National building of Singapore to become
a global city-state
Yang Guowei
Materials used:
1.Singapore: The City-State
in History/Yong Mun Cheong
This article tries to figure out a
propel name for Singapore by comparative studies on other City-state in the
history like Swiss cities. Issues like methodology, definition are put on the
table. Some key elements, like economy, ethnic beliefs, politics and geography,
are deeply discussed on their contribution to form a city-state. At the very
last part, the author touched a little bit on destiny of City-State and shows
his worry on Singapore’s further. Lots of materials are referred, and they
really play a dramatically role in this article and make the author’s thought
very clear. Above all, the author concerns more on structural issues such as
social and political. But in my opinion, in the context of Singapore, it is
more import to study the “City-State” in a historical way, more generally,
whether Singapore is ready to be a City-State. More will be touched in later
discussion.
2.The National Past and the
Writing of the History of Singapore. /Albert. Lau
This article is more historical
than the first one. It straightly comes to the key point of Singapore’s
history: how to defined Singapore’s history and how to write it?
The author studies a lot of
different thoughts on Singapore’s history, from timelines issue to methodology
issue. By doing so, we can get a general idea of the history literature, both
temporal and spatial. In dealing with the history between 1819-1965, the author
uses “colonial past” in order to make distinction with the “National past”. In
his opinion, some historians have messed up these two terms. The way we write
our history depends more on our purpose, that is: by learning such history, our
fellows can fell more to be Singaporeans,?
and Singapore is more like a nation.
3. Singapore’s Quest for a
National Identity: The Triumphs and Trials of Government Policies. /Hussin Mutalib
This article focuses on
Singapore’s national building. First of all, the author issues the necessity of
national identity to a community, especially for those with short history but
complex cultural compositions, like Singapore. Then he turns to analyze all
policies that Singapore government made, by looking their backgrounds,
purposes, and effects. Of course, he also gives some advice like legislation on
anti-discrimination laws, etc.
Introductions
and guideline:
In this article, I will generate a
general idea about Singapore’s history and national building issue by studying
some literature materials plus my own thoughts.
The general guideline is:
?A Global City-State should finish its national building----àA
common identity is important for national building. ------àHistory
is very important to generate a identity + Ethnic marginalization is a big
issue----à
have a good way on dealing with history and different ethnic groups.
A reverse way is like this:
Singapore hasn’t found a way on
dealing with history and ethnic diversity----àit is very difficult to
build a common identity for all ethnic groups----àSingapore hasn’t
finished its national building-----àSingapore is not a
State---àSingapore
is not a Global City-State.
Main
Discussions:
Singapore, as it has achieved such
rapid economy development after its detachment from Malaysia in 1965, more and
more people show interest in
this tiny island. Singapore, though small in size, has a profound influence on South East Asia.
Being international trading hub and local transportation node Singapore is
deemed to be a global city for trade and business. In my view, however,
Singapore cannot achieve economic success without a strong Government and a
charismatic leader to hold people together. Singapore is indeed on the way to
become a global city state, and I found out that Government is in for racial
harmony and is addressing the issue of poverty all the time. All the effort
made are for only one purpose that is bonding people with different origins
together to become fabric of a nation.
A common identity is important for
a certain community. You cannot
imagine any group of people without certain common identity
to be together as a nation. A
common identity defines the basis of membership within a political community.
In the context of Singapore, people here share the same future, but different history. Different ethnic
groups come from different
backgrounds; they worship different religions as well. In this multi-racial and multi-cultural island community, many
different approaches can be used for
national building. One of them is Dominant-recessive approach. Another is unity-in-diversity approach and the latter
one has been adopted by Singapore government.
Singapore is not the only country
that is facing multi-racial problems, situations in some other countries may be even worse. There are 56 different races in China. Russia has 130 different races! One
similarity between these two countries is the dominance of one racial group, The Chinese in China and
The Russians in Russia. They are playing the dominant role in
determining country’s politics and in
some other key areas. In other words, they make the rules, so that other minorities have to follow.
In the context of Singapore,
although Chinese is already majority,
it is very much imprudent for them to overshadow other races. Because from the regional
prospective Singapore is only a small polity in this region neighboring
powerful Muslim countries.
Another model is the
unity-in-diversity model.
