Some people cannot take the brutal truth
~Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Wee Siew Kim, in response to his daughter's controversial blogpost.
I'm quite the postmodernist, but it would be pointless aruging about what the 'truth' is. I am not a Singaporean, and hence ought not to be bothered about the misinformed and parochial rantings of a high-school student. Besides, given the colour of my passport, chances are I'll be what the folks here call 'foreign talent' (although I seriously doubt that day will ever come). But Singapore is nonetheless my home, and I choose to have an emotional stake in this nation.
Reading RJ student Wee Shu Min's thoughts on Derek's Wee lament about the state of Singapore's society, I have two things to say:
1) She is absolutely right.
2) She is absolutely distressing
She represents the elite that are uncompassionate, materialistic and uncultured. If being a gracious society means keeping left on the escalators (while elites get chauffered around), then I'd say that we are narrow-minded. In fact that is my opinion of Wee Shu Min.
Reading her post, I could not but feel anger toward her, has she seen so little of the world, is she so ill-informed that she has no empathy? What has this society become, that our young reduce others into their perceived 'classes' while maintaining an us-and-them attitude to the world?
And this is not confined within Singapore. We look to our neighbours in ASEAN as nothing more then huge shopping centers with perpatual sales. We slide over borders, look at cute trinkets and funky clothing, sleep in 5 star hotels and turn our noses up at the desperate tuk-tuk mongers and dirty children on the streets.
I just cannot but feel like Singapore has groomed us to be cogs and wheels in a big machine. We don't matter, and what's the point of anything, if people don't matter? And worst, it has turned the people against themselves. We no longer care for each other as Ms Wee's callous comments have clearly shown. And let's not excuse her for being a foolish 18 year old. If this is how society inculcates our young, then this is how we are. Some will think that the world owes them a living, others grapple with issues of self-esteem and self-worth.
As for Mr Wee, if children are a chip off the old block...well... I wonder if he's rethinking his parenting style. But he has his reasons i'm sure. Yes don't gag her, let her be lynched by the 'HDB poor' and the 'red-taloned socialites'. These are her society too. She will learn the hard way, with people flaming her on blogs and putting her photo up. These are their personal blogs, set up so that people might 'invade their privacy' and read their rants amongst their circle of friends. They haev every right to make their opinions about Ms Wee heard, as much as Ms Wee took the liberty to air hers.
No, they have every right to feel the way that they do, as I have every right to feel the way I do. During my interview with NUS law, one of the interviewers said:
Young lady, you are the cream of Singapore's crop. You are the top 20% and should stop associating yourself with the other 80%
I left in anger, how could an esteemed, intellectual woman in her 60s hold such myopic opinions. Then I realise, she isn't alone. And that I am blessed with the social mobility to pack up and leave.
I think I will go to Cambodia in the future. At least there, I'd be free from these soulless brats, and elk out a living beyond material survival. But I would want to come back here, to the nation that bred me. Let no one say that I am a quitter. I love here.
-----------------------------------------------------
The Manic Street Preachers are wise:
A Slave starts by demanding justice, and ends by wanting to wear a crown.
Be careful. Hubris knocks. We are only 40 years old as a nation, are we already jaded? Yes, the brutal truth is hard to swallow. Perhaps we are a self-centered, bigoted and blind society. And all we have to show for ourselves is how we smile fervently at the foreigners who use our safe little island to reinforce the unfair state of the international system.
~Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Wee Siew Kim, in response to his daughter's controversial blogpost.
I'm quite the postmodernist, but it would be pointless aruging about what the 'truth' is. I am not a Singaporean, and hence ought not to be bothered about the misinformed and parochial rantings of a high-school student. Besides, given the colour of my passport, chances are I'll be what the folks here call 'foreign talent' (although I seriously doubt that day will ever come). But Singapore is nonetheless my home, and I choose to have an emotional stake in this nation.
Reading RJ student Wee Shu Min's thoughts on Derek's Wee lament about the state of Singapore's society, I have two things to say:
1) She is absolutely right.
2) She is absolutely distressing
She represents the elite that are uncompassionate, materialistic and uncultured. If being a gracious society means keeping left on the escalators (while elites get chauffered around), then I'd say that we are narrow-minded. In fact that is my opinion of Wee Shu Min.
Reading her post, I could not but feel anger toward her, has she seen so little of the world, is she so ill-informed that she has no empathy? What has this society become, that our young reduce others into their perceived 'classes' while maintaining an us-and-them attitude to the world?
And this is not confined within Singapore. We look to our neighbours in ASEAN as nothing more then huge shopping centers with perpatual sales. We slide over borders, look at cute trinkets and funky clothing, sleep in 5 star hotels and turn our noses up at the desperate tuk-tuk mongers and dirty children on the streets.
I just cannot but feel like Singapore has groomed us to be cogs and wheels in a big machine. We don't matter, and what's the point of anything, if people don't matter? And worst, it has turned the people against themselves. We no longer care for each other as Ms Wee's callous comments have clearly shown. And let's not excuse her for being a foolish 18 year old. If this is how society inculcates our young, then this is how we are. Some will think that the world owes them a living, others grapple with issues of self-esteem and self-worth.
As for Mr Wee, if children are a chip off the old block...well... I wonder if he's rethinking his parenting style. But he has his reasons i'm sure. Yes don't gag her, let her be lynched by the 'HDB poor' and the 'red-taloned socialites'. These are her society too. She will learn the hard way, with people flaming her on blogs and putting her photo up. These are their personal blogs, set up so that people might 'invade their privacy' and read their rants amongst their circle of friends. They haev every right to make their opinions about Ms Wee heard, as much as Ms Wee took the liberty to air hers.
No, they have every right to feel the way that they do, as I have every right to feel the way I do. During my interview with NUS law, one of the interviewers said:
Young lady, you are the cream of Singapore's crop. You are the top 20% and should stop associating yourself with the other 80%
I left in anger, how could an esteemed, intellectual woman in her 60s hold such myopic opinions. Then I realise, she isn't alone. And that I am blessed with the social mobility to pack up and leave.
I think I will go to Cambodia in the future. At least there, I'd be free from these soulless brats, and elk out a living beyond material survival. But I would want to come back here, to the nation that bred me. Let no one say that I am a quitter. I love here.
-----------------------------------------------------
The Manic Street Preachers are wise:
A Slave starts by demanding justice, and ends by wanting to wear a crown.
Be careful. Hubris knocks. We are only 40 years old as a nation, are we already jaded? Yes, the brutal truth is hard to swallow. Perhaps we are a self-centered, bigoted and blind society. And all we have to show for ourselves is how we smile fervently at the foreigners who use our safe little island to reinforce the unfair state of the international system.
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