An opinion piece by Alan Ho Chok Chan
I spent my youth experiencing riots, seeing Chinese chopping up Malays in a longkang near Jalan Sultan , school sit-ins, uncertain economic and political future, and a State (Singapore) coerced into joining the Federation of Malaya, (much akin to the United Kingdom being bamboozled into joining the European Union ), only to be abandoned like a bastard child two years later.
I watched Mr Lee Kuan Yew shed tears on black and white TV in my neighbourhood.
Then came Nationhood, British Withdrawal, joblessness and economic stagnation, even bleaker future, for the Pioneer generation, and their elders.
In an effort to wrest freedom from their colonial masters, Nationalism was the only card to play, bloody or otherwise. In the flush of the shouting of Merdeka, your shackles are off. But you are also left to wallow in the mud, thrown into the deep end of the pool without a float. Scary moments indeed!
My favourite writer and philosopher A C Grayling has nothing good to say about Nationalism.
He quoted Erich Fromm, who said: “Nationalism is a form of incest, is our idolatry, is our insanity. Patriotism is its cult.” Fromm is a German social psychologist living in the early 19th century, and thus experienced, first hand, the ugly hand of Nationalism in Nazi Germany.
Well, Grayling has nothing positive to say about Nationalism, too.
He said Nationalism is evil, whose roots lie in xenophobia and racism, only of use to demagogues and tyrants. It makes use of mass psychology to drive people, usually those at the lower end of cultural spectrum ( most impressionable, and also most violent) to kill others, on the pretext, that they are of a different race, culture, religious belief, that threatens our nation, race, culture, religion, livelihood, and populace.
Grayling went on to further state that race and nationhood are false: national boundaries are arbitrarily drawn in blood from previous wars, the populace of any nation is a mongrel, so many immigrants, so much intermingling between the races, that only a few far-out communities that hardly interact with modern society could claim to be pure breed from generations of inbreeding.
Yet, growing up in Singapore, I am imbued with a different brand of nationalism. Every August I observe the best features of multiracial celebration of the founding of Singapore: the National flag, flown and displayed by almost every household; the Pledge ; the Parade; the fly past, the March past, the gaily decorated lorries, each carrying a theme of nation building; and the people, from students to workers from all walks of life, marching , dancing, frolicking in different racial costumes. It never failed to tug on my heartstrings!
We forged a single identity: four forearms in different racial hues grasping to form a square cartwheel of sorts—that was an indelible image.
Nationalism ala-Singapura allowed us to live in harmony and built an economy nothing short of a miracle. From the Third world to First. Call it what you want, Democratic socialism, Benevolent dictatorship, Meritocracy. Nationhood has never had it so good.
Of our colonial master, it was said that when the British Empire eventually sank beneath the waves of history, it would leave behind only 2 monuments: one is British football, and the other was the expression ‘ Fuck off ‘ (Chris Patten in the book Not Quite the Diplomat.)
Maybe Grayling should visit Singapore more often.
Dr Alan Ho Chok Chan is a Paediatrician in private Family Practice. He also spends time golfing, swimming, playing tennis, wine tasting, playing guitar and singing. He is also a bibliophile and a voracious reader.
