It was easy for me to be a Singaporean. All my ancestors had to do was sail/be shipped from Fujian to Singapore instead of Java. They would follow the same path as (half) of my ancestors did: From coolies to traders to clerks to salarymen to maybe a freelancer or another salaryman or an entrepreneur.
The Singaporean me belongs to the Tan clan, may also be illiterate in Simplified Chinese, and more eloquent online than in person. Unlike me, he gets to ride the best transit system in the world, has that ‘work hard, play harder’ life, and lives in a real-life Wakanda (with the appropriate price tag).
But it’d be impossible for me to grow up as a Singaporean. I’m half Chinese, half Javanese, and Sundanese. There are Javanese and Sundanese Singaporeans too, but by default, they are taken as Muslim Malays. And this is a major difference between how Singaporeans and Indonesians see themselves.
A Javanese in Indonesia isn’t automatically assumed as a Muslim, and there are a handful of Christian Javanese, including Javanese Indonesians living in Singapore. A Javanese in Singapore, however, is automatically assumed as a Muslim by everyone else. I’m sure there are Christian Javanese who are also Singaporean citizens, and this could come as a surprise for acquaintances.
That’s a long way to say that my mother is a typical woman in Indonesia but could be very rare in Singapore. To repeat, a Malay Singaporean of Javanese heritage can’t be a Catholic since her youth (if not birth), to have a Catholic wedding, and to raise a Catholic family. In other words, if I were born in Singapore, my mother could have been anyone but a Malay.
That’s a bit weird, isn’t it? Never mind if you’re a Westerner, it’s also a bit bemusing if you’re an Indonesian. Granted, many ethnicities tie their cultures to a particular religion, and conversion could be controversial in any culture. But it seems that for Malays, being a Muslim is an integral part of the ethnicity.
Could this be a legacy of colonialism? Could be. The British and the Dutch similarly ranked their Southeast Asian colonies: Europeans at the top, Japanese half-step below during the interwar period, “Orientals” like Chinese, Indians, Persians, and Jews in the second rank, and the natives in the third.
Perhaps the difference is in the percentage of the Chinese population. Singapore is majority Chinese and is the only other Chinese-majority state whose sovereignty is accepted by the People’s Republic of China. Today close to a quarter of Malaysians are Chinese, and the portion was higher in the 20th century. On the other hand, the Chinese are always less than 10% in Indonesia. The anxiety of Chinese influence in Malaya and the Straits of Malacca persuaded Malay intellectuals to integrate Islam into Malay identity.
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If you’ve spent some time in Political X, you might have encountered admiration for Lee Kuan Yew. His black-and-white videos and images have been shared by anonymous and pseudonymous right-wing accounts, which I assume are largely run by European and North American men, where he’s portrayed as a model political leader. He represents many wishes of modern Western conservatives: We need our LKY. He should have been the historical icon of Asia instead of Mao or Gandhi. He didn’t promise a utopia – he gave a lasting utopia. He showed that, unlike socialism, capitalist conservatism works.
Most people outside Southeast Asia didn’t know Singapore before the movie Crazy Rich Asians came out in 2018. You’ve had tourists, workers, and celebrities visiting Singapore by then, and the country had been chosen as a setting in American TV series since Hawaii Five-O. But it was mostly thought of as another Southeast Asian place – hot, dangerous, and sketchy.
CRA shows a place that is cleaner, safer, and more glamorous than NYC and London. A Tokyo that speaks English and a Hong Kong that’s safe, clean, and independent. Of course, it’s not an actual representation of Singapore, no film ever represents its setting. But any tourist visiting Singapore, even on a smaller budget than Rachel Chu, will find the same excellent transit system, the same great and affordable food, and the same safe streets, whether they come from Indonesia or Australia.
That excellence remains unique in Southeast Asia, where wealth, corruption, poverty, and optimism go together. Even Western conservatives now see Singapore as a utopia – where things remain working; and a hope – the West, with a future commitment to law and order, can recover its standards that Singapore learned to emulate.
Singapore gets to where it is now, “getting to Denmark” in the parlance of Francis Fukuyama, through the top-down direction of Lee’s People’s Action Party. Population integration to prevent modern ethnic pockets. Very high expectations for its elites and institutions. Government monopoly on the media. Before 2015, Singapore was seen as the uptight, stiff sister to freewheeling, neoliberal, and chaotic Hong Kong, with the impression that HK was better for Westerners. Of course, that’s irrelevant now since Beijing makes sure no one can count on Hong Kong including the locals, giving all the advantages to Singapore.
For my Singaporean alter ego, teenage life came with that ‘study hard, play harder’ path, just like in other Confucian societies in Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea. The Asian Financial Crisis might have derailed the illusion that we could keep up with the United States, but Singapore was the haven while Indonesians blamed the crisis on the Chinese and Malaysians blamed it on the Jews.
Then it would have been the national service. Two years later, tertiary education in Australia, is seen by Singaporeans as a place for richer slackers and losers who are too lazy and dumb to get into Singaporean universities.
If I were a Singaporean, I would have been more motivated to apply for permanent residency in Australia. I was too liberal for Singapore, the PAP scared me more than any Indonesian government could, Australia has the academic freedom that Singapore does not, as well as better work and work-life balance.
Some Singaporeans indeed migrated to Australia for these reasons, plus the marginalized seeking better dignities: Women, gays and lesbians, Muslims, and the disabled. Of course, on the other hand, you have Asian Australians like Nadya Hutagalung and Jaymee Ong who moved to Singapore to get better career progress in the media and even business.
Two other reasons were a no-brainer to choose Australia over Singapore: A friendlier, more relaxed population and friendlier, more relaxed romantic prospects. Until the late 2010s, Australia seemed to beat Singapore in everything. On paper, Australia still tops Singapore in everything, no less the quality of life and even city liveability.
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What’s changed in this decade? Perhaps like other Western states, Australia accepts more immigrants than it can absorb them. Perhaps like other Western states, Australia no longer believes in strong law enforcement, civic cohesion, and common identity. The Australia Day is constantly challenged, and town councils take pride in cancelling citizenship ceremonies during the Australia Day. The flag of Australia is not centred by the government, and the citizens are not conditioned to think “I am Australian. Here’s my flag, here’s my culture, here’s my home.”
Singapore, Australia, and Indonesia all embrace multiculturalism. In Southeast Asia, however, multiculturalism does not mean you hate the majority. You don’t blame the majority and you do not demean their culture. Multiculturalism still works in Southeast Asia while failing in Australia and other Western countries.
Singapore always has its own far left, but they have been in disarray in this decade, and this might come down to the government again. Many have moved to the West, including to Australia, or having their ventures imploding due to infighting, or even taking government’s projects.
Australians enjoy their lives better than Singaporeans, but now I have second thoughts on where I would like to work and live. It is the closest thing to a Solarpunk city (no one on Reddit agrees since Solarpunk must be Left), or “Portland of the South”, full of terrorist supporters? If I were an Australian, I would have avoided the major cities and settled for a regional city.
Now it is easier than before to find white women in Singapore, and it’s a safe bet that they are not Greens.