National Day

Red and White; a Divide.

The lead up to this year's National Day has been a lot less low key as compared to last year's. Perhaps all the fanfare has been overshadowed by 080808 and the Olympics. Or maybe because the economy is not in as good a shape this time round. The past year, has been a topsy turvy time for Singapore and its people. We have had record economic growth and prosperity but have also seen oil prices reach literally astronomical prices and inflation making steady inroads, wiping out any wage increments. The past year has also been characterized by the massive en-bloc fever and redevelopment boom that has left half of the country looking like a construction site. Such is the craze surrounding the en-bloc phenomenon that even TCS took it upon themselves to make a soap opera about it.

The focus of this year's National Day photo should be the little alley in the centre of the photo. Is it a dead end or is there a way out? One really cannot say for sure and I think that this is indicative of all futures, even that of nations. We can plan and see only as far as fate, foresight and chance would allow us to. But we can never say for certain what will be, even though the Government would like you to believe that it can predict the future down to the last detail. No amount of planning and postulating can detract from the fact that we only have the present to work with.

The alley splits the photo into two halves, the red of the concrete silos and the white of the old shop-house. The red is indicative of the construction fever that has gripped our nation, old buildings are being torn down, as part of the en bloc craze and as part of a surplus in credit. The white represents the old, the unchanging and our heritage. Amidst all this en-bloc/redevelopment craze, there is a pressing need to preserve our architectural heritage. If I were the tourism board, I would shelve "Uniquely Singapore" and replace it with "Ever Changing Singapore", a far more accurate description of Singapore. What will our future generations remember us by if we keep knocking down old buildings to make way for the new glassy skyscrapers. I know we have been preserving colonial buildings and shop-houses but I am not really referring to this genre of buildings when I say "old". What I am really referring to are buildings of our relative past such as Golden Mile Shopping Centre, 7th Storey Hotel, Bras Basah complex, Hong Lim complex, Pearl Bank Apartment etc. These buildings are symbols of our relative past and extremely endangered. Almost everyone of us this generation has a personal nexus with such places and so, they should stand as milestones for future generations of Singaporeans to track the nation's progress and evolution. We do not want to leave Singapore with just colonial buildings and modern glassy skyscrapers like the ones peeking through the background of this photo. We do not want the future generation to remember us as the generation that destroyed its entire recent past, leaving posterity without a historical marker of this present era.

Buildings serve as wonderful reminders of our heritage and our past which ultimately reinforces our cultural identity. Being Singaporean, it is so easy to lose your identity because of our uncanny ability to assimilate and our marketability. We are Asian, but most of us converse in English rather than an Asian language. We are more "Western" in thinking than "Asian" and more receptive towards external influences than our neighbours. So what are we truly then apart from our food? Which if you ask me is already under threat. Just thinking about all the old Hawker uncles/aunties retiring in 10 years time with nobody to take over their trade because their kids have all chosen the "establishment" route and gotten themselves "establishment" jobs gives me the shivers. Maybe in 10 years time we will have contract foreign workers cooking "authentic" hawker fare for us. After all, standing behind the wok is a natural progression from dish-washing and serving which they are already doing.

I think the alley also serves to highlight the growing divide in Singapore. A recent survey showed that the number of people defaulting on car loans have increased significantly but the same survey also showed that the number of exotic cars purchased have increased many fold over that same period. What does this really say about the nation? Not only are we at a cross roads where we can choose to divorce from our relative past but we are also at the very same cross roads where we need to ask ourselves if this divide will turn into a permanent fissure in the nation's strata. The lower income will always suffer the greatest from inflation. So as we spend millions tearing down old buildings, wasting material, and further aiding inflation should we spare a thought for the consequences of our actions? Or should we just go on, after all that is the whole concept of "free marketeering"?

Perhaps now that the economy is cooling and the blinkers are coming off, we will be able to see that being Singaporean is as much about the new as it is about the old, about the rich as it is about the not so well-off. Keeping track of who we are is important, before we lose ourselves and with it our identity.
Happy Birthday Singapore.