The word 'traitor' has been hurled frequently in the social media to condemn some individuals for doing wrong to country and people in Singapore. And rightly, these condemnations went nowhere, affected no one and were really meaningless in Singapore.
Singapore is a unique little piece of rock that belongs to everyone here, whether you are citizens or foreigners. Now they even have a new term called 'locals' to include foreigners who are PRs as 'locals'. What does this mean? No difference between citizens and PRs, all locals, enjoying and sharing the same rights and privileges as citizens. Who is trying to bluff who? Who is cheating who?
Singapore does not only belong to anyone here. Singapore belongs to the citizens of the whole world. Anyone can come in and work and given citizenship quite easily. One can come in as a tourist, applies for a job and get employed within weeks while daft Singaporeans could take months or years to find a job. There are now more foreigners in Singapore than citizens. In fact all those outside Singapore can claim a share of Singapore by coming here and work and be called 'locals', or simply being here. Singapore is theirs and daft Singaporeans are not complaining, getting use to it.
In many countries with some length of history, the words like motherland, home country, loyalty, pride of their citizenship, are common parlance and meant something very dear to their people. In Singapore, such terms are meaningless, just like the term 'traitor'. When there is no country, when the people are not proud of their own country or did not think or believe the country belongs to them, some even resigned to the fate that their country belongs to other people, to non citizens, what then is the meaning of a country, motherland, citizenship, loyalty, and what is wrong with giving the country away?
When giving the country away to foreigners, when inviting foreigners freely to take a share of the country, a big share of the country, do not evoke any sense of loss, any sense of guilt, then the word 'traitor' does not apply anymore. It is meaningless, irrelevant. No one cares whether one is a traitor or otherwise.
No Singaporean feels any misgiving or sense of guilt or loss of their country when the foreigners came flooding in. To these daft Singaporeans it is a natural thing, a good thing, an even better thing if the foreigners are here to take their jobs, steal their lunch, take over their country and to replace them. To the daft Singaporeans there is nothing wrong with displacing and replacing them with foreigners in their country. That is why no Singaporean would utter the world 'motherland'. The little piece of rock is not their motherland, not their country, can be given away freely.
When this is accepted as normal, then the word 'traitor' has no meaning anymore. If something belongs to you can be given away freely, no one thinking it is right to protect it, then it should be given away freely. The only time the word 'traitor' has some meaning is when one belongs to a political party and starts to go against the interest of a party. One then can be condemned as a traitor because the party has clear lines of what is theirs and what is not theirs. Being loyal to a political party can mean given million dollar jobs. Being loyal to a country means nothing, seen as kpkb by the unthinking and people with no country.
As for the general Singaporeans, nothing is theirs anymore, not this piece of rock, not the jobs and the good life. Thus, for those spouting the word 'traitor' they are spouting nonsense as the word has no meaningful meaning in this piece of rock. No one cares. Motherland, what motherland, we don't have one. This piece of rock belongs to everyone who wants it and who comes here and takes it.
When there is no ownership, there is no country and no pride to be a citizen. Singaporeans would soon be extinct or driven out of their own country by the 'traitors'. The new owners of this piece of rock are coming in by the plane loads everyday, and no one cares! No one bothers to ask if this is the right thing.