Improvement comes with competition. I only ask for the freedom of opportunity, and for Singaporeans to give their support to our own people.

Ultimately, if people lament foreign talent, the best way to deal with it is to prove that we have something of our own to be proud of.

Liverpool never walks alone. They certainly didn’t on that match last Sunday. But many Singaporeans, those young aspiring individuals who want to carve out a career of their own, found themselves very, very alone.