When you try your best but you don’t succeed. There might actually be a reason for that – a flawed psyche that perpetuates the ‘Singapore Dream’ that if you work hard enough, you can succeed.
Recently, a picture of the night view of Singapore’s skyline appeared on my Facebook feed. The picture of the skyscrapers in the CBD and Marina Bay area captures the most iconic shot of Singapore. Comments under the picture praised the development of Singapore and how, as a country, we are punching way above what most would expect of a country with no natural resources. Each National Day, the music video that accompanies the NDP song always showcase flashback of the past to invoke a sense of pride among Singaporeans. “We will get there” and a skyline like that of Marina Bay is evident of how Singapore has transformed itself from a “fishing village” into a metropolitan city state.
Singapore’s development from the 50s till today is a testament of what a common dream can achieve. Singapore has become a place of envy among many foreigners and many want to come here to work or visit. Yet, hidden under the bustling city landscape, lies the side of Singapore that many Singaporeans know of, but not many Singaporeans care about. A large portion of our country’s residential population that live amongst us are not treated properly just because of the economic status they belong to; these are our low wage workers and foreign labourers. They are the same exact people who provide service to Singaporeans, laid the foundation and build the exact skyscrapers that has since been synonymous to Singapore’s success.
Each time I go overseas (and I hope many Singaporeans can relate with me on this), I always hope to be treated well and not bear the front of any discrimination in a foreign land just because I am different. Yet back at home, we treat those who came to our country, with the same kind of hope, in a way that we do not wish to be treated. What’s worse? We do it to the ones who build and lay the foundations of many industries of this country. If the response of Singaporeans to the COVID-19 situation in Singapore is anything to go by, it has revealed that many have turned a blind eye to a known problem of the restricted living space of the foreign workers’ dormitories for far too long. It had reached a level that was dangerous and this pandemic is shoving that problem right in front of our eyes to a point that we can no longer ignore it.
This is not just a Singapore issue. Ever heard the phrase ‘if you work hard enough, you can climb up the ladder’ and would eventually reach the top, or at least be where you want to be? This is the ‘Singapore Dream’ – hard work pays with success, you are judge based on your merits. Inspiring and sounds nice, but our current system of rewarding hard work is severely flawed. The system is massively stacked against certain groups of people that the notion of dreaming is non-existent! Meritocracy works if every one has the same kind of opportunities. Tell a single parent working his/her a** off every day just to put food on the table, doing multiple jobs which implies losing quality parent-child time that hard work pays. Is this individual not working hard enough? Or tell that to someone who may have grown up in an environment that is not conducive to developing skills in non-routine tasks, confining them to performing low paying jobs. Often times, it is not that these people are not working hard enough, but the system are not in their favour. Ultimately, it is not enough for you to just work hard when the system is stacked against you.
This is what I would like to call the ‘Korean Drama’ syndrome. Portrayed beautifully yet never happens in reality. Consider this as akin to playing 4D, where the odds of winning is so low. Yet, thousands of people queue up each week before the draw because the thought of winning the lottery is a ‘nice thought to have’. This game is built upon a game system that is so stacked against everyone, yet people think that they will win the lottery. It is reported that people spent a collective $8 billion on betting games each year in Singapore alone. Think about it! This optimism that many people have is grounded in unfound belief and hope in a system that works against us.
COVID-19 has taken a huge hit on the foreign workers residing in Singapore. Single day cases, usually >500, easily overshadow the number of local cases, which have since dropped to single digits, but never hit numbers seen in the dormitories. When it comes to foreigners in our midst, many Singaporeans (myself included) take an apathetic approach, often times just ignoring them at best, and at worst chiding their presence in society. A look at Facebook comments reveal the vile attitude that many have taken, suggesting that we should send them back to their home country, block the use of taxpayers’ money to provide for them and some even suggesting that they do not deserve to be residing in isolation at resort facilities because they deserved this predicament in the first place.
The fact that they are foreigners already tilts the system against them. Socially, not many Singaporeans want to be associated with them. Structurally, the majority of policies were designed where they are least considered. I want to believe that we have done enough as a nation in safeguarding all who come into our country seeking for a good nurturing work environment, but I cannot rest on this optimism as well, because I know that is not the case. The bout of COVID-19 cases already revealed that the living space of our foreign workers’ dormitories is conducive to the spread of the virus. Yet so many are complaining that we are housing foreign workers in resorts and facilities, taking up taxpayers’ money and resources of Singaporeans. Resources that you would ever possibly need. Some argue that medical resources should not be used on our foreign friends ‘just in case’ another Singaporean needs it and should have priority because he/she is a citizen? Where’s the logic in that? This is the logic that many people employ to hoard toilet paper, visit clubs and bars for ‘one last time’, go straight right out to buy McDonalds or to get a hair cut. The logic of ‘if I do not hoard/do/save it now, I might miss out’. This faulty logic has also resulted in many of the arguments for the idea of allocating resources to Singaporeans only.
Many of us do not have to worry about our income being significantly cut because of the budget measures put in place by the government. The government has done (in my opinion) enough to aid a significant number of Singaporeans giving $600 to many of us who do not need it. When we fall sick, our employee benefits or personal insurance can cover the cost of treatment. While working from home, we continue to receive a pay check every month. Yet, greatly affected by this pandemic are the service and low skilled workers. Many of whom are put out of jobs and not receiving a wage because of the pandemic and may not have employment benefits to begin with. Are we thinking about doing something for them and how aid can be provided? When called upon to provide monetarily, how many actually gave up that $600 that we do not need?
Many Singaporeans are living comfortably today in a pandemic not because we worked hard for it, but we inherited it. We own our current ‘success’ to inheritance. Yet many others are given the living space they are housed in or have simply not inherited enough to call it comfortable. Sure, every one is affected by this pandemic. It is indeed unprecedented. Nothing of what we are going through right now is normal. But clearly some in society are affected way more and disproportionately than others. At some point we need to pause from pursuing our own ‘Singapore Dream’ and start thinking about how we can help others to even start to have dreams.
If we look at all of this and think that our ‘pre-COVID’ system is working well, all we have to do is give it another generation. Wait for one generation and we will soon see the great divide of society along the social economic gaps that may be irreversible because so many are clinging on to the ‘Singapore dream’. This is the dream that tells you that if you work hard enough you will be successful, yet in reality many have inherited this success. This obsession to achieve success through our own hard work or merit might have blinded us from considering the predicament of many others.
That’s the problem with pushing for meritocracy. The system is flawed from the beginning because talent and ability is intricately tied to social economic status. It places certain people at a disadvantage to begin with. What is the line in the sand, at which point we consider the system disproportionately favouring a certain group? It takes a good governance to step in to stop poor practices that has existed in society for a long time and redraw that line in the sand. We know that the concept of meritocracy and hard word ostensibly sounds great and seems logical but it has disproportionately given certain groups more opportunities than others, leaving those that actually do need help behind.
Now that we know that the line in the sand that we thought was acceptable turns out to be the wrong line, something has to change. It should not take a pandemic for us to go from apathy to empathy. It should not take a pandemic for us to pause on our constant chase for success and start thinking about others who are severely disadvantaged in situations like these. Regardless, now that a pandemic has struck and revealed many inequalities in our Singapore system and this severely flawed ‘Singapore dream’, what can we do next? No one is fighting for perfect equality, but we need to do something because doing nothing is not an option.
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