A bit of sociology and politics

In Singapore, elderly parents can sue their grown children if their children can afford to support them but aren't.

Jen and I find this amazing. The whole idea of bringing suit is an import from a western rights-based tradition--there was no analogue of the Magna Carta or the Enlightenment in Asia. Yet this rights-based legal framework is used in the service of a distinctively Asian moral framework with its strong emphasis on parental fealty.

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The most expensive boys school in Singapore is called Raffles Institution. The fancy, upscale shopping center is called Raffles Place. The swankiest hotel is the Raffles hotel. Raffles is the most coveted brand in Singapore. Who is Raffles?

He is Sir Stamford Raffles, employee of the British East Indies Company. He is also the much celebrated founder of Singapore. This surprised me, somewhat. Apparently, the shrewd Raffles saw what an important role Singapura could play in disrupting Dutch control of the region, and found a perfect opportunity in a succession struggle in the local government. Hussein Shah had been the crown prince of the Johor kingdom, but his younger brother was made sultan, and supported by the Dutch, while Shah was away getting married. It seems Raffles saw his opportunity to have British power back the older brother as the rightful ruler, establishing a port and very favorable trade conditions in the bargin. Within a few years, the British had control of what was then, officially, Singapore. Though none of the sources I've read say as much, it sounds very much as if Hussein was a puppet ruler proped up for British economic gain. Put together, these facts really stood out for me. Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems to me that other former colonies I'm aware of don't celebrate their colonial history the way Singapore does.

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While McDonald's, Sizzler, and Denny's are kind of down-market brands in the US, they are approaching upscale in Singapore, as symbols of Western affluence and social mobility. The Denny's is actually a quite fancy (and pricey) sit-down restaurant--a very different affair from its counterparts in the US.

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92% of Singaporeans live in subsidized government housing (buildings from the housing development board--so called "hdb's") that are given for 99-year leases. Here's what they look like from the outside:


We have heard and read several accounts of the government reclaiming private property in the name of a national project, only to re-sell it for commercial purposes. Singapore superficially resembles the bay area in many ways, so it's easy to forget about what seem to be deep political differences.

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We've also observed that there seems to be a lot of racial tension between the Chinese, now the ethnic majority with most of the economic and political power, and the native Malay population. The Malay stereotypes include many of the same "animalistic" charateristics that whites attributed to blacks in the US: they are often seen as a more earthy, emotional, and passionate people, as well as simple, uneducated, ambitionless and lazy. Conversely, the stereotype of the Chinese is that they are money grubbing, ruthless, and cold.

Someone in the market told us that there are mandated caps on the number of Malay families allowed in each HDB high-rise. In other words, a Malay family could not lease an apartment on the open market if there are already too many other Malay families in the building.

We noticed what to us seemed like a subtle incongruity in the museum. The HDBs are considered low-class housing (even though the vast majority of Singaporeans live in them). One of the plaqards in the museum that discussed the HDBs seemed (to us anyway) to imply that Malays were primarily the residents of the HDBs; yet Singapore is 80% chinese, and no mention was made of them.

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We also learned, to our surprise, that there is no free public education in Singapore. While the fees for primary school seemed nominal to us, the fees for kindergarden appeared quite steep. Singapore has a very high-stakes exit exam from primary school that significantly determines what quality school the child can attend afterwards. These two facts together are quite troubling, because we suspect that only wealthier families can afford to send their children to Kindergarten. It will be exactly those childen who are then ahead in primary school, do better on the exit exams, and secure themselves a place on an upwardly mobile path. In short, we fear that there may be a great deal of inequity built-in to the system early on.

Anyway, just a few observations we've had so far.