August 20, 2001

PM chastises Singaporeans behaving badly.

Goh Chok Tong is laying down the law, reports Eric Ellis in Singapore

A SINGAPOREAN in full-flight shopping is a sight to behold.
On any given weekend, thousands of them can be seen elbowing their way though the malls and stalls of Johor Baru, the raffish Malaysian border town across the causeway that separates it from Singapore.
While Singapore itself is often jokingly cited as the only shopping mall with a seat in the United Nations, it is Malaysian prices that set Singaporeans off.
"Wahh, so cheap, so cheap," is the rallying cry as pushy Singaporeans compare their gleaming city-state unfavourably to Malaysia, where the currency fell about 50 per cent during the 1997-98 financial crisis.
This so-called kiasu (a Chinese dialect term that suggests to want everything now) phenomenon has also distressed Singapore's patrician Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong, who has railed against the boorishness of his countrymen while abroad.
"Our social graces have not kept pace with our material progress," admonished Mr Goh in a weekend speech delivered at Singapore's National Day rally here.
"Let us be humble, courteous and gracious. Let us make friends with our neighbours, especially Johoreans," he urged.
In Johor Baru, or JB, that might take a bit more doing than holding back one's delight at the much-reduced price tags.
Mr Goh's predecessor as prime minister, Singapore's fabled strongman Lee Kuan Yew, once infamously described JB, as it is known colloquially, as a haven of thieves and carjackers, a remark that set off another of the many diplomatic spats that erupt between Singapore and its former ruler, Kuala Lumpur.
Singapore's love-hate relationship with JB - once characterised as price-conscious Singaporeans loving JB while Johoreans hated Singaporeans - underlines Mr Goh's continual harping at his compatriots to be more polite, at home and abroad.
Foreign diplomats in Singapore frequently remark on the "arrogance" of their Singaporean counterparts during negotiations, noting that Singapore often sees only the US as its diplomatic and systemic equal.
Singapore's top-down Government frequently embarks on campaigns telling Singaporeans how to behave and what to do.
These campaigns have covered everything from what language they should speak and what types of foods they should eat to encouraging more sex and procreation.
One of the more famous ones was articulated in a headline in the pro-government Straits Times, urging Singaporeans to have "spontaneous fun". A more recent campaign has urged Singaporeans to think for themselves and be more creative in order to secure a future in the "knowledge economy."
In his speech, which came with a 66-page handbook taken as a state-of-the-nation address outlining the Government's agenda, Mr Goh reminded Singaporeans that, despite being in a recession, their lot in life was pretty good, even surpassing Switzerland in standard of living.
And far from being buttoned-down and over-controlled, Singapore was lively and was even an arts centre.
Indeed, as he reminded Singaporeans, he had to change the venue for his speech because the usual venue was given over to "high-brow stuff like plays, ballets and musicals ... I gave way to Miss Saigon".
And "now we even have foam parties", Mr Goh noted, a reference to Singapore-style dance parties replete with foam-making machines.
"That is all right, so long as the merrymakers prance around with the lights - and their clothes - on."
Sometimes old habits are hard to change.