What do you think is
the Singapore Spirit? In 2010, PM Lee Hsien Loong defined it as a shared ideology, such
as: "shared memories", "shared loyalty", "shared responsibility", etc.
It may sound great and give a sense of
cohesiveness but do you know that that definition is totally wrong? In fact, it
is this silly definition that had created tons of problems for all of us.
Let me ask you this: Are you sure we shared
all those? The answer is an obvious "No".
Take new immigrants for example, do you
think their "memories" are the same as that of true-blue Singaporeans? – No.
When Singaporeans have to serve National
Service while the first generation of new immigrants do not have to, do you
think there is “shared responsibility”? – No.
If one day, Singapore became a place less
desirable than the immigrants’ country of origin (lower pay, crowded, dirty,
etc.), do you think new immigrants will continue to stay in Singapore or will
they go back to their country of origin? More likely than not, it will be the
later, if so, what “shared loyalty” are we talking about?
It is now obvious that that person’s
understanding of Singapore Spirit is wrong. So how can there be cohesiveness?
With that wrong understanding, the more immigrants we have in Singapore, the
more obvious the problems will be.
Personally, I don’t like the term
“Singapore Spirit” because it is lacking the “people” factor. Singapore, like
any country, is simply a region identified as a distinct entity in political
geography. It has no life. What gave it the life are their People. Therefore, I
prefer to use the term “Singaporean Spirit” instead.
However, the feeling of being a Singaporean
today is very different than it was before. The feelings of injustices are
everywhere. At the same time, we are also given all sorts of labels – internally
as well as externally.
Deep in our hearts, we know this is not the
Singapore we want. We are well aware that we are not as labelled. We are far
more capable, united and refined than anyone else, especially when compared
with our so-called ‘leaders’.
All these problems are rooted from the lack
of understanding of the basis of our spirit.
It is therefore important for me to define
the basis, which is what I summarised as: Basis of Singaporean Spirit – “BOSS” for
short.
In Chinese, I shall call it 《坡精神》.
“Singapore”, in Chinese, is written as “新加坡”. So the “坡” represents our country. Literally,
the “坡” also means a
small gentle slope – we are small, but well-mannered and humble, yet a
significant part of the overall landscape.
“精神”, in Chinese, means spirit. The reason why I chose “坡” is also because it rhymes with the
English acronym – “BOSS”.
BOSS stands for “Basis Of Singaporean
Spirit”. BOSS is the common belief on the best way to build a home. BOSS unites
everyone under one common belief – the best way to build a home.
BOSS is not about creating a replica of US,
Switzerland, France, or whatever. BOSS is about our distinctive characteristics
and our core competencies. BOSS demonstrates our uniqueness and shows the World
why we are better. BOSS is our guiding principle for our thoughts and
behaviours.
To understand BOSS, the first thing is to
look at Singapore’s existence. Singapore existed not because of its
multi-racial society. No country in the World existed because of that; in fact,
this is always the source of conflicts around the World.
Multi-racial society is the result of our
nation building – not the foundation. The foundation of Singapore started with
a single belief – the common belief on the best way to build a home. This
belief is written very clearly into our Pledge:
We, the citizens of
Singapore,
pledge ourselves as
one united people,
regardless of race,
language or religion,
to build a democratic
society
based on justice and
equality
so as to achieve
happiness, prosperity and
progress for our
nation.
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People from all walks of life, who shared
the same belief came together to build this dream home that we now called
“Singapore”.
The multi-racial, multi-language,
multi-religion constitution of Singapore that we see today is the result of the
diversity of people who shared the same vision, willing to sacrifice, and
willing to build this dream home together.
The composition will change over time as
our value and belief spread across the World, but the foundation remains the
same:
“The common belief on the best way to
build a home”
It is this foundation that brought us the
harmony that we enjoyed.
Today are we united?
No. We have leaders who labelled Singaporeans
with all sorts of names, denying the fact that all the problems were created by
them in the first place.
Did we achieve happiness, prosperity and
progress?
No. I know those who defended this will
jump into explaining how much we have achieved, etc. But did you realise how
the objectives are ordered within our Pledge? Happiness is listed first.
I can also see the PAP government trying to
make a lot of changes to rectify the situation. However, implementing changes
without understanding the basis and value is suicidal.
For any organisation, it must have a
guiding principle, which serves as a basis where all decisions are based upon.
Without a proper guiding principle,
decisions and actions would be based solely upon monetary value and pressure
from different rights groups as well as individual ideology. When an
organisation loses its core principle or deviates from it, it loses it soul.
What is the guiding principle of today’s PAP
government? Well, GDP growth. Technically, there is nothing wrong, but if it
sacrificed Happiness, it is against our Pledge – Nothing will be right if
leaders are doing things against the Pledge – the Basis Of Singaporean Spirit.
Some of you might argue that you need to
have growth in order to have Happiness. But that statement is faulted. It is
really about priorities. This is what Mr Lee Kuan Yew once replied:
“What are our priorities? First, the
welfare, the survival, of the people...”
He did follow the Pledge and set the
priorities accordingly. Did he sacrifice prosperity and progress? No, he
didn’t.
Today, with the busy and stressful life,
exacerbated by political issues, aggressive rights groups, BOSS had been overlooked – people started to fight
among one another, defending their own groups and ideas while trampling on
others – overlooked that we all started from the same common root.
It is now time to remind all of us about
BOSS and revive the hidden values – let
it be our guiding force for our thoughts and behaviours.
BOSS Wisdom: “The Basis Of Singaporean
Spirit is the common belief on the best way to build a home, which is described
in details within our Pledge.” – BOSS
[This is part of the book: Basis Of Singaporean Spirit - People Power, click here to go to the main page]
