6/13/2006
myth 12
'Singaporeans are highly dependent on government initiatives.'
This is a myth that Li Ao, our Taiwanese friend, said in his latest story on Singaporeans. He illustrated his point by the story of 3 men stranded in an island. The Hongkie will start to pick fire woods and look for food. The Taiwanese, the smartest, will think of how to build house and water supply to sell to the two. The Singaporean will be lost, waiting for a govt to tell him what to do, or to build the house for him.
Now this can't be true right? All Singaporeans will disagree with it. Singaporeans are just too organised and prefer things to be orderly. Not that Singaporeans have no initiative. Just look at the HDB flats. If every Singaporean were to paint whatever colour they want on their windows or the facade of their flats, we will have a riot of colours. And if we allow hawkers to do business anywhere, we will have a mess.
Neatness, systematic, and staying together, moving ahead are our strength. We will do everything together, organised. Ok, we will now all smile together. Now you see the impact of 4 million smiles!
No country can behave like Singaporeans, to be able to act as one people. It is not that we have to wait for the Govt to tell us to smile then we will smile. We are organised and discipline.
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7 comments:
Hmm... I sense sarcarsm in it. Or is it not?
Anyways, its not that Singaporeans are dependent on the Government for everything. Its just that we prefer to follow instead of creating our own things. Comformists. ^^
there are many angles to look at an issue.
are we free to make our decisions when the government like to meddle in this or that and telling us this or that would not work and best to leave everything to them as they know best.(ha, scholar and paper general mentality)
when their policies don't work as expected, they push the blame and says we are too dependent on them. look what happened during recession. when they couldn't bring in investments and create jobs, they blamed us for being too dependent on them and that we are not hungry enough or we are not trying hard enough.
haha anonymous,
that was the answer i was just about to post to you. the last recession and financial crisis exposed a lot of myth and a lot of red faces. finally people realised that they are not god and many things are beyond them.
but this psyche of waiting for the govt to do something is deeply ingrained in the singaporeans and when something happens they will wait for the govt to act or tell them what to do.
and this is the same thing that the govt was selling during the election rally. we will plan everything for you. we have a dream to share with you. we have the best talents who can do everything, lower oil prices, create jobs etc etc.
Well...don't you think this is a small price to pay for being a successful country.
Everyone has a God-given brain of his own. Who's to say you have to follow what the govt has ordained for us. Don't blame the govt for this. Blame yourself for allowing them to ingrain you. Afterall, the govt cannot possibly ingrain anything you do not allow them to.
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