On Patriotism

Since we’ll be celebrating the 44th year of Singapore’s independence in a day’s time, I thought it’ll be nice to talk about something uplifting.

People might wonder, is there patriotism in Singaporeans?

It’s arguable, but there are reasons for Singaporeans to be patriotic, however small these reasons might be.

De Maitre in the recent post, NDP 09, brought up interesting facts about Singapore.

These are the small things which bring about both bewilderment and criticism from the rest of the world, but they are also the facts that made us who we are today.

For me, I’ll like to talk about the “higher” things.

To quote from that old song: “There was a time when people said that Singapore wouldn’t make it, but we did”.

There was indeed such a time. It was a time only our parents and grandparents would remember.

It was through hard work, and good governance, that brought us to where we are today. We were lucky, because while many other post-colonial countries are still struggling in the modern world, Singapore went in a different direction, the effects of which were unexpected even to the leaders themselves.

But so much for an introduction, what is patriotism?

The definition is different for different countries. For the US, it’s the fact that they are a superpower. (Though if you ask me, that title is increasingly becoming hollow), for the Chinese and Indians, it’s the thousands of years of history and culture. For the Europeans, it’s the intellectual, artistic and cultural values that are important to them, plus the quality of their own products.

Singapore has, arguably, little of these. We’re far from a superpower, even though we have one of the most prosperous economies and the most advanced military in the region, we are, well, only 44 years old, 50 if you add in the years of self-government, and we haven’t given birth to any intellectual or artistic “greats” (at least not yet).

But people still love Singapore, at least, again, arguably.
This is because we have the many things other countries want, but just can’t seem to have.

Good governance, from which springs forth many more things, like low corruption, foresight, etc

Economic growth

Rule of law.

What’s holding the other countries back? For many, it’s bad governance. For others, it’s the sacrifice of economic prosperity and social order for such things as “people power”.

Ultimately, there are costs to be incurred for any choices a country may make in the charting of its political direction.

For that, we should also remember, we are so lucky to have had travelled in that right direction, despite the costs that we may have had to pay for that.