Characteristics of SG

1. A Land of ContradictionsThis point comes to mind immediately, there are so many instances of this phenomenon. Singapore is a open economy but not a open society. Case in point: while economy is thriving and Singaporeans enjoy one of the highest per capita income in the world, Singapore has been criticised frequently for lack of freedom of expressions (e.g. no strike or demonstration is allowed). We want a thriving night social life and yet we do it half heartedly with all the restrictions. We want to encourage more artistic expressions and activities and yet we do not want to spell out the clear OB markers. Singapore is a first world economy but the citizens have a third world mindset, just check out the dirty toilets, rubbish littered all over the HDB flats, aggressive tailgating drivers, hogging of lanes on the escalators, wastage of food and resources, maid abusing etc. and you will know what I mean. Singaporeans are rich but not necessary happy, look at the grumpy faces of the shop attendants and taxi drivers and the numerous anti-establishment websites on the internet. Enough said!2. SinglishIt is hard to master one language let alone two languages or more. As Singapore is an immigrant society with multi racial and dialect groups, many Singaporeans have trouble mastering English, which is a working language here. As a result a distorted version of English known as Singlish has evolved over the years which include expression borrowed from Malay, Chinese and dialects (predominantly Hokkien). Words and expressions such as makan (eat), mati (die), Kiasu (afraid to lose), Kiasi (afraid to die or no guts), go where?, how?, leh, lor, shiok, skarly are commonly used (see more exampleshere), Some of tenses are clearly borrowed from Chinese language and it has the unique characteristic of being short,sharp and straight to the point. The government are clearly not impressed with the development of Singlish but it is widely spoken by the mass of Singaporeans from all ethnic communities except, perhaps, the high society. By the way, many Malaysian, Indonesian and Brunei Chinese speak impeccable Singlish which strictly speaking is not truly unique to Singapore. I must confess.5. Government DominanceThe government dominance is truly almost everywhere. The Singapore Government has significant share ownerships in publications (SPH), national carriers (SIA), public utilities, telecomm companies (Singtel, M1 and Starhub), properties, transport, healthcare and etc. The government also comes out with numerous incentives and regulations from encourage citizens to get married, to have children, retirement planning and housing, everything seems to be taken care of by the government so much so that a clutch mentality has been developed and it seems that without the government, majority of the citizens are unable to fend for themselves (see theTwo Men and A Ladyjokehere). While it may be a compliment to the government for having done an exceptional job, it is truly a Unique Singapore social problem that I and some Singaporeans wish less of.6. Unique Political SystemSingapore is a one-party government despite being a democratic country by constitution. How on earth can a country has a ruling party who has a 67% vote and yet own more than 95% of the seats? Currently there are only two elected opposition MPs in more than 80+ seats. Other than the obvious reason that the ruling party has done a good job, the other often cited reasons being litigations against opposition leaders, goodies handed out and feel-good factors created prior to elections and most of all a truly unique Singapore system calledGRCwhich stands for Group Representative Constituency. It was originally conceptualised as a mechanism to ensure the minority and women candidates will be elected, the GRC originally constitutes 3 candidates was however expanded gradually to 4,5 and 6 candidates within a GRC under the watch of ex-PM Goh Chok Tong to also provide a backdoor for otherwise reluctant politicians to enter into politics. Not a single GRC has been won by the opposition parties so far. The single ward constituency was also drastically reduced over the years to only 8 in the last election in 2006. In the last election, almosthalf of the eligible votersdid not get to exercise their votes. To give credit to the government, the current PM Lee Hsien Loong has taken the steps to try to reverse the trend by introducing more single ward seats and reducing the sizes of GRCs and we shall see if this will result in more opposition representations in future elections.7. MeritocracyMeritocracy is a central political concept in Singapore which places a great emphasis on identifying and grooming bright young citizens for positions of leadership. The Singaporean interpretation places overwhelming emphasis on academic credentials as objective measures of merit. This has created a unique social class of scholars with the awards of hundreds (if not thousands) of scholarships by the government alone (many more scholarships are offered by private sectors annually) . It remains to be seen if such over-emphasis on academic achievement and the long term effect on gifted children and scholarship holders will cause social issues in the long run if they are not carefully managed. As it is today, many scholars are expected to have an accelerated career path planned for them and there are distinctively scholar networking circle amongst them which is not healthy for the social development of Singapore as a whole. TheWee Shu Mins incidentin 2006 presents an evidence thatSingapore was suffering from increasing signs that political elitism, smarter-than-thou snobbery and class consciousness anxiety were creeping into its meritocracy model, a widening social stratification that will cause long-term implications for Singaporean societyThe Singapore version of Meritocracy is not a true meritocracy in my opinion as it will be much much harder for a late bloomer or non-scholar to achieve the same position as he is not blessed with a planned career for himself/herself. A real meritocracy should recognise a persons capability on the job, without any preferential treatment given to scholar and non-scholar alike. There are alsoonline commentsby readers that if meritocracy is truly working, someone should take responsibility for losing money by Temasek and GIC, Mas Selamats escape and recent Orchard Roads flooding which are sadly not the case.

