‘Have to accept’ that national identity may not be the most important identity for many Singaporeans: SM Lee
Other aspects, such as race and religion, also form key parts of Singaporeans’ identity, says Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong at a forum with students.
www.channelnewsasia.com
In case you did not read the article, here's one of the salient points. “Our job is to resist that and to remember: ‘Yes, I am Muslim, or I'm Chinese, or I'm Indian, but I'm also Singaporean,” said the Senior Minister. “And I do hold something here, I belong here, and I should look at the world, starting from here.”
If anything, he's actually being quite transparent here in outright stating what the PAP already knows to be true. The reality is that many Singaporeans - including locally born Sgreans (not just the naturalized ex-foreigners who often get scapegoated for this) - place other aspects of their identity before their Singaporean-ness. That's just the way some people are. Perhaps it's an inevitable result of multiculturalism that the sheer breadth of identities inevitably dilutes the common through line of being Singaporean that is supposed to unite everyone. Or perhaps that's not the case, and we have a lot of room to improve on this as a nation. Whatever the case, the reality at the moment is in fact exactly as SM Lee observed in the article.
A long time ago I used to attend church and some of these pastors that spoke from the podium basically do say this pretty much outright (i.e. you're a Christian first and foremost before all else) when it comes to identity. You often also hear stuff about Chinese SG folks telling their young ones about 饮水思源 (i.e. remember your roots) and about visiting their "homeland" back in China. So the idea of people not purely identifying themselves as Singaporean is alive and well. And unless they're going to crack down on religion or ethnicity (?) there's no way to stop it. The only real way is to overcome it by fostering/building a stronger Singapore core identity that people are drawn to become a part of. Raise the SG identity, not tear down the rest.
Don’t know but I myself see myself as Singaporean first, before anything else. Heck, I don’t even see why our IC must mention “race”. Go start living overseas, you’ll realise very quickly that we Singaporeans have a very unique identity. I am an ethnic Indian but no way I see myself relatable with Indian Nationals. Similarly, I know most (if not all) my ethnic Chinese friends got no affinity with the PRC nationals.
Ethnic Malays too. Cos we Singaporeans all are united in one thing — cannot speak mother tongue.
Headline is pure rage bait but the article is pretty nuanced to parse and read.
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