The 5 Cs, summing up the good life in Singapore are so well-known that even the young can rattle them off—Car, Condominium, Cash, Credit Card, Country Club Membership (Singapore wags, with a wink, like to add a sixth C—Concubine)

At this stage of Singapore’s economic development and affluence, these 5Cs are no longer adequate to convey the Singapore Dream as it enlarges even further: maybe there should be two cars, a condominium unit and another property purely for investment, the country club should be the most prestigious…..

The conspicuousness of the Singapore consumer has provoked some thoughtful Singaporeans to express their concern. They speak and write about the need to have a less materialistic society, to educate the young about worthwhile social and moral values, to give life the spiritual dimension that is so sadly lacking. It is precisely this materialism, they say, that has created a whole host of problems in our society today—the intense competition that leads ambitious, career-minded parents to neglect their children who are then easily led into delinquent behaviour; the sense of alienation among the young who drift along without a moral compass; the emergence of kiasuism in its worst forms of self-centredness, small-mindedness and greed; the callousness that is seen in the exploitation and abuse of maids. If there is already an ‘Ugly Singapore’, the root cause can be traced to the materialism spawned by the infamous 5 Cs.

To provide a special antidote for this social ill, the concerned Singaporeans suggest another set of 5 Cs—Caring, Concern, Compassion, Courteousness and Civility. The newspapers regularly carry letters from Singaporeans lauding instances of these positive Cs or lamenting their absence: the kind passerby who went out of his way to help an old woman when she fell on the escalator in a shopping mall, and the callous ones who looked on indifferently as a young girl was being harassed on the MRT; an unreasonable employer who makes her maid work long hours on very little sleep and the kind one who pays for hers to do a computer course or pays the medical bills of her father back home; the rude passenger in the taxi and the one who never fails to greet the driver.

The question I often find myself asking is this: Is all that materialism, giving rise to all that selfishness and callousness, something to be expected of all developing societies on the road of rapid economic development (such as China and India)? Is it simply a nouveau riche phenomenon that will disappear as the society matures and comes into its own? Or is it a peculiarly Singapore condition, resulting from the special socio-economic circumstances of our development, eventually to become the dark underbelly of our society that we would prefer to ignore in the heady thrill of our spectacular material achievements?

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About Vignettes...

A continuing flow of little, readable pieces that will constitute what I feel is an important 'legacy of values' to leave behind. Read more about Vignettes...