Singapore needs ‘creativit​y and gumption to beat odds of history’

Dear Straits Times,

I refer to the 18 Apr 2011 report on new PAP candidate, Mr Chan Chun Sing.

Mr Chan confines himself to Southeast Asian history to show that states of Singapore’s size rarely survived beyond 100 years. He gave the example of the Lanfang Republic, which survived only 107 years before being swallowed up by Dutch occupation. The lesson he drew from this experience is that the republic should have built up its own defences instead of relying on relations with the faltering Qing dynasty.

Mr Chan seems to think that the only history that matters to Singapore is that belonging to its immediate Southeast Asian vicinity. But the only force that has ever successfully invaded us since our founding didn’t even come from within Southeast Asia.

Mighty India too had been swallowed by British occupation. If India, like much of the rest of the non-European world, couldn’t defend itself against European colonisation, what more do we expect from the Lanfang Republic? Indonesian kingdoms mightier than the Lanfang Republic were also swallowed by the Dutch. Therefore, the lesson Mr Chan draws is a wrong one. Try as the weaker state might at self-defence, the reality of this world had always been that of stronger states swallowing up weaker ones just as big fish would eat smaller ones. This continued right up till the end of WWII when the US started to play the global police role. As the biggest fish of all, the US is in a position to prevent any fish from gobbling up any other fish.

Mr Chan refers too to the Sultanate of Demak which lasted only 73 years. But the demise of Demak is no more special than the demise of many other Indonesian dynasties, including the great Majapahit Empire. Power struggles and infighting had almost always caused these states to decline over time. So again, Mr Chan has drawn the wrong lesson. Lack of defence is not the reason why these states fell apart. Many of them, including Demak, grew more powerful through military conquests. The more appropriate lesson to learn would be the harmful consequences of power struggles. The more absolutist a nation is, the more violent the power struggles, the more devastating the consequences will be. Democracy has evolved as a way for peaceful contest of power. The more we disrespect democracy, the more we mould ourselves into a strong, absolutist state, the more devastating power struggles will be to our future.

Mr Chan also calls for Singaporeans not to buy the wrong insurance and mai liao lui. Since when has Mr Chan started to sell insurance? How does he expect Singaporeans to believe one insurance agent’s claim that the other insurance is wrong and a waste of money?

Mr Chan says that the two historical states hastened their slide into obscurity by forgetting to be relevant to the world. But it was precisely because they were relevant to the world that they were targeted and conquered. Similarly, it was Singapore’s relevance long before the PAP came along, that made us one of the prime targets of Japanese invasion. Similarly, if the historical states had forgotten to be cheaper, better, faster, they would not have become targets for conquest.

Mr Chan says the states neglected to groom ‘strong, forward looking’ leaders as though our leaders are strong and forward looking. Our leaders’ strategy of mass labour import without considering the impact on overcrowding and housing prices shows that they are not as forward looking as they claim to be. Their purported ‘strength’ is in bullying people, not helping people.

Mr Chan says that big countries need reasonable leadership while small countries need exceptional leadership. Is he insulting big country leaders like Barrack Obama and Wen Jiabao while praising leaders of small countries like Lichtenstein and Luxembourg whom we don’t even know?

Finally, Mr Chan says a hundred years, here we come. But Singapore is already more than a hundred years old. Counting from 1819, we have been in existence for 192 years already. So he should say: 200 years, here we come.