"We built this city…we built this city on rock and roll!" came pouring out of the taxi's radio last week as we rode into town from the airport. Conlan and Emily snickered in the back. It was just one of many shockingly cheesy 80's and early 90's hits that we heard not only in that ride, but everywhere we went.
Since we've been here, we've heard early 90's Mr. Big hit, "To Be With You" many times over.
When I lived and worked here, my friend Alex reported being shocked by the way a group of people at a popular bar began rocking out to the self-titled 80's smash-hit, "Big Country." Oh, yeah! I guess in a tiny country, Big Country sounds exciting?
Also when I lived here in 2006, one of the nurses I recruited just adored Australian pop-band Savage Garden. We don't need to go into all the great music she sang…
The thirst for antiquated, Western pop seems insatiable in Singapore. Strangely, it's not only part of Singapore's unique charm, but it lies at the heart of one of Singapore's biggest issues.
Unlike Hong Kong that formed as the organic synthesis of east and west over more than 150 years, Singapore was turned into a modernized east-west amalgamation in an incubator. In fact, the creation of modern Singapore itself is essentially like crushing a piece of coal into a diamond in an hour or less.
In the urgent need to diffuse cultural divisions and create a popular attachment to a new nation, leaders had to find ways to prevent any one culture from dominating the others. The attempt to transform the island's Chinese, Malay and Indian inhabitants into Singaporeans meant deemphasizing everyone's cultures.
English became the national language because it didn't belong to any of the ethnic groups and they already had familiarity. However, language usually reflects culture. In this case, Singapore had a language and no common bonds to link people other than the dire economic and political situation facing the fledgling nation in 1965.
As economic development occurred, it became a default solution to embrace Western culture as a common medium. It had already worked for language and who didn't like modern malls, shopping, cars, and technology?
Singapore already had exposure to Western music and culture through its years under Empire. Why not enjoy American and British music? Singaporeans already spoke their language and studied their history and literature?
The search for a Singaporean identity became increasingly linked to Westernization and modernization. Only cultures are formed with time. No one can become Britain, France, Germany or America without British, French, German and American cultural-historical experiences. We are the sum of everything that came before us.
Singapore could adopt only the things available to it – the trappings of Western culture. Consumerism, pop music, education, literacy, science, technological advancement. It could adopt the form, but the substance could never be the same because Singaporeans are people who come from different backgrounds and who have their own cultural wisdom, values and emphases.
In fact, it was these values that led to their success. Lee Kuan Yew has said that he, being an atheist, used Confucian values to guide him in his approach to society and the people he led. Indeed, Singapore was built on the backs of people whose work ethic, togetherness and collectivist values came from their Confucian, Taoist, Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim values. Their ability to band together and to work willingly under patriarchal leadership came largely from their Eastern outlook.
They used Eastern values to play a Western game successfully. The first world city-state they created came from their Chinese, Indian and Malay hearts. However, their work yielded fruits foreign and strange to all of them.
As a result, Singapore lives in something of a vacuum. The cultural demilitarized zone Singapore's leaders created in the 60's has evolved into a shallow culture of shopping and consumerism. Younger generations who grew up in a state-of-the-art, modern English speaking Singapore are largely disconnected from their cultural pasts, with nothing substantive to replace it.
Perhaps this is why in 2006, Lee Kuan Yew told the International Herald Tribune, "We don't have the ingredients of a nation, the elementary factors – a homogeneous population, common language, common culture and common destiny."
At this point, it feels as if Mr. Lee's longtime and necessary focus on Singapore's economic development has become the tiny nation's default raison d'être. The people of Singapore initially came together in their drive to survive and overcome. Now that they have succeeded, what remains? Economic success is the easiest thing to hang their hats on – because it is the only quest they have been on together.
However, even that may be a house of cards. As Lee Kuan Yew ages, he is trying to leave his final words and notes to the little nation he will inevitably leave behind. In his recently published book, "'Lee Kuan Yew: Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going," the Minister Mentor warns Singaporeans that their country is not comparable to other similar-seeming small nations as many critics say it is.
I tend to agree with him.
Unlike Hong Kong that once had Britain and now China behind it, or Israel with strong American support, Singapore stands alone. It buys its water from Malaysia, imports all its food, and all of its industry relies on trade. Singapore has absolutely no natural resources other than the orchids it famously breeds.
After all, Singapore was never meant to go it alone. The British ruled it along with the Straits Colonies turned British Malaya. Singapore tried to cast its lot with Malaysia before its rifts with the Malaysian leadership. Prior to the British, the Portuguese and Dutch made attempts to colonize the little island, but found it too exposed to attack to make it worth keeping. Malay rulers too were tired of intrusions from foreign colonialists and pirates. They left Singapore for almost 500 years.
Because the British had more strength and determination than any other power, they were able to make Singapore a valuable open trade port – which remained its primary occupation until well after Singaporean independence.
It wasn't until the Singaporean leadership decided to clean up the island and court foreign corporations to open factories and offices and invest in Singapore that anything began to change. Singapore didn't fully take off until one of its finance officials came up the brilliant idea of becoming a foreign exchange center.
The idea was simple. London conducted the world's foreign currency trades during its banking hours. San Francisco took over when London closed. When San Francisco closed, trading stopped until London opened. Enter Singapore.
The Singaporean financial sector boomed when it became an international FOREX hub, after which it added a stock market and commodities trading.
Only, with the increasing role of technology allowing for global trade in real time from everywhere at any time, Singapore's value as an international trade center has diminished.
Foreign companies that initially enjoyed cheap Singaporean manual labor, and later affordable skilled – English speaking – labor have found Singapore less and less financially advantageous as the little country has taken the first world by storm.
Additionally, China has changed its face. Once distant and removed from the world scene and international commerce, China has had its coming out party. Singapore for many years enjoyed its special role as an East-West bridge country that linguistically and culturally had one foot in each door. Today, its services as an intermediary are less in demand
.
Singapore's role and niche are constantly in question.
Its assets remain in place. The Sembawang shipping yards on Singapore's north shore remain busy and valuable as is its bustling international port. The Singaporean people are more educated and talented than ever.
Only where does it go? In the changing tides of the world economy and business trends, how does tiny Singapore stay on top?
Worst of all, if Singapore – which has built a culture built on a foundation of economic growth and first world development – should experience a decline, what will become of its people? Have young Singaporeans taken on enough of their grandparents ethics and values to band together and persevere? Or will they find themselves caught in the worst of all worlds: lost in the void between the forgotten culture of their ancestors and the Western culture they never really had?
I find it only natural that the venerable Mr. Lee should worry at the end of his life. The Singapore he and his associates built is a tightly constructed machine with many moving parts that can fail. He is now at the point where he sees the remaining dangers, but is past the point of steering Singapore's destiny. He must eventually leave his most beloved child – Singapore – alone to lead chart its destiny without him. What must be difficult for him is that he so much to be proud of, but no assurances.
The good news is that Singapore is far from down for the count. In fact, its well-educated, largely successful population may figure out as well or better than their Minister Mentor how to navigate the challenges ahead. Although Singapore is not a Big Country, it fortunately did not build this city on rock and roll. Singaporeans are aware of their history, and more importantly, they have something to lose. And that is always a powerful motivation – especially for people who had nothing before.
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