Singapore Society

SINGAPORE - We are very saddened to hear here about Talisay Mayor Anthony Lizares' sudden passing away. A few days ago, he was at Riverside Hospital, where an aunt of mine was also confined. Then as if without warning, all of his just 39 years came to an end. Incredible. Our deepest condolences to his family and to the people of Talisay.

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It is very interesting to note the differences and similarities between lives of people in different places. The Fellowship of Evangelical Students (FES-Singapore) invited me to speak to about a hundred Evangelical students coming from different universities and colleges here, as well as to a smaller group of law students. A main problem of theirs is the welter of pressures brought about by first-world lifestyle. Their high standard of living requires a work ethic and schedule that do not leave much room for Christian service, unless one is able to integrate it directly in one's work.

I am hosted by a couple who both work in the university. Like 80 or 90 percent of Singaporeans, they live in one of the many thousands of spic and span tenements or flats (high-rise apartments) provided for them and maintained by the Singapore government. They have no servants in the house, as only the very wealthy can afford domestic helpers (many of whom are from our country, in fact, I sat beside two of them on my way here in the plane). So they have to do all the home chores.

Because of this situation, my hosts, like most other Singaporean couples, do not prepare for or take breakfast at home. They leave early in the morning for work, eat there, do not return for lunch, and take their dinner outside, to come home only in the evening to rest.

Yet, their apartments are impeccably clean, downright spic and span. Their things are systematically arranged. They have equipment for almost everything. They leave their shoes at the door, and go about barefoot in their rooms. The door-to-door closeness of their socially-ordered living arrangements require of them a mutual respect and consideration which, uncannily, result in a very, very quiet neighborhood. This is the situation of every apartment building I had chance to visit.

Singaporean society is also very tame and very "politically-correct." The nearest thing they have to personal freedom is fashion, which is often the latest and most in vogue, but they don't say critical things of the government. Work and lifestyle simply absorb them.

Still, there are signs of slow and controlled change. Senior Minister Goh, Lee Kuan Yew's son who heads the party running the government, and who is up for re-election this January, has announced a five-day working week to begin with those in government, so that Saturdays can be family time. This is popularly and heartily received here. The private sector is expected to follow.

Just recently, Singapore hosted what was the biggest beach party in the world, from evening to early morning. So there are signs of a loosening up of the British-influenced, stiff-upper lip, Singapore society. Still, no drunkenness allowed, and anybody caught dealing with drugs will still get the death penalty, no ifs and buts about it. Most Singaporeans I have talked to welcome the cautious and controlled change, and affirm a continuing appreciation for the basic strictness that Singaporean government is known for.

Reflecting on all these, I have come to a rather unexpected appreciation for the things we take for granted in Philippine society. Most working class Filipinos have homes with some space for garden or lawn, no matter how small. Even the smallest low-cost housing in the Philippines would be some form of luxury by Singapore standards, as all they have are but the four-corners of their concrete spaces, and they have no outside piece of land they can call their own. Their open space is the whole city itself, what with its manicured lawns and wide open gardens, and their ultra clean streets. But in the Philippines, we have pieces of earth, ground, we can call our own, no mater how small, and if we only maintain them, landscape them, attend to them with plants and flowers, even high-society Singaporeans would envy us. Our only problem is our lack of appreciation for what we have, our laziness to clean up, and our lack of love for plants and greeneries. Or rather, our lack of love for our own country, otherwise, it would not be the mess that it is today.

Human nature would love to have both freedom and prosperity. It seems the Philippines has too much of the former while Singapore has too much of the latter.

If I would have my way, I would borrow Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew from here, let him rule the Philippines for say, about 20 years, that is, shoot all thieves in government, hang all drug lords, jail all who spit on the sidewalk and those who throw their cigarette butts everywhere, blare their music in the night, do not uproot the cogon in their front and backyards, poison the neighborhood air with their pig sty, litter their canals with plastic, walk the streets shirtless, violate traffic rules. And then, after we have embedded these ways in our hard skulls, loosen it up with freedom later.

If we can do this, perhaps, we too can have a better, decent, respectable society out there. Because, for sheer land area alone, and vegetation and natural resources, the Philippines is a much, much more blessed piece of earth than Singapore. But why the latter is, and the former is not (the blessed place that human beings long to habitate) is a matter that would require every one of us to look into the mirror and ask the question why.*