The National Day slogan Loving Singapore, Our Home, gives rise to some soul searching
By Ignatius Low, The Straits Times, 12 Aug 2012
For me, this year's National Day slogan, Loving Singapore, Our Home, was a memorable one.
This is partly because there have been so many utterly forgettable ones in years gone past (Live Our Dreams, Fly Our Flag, Come Together: Reaching Up, Reaching Out).
What stood out for me this year was the slightly corny use of the famous four-letter word, love.
Initially, I thought the campaign organisers meant love with a small "L", equating it with the love one might have for Fruit- tella, 25-year-old Scotch or yellow slippers.
But as the weeks in the run-up to Aug 9 went by, I discovered to my growing alarm that they might actually have been going for The Big "L".
First it was revealed that the National Day Song (Love At First Light) was going to contain some sort of Debbie Gibson-esque allusion to the first stirrings of the heart when two lovebirds meet.
Then the accompanying music video, without a shred of self-consciousness, showed a young married couple in bed in the morning, staring lovingly into each other's eyes.
I knew instinctively that there was going to be trouble when we got to the inevitable crowd-sourcing portion of the campaign.
Sure enough, over morning radio shows and in television segments broadcast in between coverage of the Olympic Games, ordinary Singaporeans were asked to profess their love - with a big "L".
Some cited the relative peace and security the country enjoyed, others talked about the food and the weather.
"Um, the public transport here is very good," one guy deadpanned. "I love you, Singapore!"
Jokes aside, though, listening to the various responses did give me pause for thought.
It's a question that I have found difficult to answer.
There is much to love, with a small "L", about the country's public order and social cohesion, its black-belt status in economic planning and efficient government.
But that doesn't add up to love with a big "L", something that Singapore's technocrat policymakers are perhaps beginning to see.
It doesn't mean, of course, that there is no such love in the hearts of Singaporeans, and I will now give three reasons why I love Singapore - with a big "L".
The first is a relatively predictable one: I love Singapore because it has been my home for almost all my life and everything about it is so familiar to me.
I know the weather is debilitatingly hot, cars are ludicrously expensive and there is, quite inexplicably, no turn-off from the PIE (Changi) to the CTE (City).
It's a quiet and unexciting sort of love that longtime married spouses have for each other. You know the person inside out and have come to accept idiosyncrasies, weaknesses and random farting with equal aplomb.
I have come to realise, however, that it is the sort of love that is theoretically substitutable. If an emotional attachment is formed simply through time alone, then surely I could love another city or country if I lived there long enough?
In that sense, my second reason for loving Singapore is less transplantable. I love Singapore because of the journey it has taken to become the country it now is.
It is a love that is very much mixed with pride.
When I was younger, I remember my sister struggling initially in school. But she somehow turned the corner and, against all odds, won an overseas scholarship to study art, which she loved. She went on to many more achievements, including being nominated for the nation's top award for young artistic talent a few years ago.
I love my sister for many reasons, but her dogged determination , and her eventual success, has made me love her more over the years.
In the same way, I have, over my lifetime, seen Singapore's reputation transform from a small and little-known "clean and green" city state to a truly international business and tourism destination.
It is not so much the crises that the country has overcome - such as Sars or the Asian financial meltdown - that I am proud of, but the steadier gains that now allow Singapore to punch above its weight internationally.
I don't know about you but I love it that these days, people actually want to come to Singapore for a holiday and do not think of it as just a stopover enroute to London or Sydney. And many even want to live and work here.
Still, it is a change that won't be apparent to all Singaporeans, depending on which phase of the nation's history they have lived through. And its impact will probably diminish with each successive new generation.
This brings me to the third reason why I love Singapore - a relatively new one that has more to do with the country's future.
I have found that, more and more, Singapore has the ability to surprise. It is like finding out that someone you love has talents you never knew about, or suddenly seeing a whole new side to their character that makes you love them more.
Sex scandals, floods and train breakdowns have all been part of a series of events that show Singaporeans to be as human and error-prone as anyone else after all.
And a burgeoning civil activism in areas ranging from conservation to environmentalism is quashing long-held stereotypes about the materialistic and apathetic Singaporean.
The sense I get these days is that the country is starting to move away from the mould that its government wants it to be, or at least, has made it out to be.
The gradual emergence of a nation distinct from the policymakers that shaped it may be a messy future proposition for the Government, but I love that Singaporeans are finding their voice and finally coming into their own.
There you have it - three reasons why I love Singapore that have nothing to do with the MRT, HDB or GDP.
Here's to the emergence of many more. Happy birthday, Singapore.
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