志异 Draft by Drama box July 2014 (english) | Page 35

us. Is that why we feel so angry
when other Southeast Asian groups
claim our space for our own (see
the recent furor over Filipinos
taking over Orchard Road for their
Independence Day celebrations)?
Is that why Singaporean Chinese
are so xenophobic toward the
Mainland Chinese immigrants (our
own inferiority complex kicking
in perhaps because they remind
Singaporean Chinese too much of
ourselves)? We always feel the need
to compare ourselves to others. To
use a term by Frantz Fanon, we are
comparaison. We assert ourselves
through question and merit – we
are more cultured and civilised than
the Mainland Chinese because we
speak English and have adopted
Western manners; we are superior
to the Filipinos because we aren’t
poor and wretched like them. This
psychology of question and merit
permeates every part of our culture.
We are obsessed with trends and
with giving our opinions on it.
We aren’t creatures of hype so
much as we rely on hype to make
judgments and, through that, assert
our individuality. Because why else
would we be so obsessed with
judging things if not to dispel, and
temporarily forget, how inferior and
insecure we feel?

We feel the need to be above
everything, above politics and
culture. We don’t believe in anything
because we are too smart for it.
But no longer believing in anything
creates a despair of its own. As
much as we like to complain about
the government, we still insist on
voting for the ruling party in every
single election. We recognise their
flaws, their errors; we castigate
them for their hubris. And yet, we
don’t believe that there is anything
beyond them. We are so convinced
of the efficacy of the bitter pill
that we see suffering (and, yes,
that includes the military service
depicted in Ah Boys to Men) as
necessary and, even, good for us.
We see the problems in our society
as necessary too – the permanent
marginalisation of racial and
sexual minorities (inevitable in
a democratic majority rule), the
increasing stratification of social
classes (inherent in every capitalist
system), our self-acknowledged
inferiority in relation to other
economic/cultural powers (part
of being a small country in a big
world). But can we aspire to more?
How to ‘lie up a nation’ where there
is none? How to bring together a
community that doesn’t see itself as

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