Singapore Government is trying
to create new common identity that is neither
Chinese nor Malays nor Indians
but Singaporean, which is for
all people living here; no matter
which racial group you are from. Together
they will sing Singapore National Anthem, and together they will take a pledge
to achieve racial harmony. The Government of Singapore has indeed done a
marvelous job uniting people from different backgrounds under a same Singapore
Flag.
In recent years, some sociologists have found out that many young
Singaporeans have little knowledge of the history of Singapore and the root of
themselves. The Government has realized the seriousness of this problem and has
begun to promote traditional activities, but there are still much more things
needed to be done. As said
by PM GOH, “as Singaporean have more and more money, more and more Singaporean
move to Australia.” Even though people here call themselves Singaporean, the
main point is not the name itself. The point is how to let people here realize
they share the same future, and they have to rely on each other to realize it.
One key point in the national
identity is the history. “Nations without a past are contradictory in terms?.
What makes a nation is the past, what justifies one nation against another is
the past?”Said by E.J. Hobsbawm. History is Critical in defining the Nation and
justifying the government’s endeavors. So how to define and describe the
history becomes a big issue.
?“Modern Singapore began in 1819, nothing that occurred on the
island prior to this has particular relevance to understanding of the
contemporary scene[i]”. Such kind
of thought is raised here and there. Is this really the best or most propel
way? Is it reasonable to ignore the pre-1819 history just because it has “no
particular relevance” to understand current issue? How about the effect that
Chinese Traders made date back to 14th century? How about the
relationship between Singapore and other Malacca port cities? It may seems not
important to the colony powers, but this section of history is particularly
important for local ethnic groups like Chinese or Malays. Only from it, they
can know where they are from and what the historical reason is for their
ancients to locate themselves here. In this sense, it is essential to define
Singapore history more than the colony period.
However, debates on such issues
seems have puzzled the Singapore government. Even worse, the worries of pulling
the community even apart by locating the “Diverse root history” also play a key
role. “What if they are even marginalized from others after knowing their
distinct histories?” it seems that Singapore government want to melt different
ethnic groups by weakling their own roots and creating a “common root” for all.
It is achieved by emphasizing the war, vulnerability and ‘Battle Royale’, which
refers to the fight between stouthearted nationalists and
communists/communalists (1950s & 1960s)
Another issue is the dependence of
Singapore history on others’. Singapore’s history is always affected by
external events, variables and cycles and always outside of the control of
locals. Great power is essential for Singapore to survival and Singapore
remained one part of Malay world for countries. Over emphasize on this is
really not a good idea. The only thing can be done is trying to concern on the
formation of this community, how did their ancients overcome the odds, how is
the process this island and people here differ from others. Let people know how
they become Singaporeans is more than an academic issue.
In the sense of national building,
Singapore is really not ready to be a global city-state. The process of
globalization goes along with the national building.
To be global, you first must be
“One” but not “mess”. The reason of globalization is still self-concern, it is
very important to know whom you are and for what you are struggling. All people
must hold the same civil value when they go global. What is the difference between an American and a
Singaporean?These kinds of
questions become even more strategically important in this globalization stage.
“Global city-sate” is a city-state that is global. There is
no doubt that Singapore is global enough. Singapore has a big population
transmission, has rapid and well-constructed transportation and is the main business
center.But is it a city-sate?
Following the definition by Arnold Toynbee, a city-sate is a state in which one
city preponderate or in which one city is so dominant that the rest of the
state would not challenge its paramountcy. In the context of Singapore, there is
no “rest”. Singapore is just a city. As the identity of Singapore is still
under “political joke[ii]”
stage, how can you call Singapore a state or a nation? Rather, you may call
Singapore a city-country. Country is significant different from nation. Country
is more like a geographical term; meanwhile, nation is more cultural and
political. If you are not ready for, but already on the way to be global, the
probable issue you will face is the self-lost. After staying in the global
stage for a long time, you forget whom you are, where you are from, even worse,
where you will go.
Conclusively, history, especially
those before 1819, is statically important for different ethnic groups to
locate their own root. Only after you know who you are, you can hold hands with
other ethnic groups and join together to be a nation. Same strategy on
globalization, it is essential to complete the formation of nation before going
for global.
