Singaporean Dilemma

Since Sudhir popped up onto the scene to become a major commentator, he's been a refreshing voice. He's got a really interesting viewpoint to share:



True multi-racialism and multi-culturalism is difficult. Any progress that people make is extremely fragile. One of the good things in Singapore is that one big source of racism in Singapore was neutered right at the beginning of our nation building. Yes, I'm talking about white people. We took them out of the equation. Notwithstanding that there were big problems amongst the Malays, Chinese and Indians in Singapore / Malaysia, but at that time we were a united coalition, and we could enshrine in the national pledge, that all Singaporeans were Singaporeans, regardless of race, language or religion. Our commitment to multiculturalism was admirable, and somewhat ahead of the west, although you could sense that the European Union was a tacit embrace of multiculturalism, albeit a more limited one.

But here's the point that I'm trying to make. Singapore began as a Chinese majority city state, and it should always be one. Sudhir thinks that racial quotas for immigration, to preserve the Chinese majority is racist. I thought it was racist, until I saw what happened to the US. The US is so divisive because it's turning less white. I'm pretty sure that it's the main reason why Trump was voted in. Over the last 10 years, white people in America saw two developments they perceived as threats: a black president of the USA, and the eroding of the majority of white people in America: within 20-30 years, the USA is projected to be no longer white. Non-white people in the US are perceived to be voters against their interests.

To change the racial composition for Singapore is very dangerous. Perhaps we will expect Chinese Singaporeans to behave better than the Americans when the majority status for Chinese is under threat, but who's to know what's going to happen? Yes, it ought to be the case that Chinese chauvinism won't raise its ugly head, but who's to know what's really going to happen?

Or to take another example closer to home. This is going to be very politically incorrect but the main lesson from the Separation is that a Chinese majority city could not co-exist within a Malay majority federation. The era of peace and prosperity that followed emphasises that a Chinese majority Singapore is necessary. Singapore and Malaysia basically came to the same independent conclusion: the merger wasn't working. Tensions between Chinese and Malays were stoked up. One could blame the perceived aggressiveness of the PAP in trying to seek political office outside of Singapore, one could say that the go-getter attitudes of the Chinese dominated government in Singapore represented an affront to UMNO. But nobody could deny that the 1969 riots represented some kind of a backlash.

Singapore is the zion for Southeast Asian Chinese. It's not just 5 million people whose lives are going to change if Singapore stopped being Chinese, but it will have some impact on the entire bamboo network. Chinese people in southeast Asia have an uneasy relationship with both the other Southeast Asians and the mainland. Singapore represents some kind of a bulwark, some kind of a gateway to Southeast Asia that Hong Kong once represented for the mainland. Yes, it sounds paternalistic to suggest that for the short term at least, Southeast Asia would be hampered by the absence of Singapore. Hong Kong was rendered irrelevant once the rest of China rose up, and gradually, other cities rose up to the challenge of supplanting the unique functions that Hong Kong provided. We don't see this happening in southeast Asia.

Singapore is a balancing force against the racism against the Chinese majority that has always existed in Southeast Asia. Maybe in another way it is a bastion of Chinese privilege in southeast Asia, I don't know. But the Chinese diaspora in southeast Asia will have plenty to lose if Singapore ceased to be Chinese majority.

And the third argument against Singapore ceasing to be majority Chinese is that – Sudhir is an Indian. What's going to happen if the Malays became the majority in Singapore? I don't think it'd be a great thing for Indians. Does Malaysia or Singapore treat Indians better? Chinese Singaporeans are already committed to (or at least there's lip service, but lip service is important) balancing a majority Chinese Singapore against a multi-cultural Singapore. There is no official privilege for Chinese in Singapore, unlike in Malaysia, where there are legal protections for bumiputra. He knows and I know that there is Chinese privilege, but it's covert. How much better is he going to have it?

To sum up, the three arguments against the continuity of Chinese majority: 1. To change it would unleash dangerous social unrest, probably not by the liberal elite, but by the rank and file who are always calling you keleng kia. Those people will always exist and will not go away, ever. 2. The special , essential role that Singapore plays in the broader SE Asia context. 3. A Chinese majority Singapore is perhaps the best hope to achieve genuine multi-culturalism in Singapore.

So there's the key to understand the statements that LKY made about Singapore. It is a deeply nuanced, even conflicted position. Yes, we are committed to multi-culturalism. No, we'd prefer it if Chinese people were the ones running the show, at least in Singapore. The years of peace and prosperity that followed the Separation showed that this worked. Malaysia doesn't even seem that unhappy about lagging behind Singapore, in terms of economic progress. Of course, there is some bitching and unhappiness on their part, but there's been no discussion about another merger. Both sides are happy that Malaysia is majority Malay, that Singapore is majority Chinese. And this should give you pause about whether or not you want to change the formula.

Yes, it is highly problematic that Tharman did not get to be the prime minister. I'm all for having an Indian prime minister, but I would not want the sorts of problems that anxiety over the Chinese Singaporeans' loss of their majority status would have.

His other criticism are more valid. Racism against the minorities in Singapore is a problem, and should be condemned more harshly. It should have been some kind of a bargain, that in exchange for Singapore staunchly maintaining its Chinese majority status, minorities should be treated better. Unfortunately, we have a lot to learn as a society.

Multiculturalism is difficult. The experiences of the US should tell you that much. In certain more progressive pockets of the US, minorities have attained the kind of clout and stature that should represent progress anywhere. Asian Americans form an important component of the US's knowledge industry. Some of the top leaders of big tech firms are not white. Black people have contributed greatly to the musical heritage of Americans. But yet the discomfort at acknowledging the contributions to society of non-white people still remains and will not go away. The civil rights movement, which basically guarantees black people the right to vote, is slowly being eroded in certain pockets of the USA. Unlike what MLK and Obama think, the arc of history does not bend towards justice. It seems to be more like a pendulum, and when some kind of apex in progressiveness is reached, some kind of backlash happens.

The most insidious dynamic is this: multi-culturalism exacts some kind of an unseen toll. White America is never more divided amongst itself than when arguing about how they're going to treat people who are not white. It seems that some kind of divisiveness will always exist in society, and when America becomes less racist, the white people will start arguing amongst themselves about racism. They will argue about what's considered racist, what's considered not racist. Up till today, people can't even decide whether politically correctness is racist, they can't decide whether when you dress up as a member of another race, whether that's a form of reaching out, or a form of appropriation / minstrelism.

The road towards true multi-culturalism in Singapore, or anywhere else, is long and harsh. There will be plenty of setbacks. Martin Luther King said that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, but dude – when are we going to see injustice everywhere magically disappearing?