Excellent article by Chua Chin Leng. Thank you, Chin Leng!!
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No Country, No Govt, No Citizen
"The pathetic incident of this guy spitting at two young women at Woodlands Interchange, grabbing one of them and harassing them, is what this country has turned into, bo cheng hu. This guy went spitting at one woman after another several times each and everyone, including SMRT staff could only watch like a despicable circus act. No one could or would stand up to stop the abuse and humiliation of two women in broad daylight, in a crowded place.
How could such a thing happen in a first world city? I can offer only a few reasons. Everyone was so civilized except the guy who spitted at women, or everyone was so selfish, so afraid or did not know what to do or whatever. Chivalry is dead. Manhood is dead.
What happened could be like this. The guy could be fierce, but from the video, any medium built guy could knock him down. He was no big hunk, more like a grown up boy. Anyway, the women could also be foreigners. The people watching also could be foreigners, or most of them. Any Sinkie there, maybe a few. Even the SMRT staff in uniform could be foreigners.
So you have a group of foreigners in a little corner of this island watching something unpleasant happening. What to expect them to do? They are foreigners, no ownership. This is not their country, it is not their business to get involved. Why should they? And as for the Sinkies, the women could be foreigners too, so why should they bother?
The point is that there is no ownership. This island has so many foreigners that every other person is likely to be a foreigner. And at an interchange, the likelihood that the majority are foreigners is even higher. It is a situation of no country, no govt, no citizens. Anything can happen, who cares? No one will step forward to help anyone in distress, to defend or protect lives or properties. It is nobody’s business.
When there is a country, a citizenship, ownership, an identity, belonging, then there will be kampong spirit, to help each other, because we are a family, the people of a country. In a rojak situation when everyone is likely to be a foreigner, when none can identify with anyone or anything, this is what could happen. Apathy, alienation, distinterest, not my business, nothing to do with me. No one people one nation, no stand up for Singapore. This is the same as the foreigner cyclist threatening the Sinkie driver in the middle of road. In a country when the national identity is strong, the cyclist would not be seen walking or cycling again if he dared be so rude and aggressive to the citizens. In some countries they would mow him down and it would be his fault for being there. He was not supposed to be there. He did not belong there.
We are looking every bit like a failed nation. Yes we are just a city with no identity, not a country or a nation. Nobody cares for anyone except when their interests are directly affected. "