I used to have
severely conflicted feelings about what it means to be Singaporean. Here we
are, a tiny island in a curious situation. We have a majority Chinese
population within a marginally Confucius society (& if Wikipedia is to be
believed – part of the Sino sphere) but have adopted many Western systems (even
though we’re still constantly vilified in their media for being draconian) but is geographically
& historically part of Nusantara (even though we’re constantly trying to be
the ‘regional other’). Certainly, such a fragmented cultural identity will give anyone a bad bout of schizophrenia – yet it is also what makes
Singapore unique in its odd way. The ambiguity of our identity is our identity.
Or so I think.
I’m reading this book by Lily Rahim about Singapore in the Malay world & it brings
up a very important point: The reason why it’s so hard to create a solid
Singapore identity is because we have, as a nation, rejected our regional
identity.
I haven’t finished
reading it, but one thing Rahim states that I remember Sabapathy also mentioned
was that Singapore is one of the few abnormal countries that celebrate our
colonial history & has relegated our pre-colonial history to the status of
myth.
Now that is very very
tragic.