Education & SocialMobilityPositive International Accolades33 International experts have also analysed our progress and provided a sound basis for comparisons with other countries.34 The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which conducts the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), has constructed an Economic, Social and Cultural Status (ESCS) index to measure the socio-economic background of students. OECD found that across the education systems participating in PISA, there was a general positive relationship the higher the ESCS, the higher the PISA scores. In all countries, Singapore included, students from better socio-economic backgrounds do better academically.35 But, they then found that in some education systems, among them Singapore, China, Korea and Finland, a larger proportion of students from lower socio-economic backgrounds were able to perform better than predicted. OECD called them resilient students, students who excelled despite having come from less favourable circumstances. We were ranked 5th out of 65 countries for the proportion of resilient students. Almost one in two of our students were resilient, compared to one in three in the OECD. The PISA average was 26% or one in four.Economy - overview:Singapore has a highly developed and successful free-market economy. It enjoys a remarkably open and corruption-free environment, stable prices, and a per capita GDP higher than that of most developed countries. Unemployment is very low. The economy depends heavily on exports, particularly of consumer electronics, information technology products, medical and optical devices, pharmaceuticals, and on its vibrant transportation, business, and financial services sectors. The economy contracted 0.6% in 2009 as a result of the global financial crisis, but has continued to grow since 2010 on the strength of renewed exports. Growth in 2014 was slower at 2.9%, largely a result of soft demand for exports amid a sluggish global economy and weak growth in Singapores manufacturing sector. The government is attempting to restructure Singapores economy by weaning its dependence on foreign labor, addressing weak productivity, and increasing Singaporean wages. Singapore has attracted major investments in pharmaceuticals and medical technology production and will continue efforts to strengthen its position as Southeast Asia's leading financial and high-tech hub. Singapore is a member of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership negotiations with the nine other ASEAN members plus Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand, and in 2015, Singapore will form, with the other ASEAN members, the ASEAN Economic Community.

MATERIALISM

Possible stands:Yes, but (safest and most logical) Prove that the Singapore dream has largely been founded on these two principles and that the ultimate GOAL is still to achieve success and money (even if there are intermediate goals)

-Argument:The Singapore dream is based on the notion that equality and meritocracy will help us to carve out success for everyone. Yet, success in our society is measured mainly in material terms.

Reasoning + Evaluation: The dream of the average Singaporean is achieving the 5 Cs career, car, credit cards, condominium and a country club membership. Education in Singapore is less about the process of learning and more about getting into a reputable school and attaining the necessary qualifications to get a job with a good pay. The ends are always economic in nature. Every year parents scramble to get their children into good schools. Schools and students cram knowledge to pass national examinations to arm themselves with the paper qualifications to get a job in a big corporation. The dream of having material possessions, a sign that one has arrived in society translates into a life spent working to pay off more loans .

Conclusion: With the focus placed primarily on tangible, measurable achievements further reinforced by the governments drive to push Singapore onto the global stage, there is no doubt that the Singaporean dream is based on success and money.-Other possible arguments (dream is based on $ success)

The statement is true to a large extent as Singapore was an immigrant society. Our ancestors came to seek a better life. They were here to look for better opportunities and basically to seek greater wealth. This background of our forefathers has made Singaporeans very pragmatic, goal-oriented people. To many of us, happiness is to succeed in our career or business which ultimately gives us the means to live the life we desire.

can be seen by the little importance that our society places on ventures with little economic returns

Overwhelming focus on achieving accolades and titles (most competitive economy, most globalised, aviation. Bio-medical hub, renaissance city much of it tied to being seen as a significant member on the global stage.)