Since National Day has just passed, I thought it might be worthwhile to talk about the topic of patriotism or the love of one’s nation.
If you look at the rise of hard-right snake oil salesmen that have been popping up all over the place in the last half-decade, you will realise that we are living in a time when the term “patriotism” has been sorely abused.
Patriotism or love of the state has always been a virtue for as long as humans have organised themselves into societies. If you look at who becomes a hero, you’ll notice it’s inevitably been people who have sacrificed their individuality and even their lives for the rest of us.
We think of the ideal as set out by the late President John F Kennedy who told the young of his era, “Ask not what your country has done for you but what you can do for your country.”
While many of us grew up encouraged to develop “patriotic” ideals, there has been a trend toward abusing the ideal of patriotism. This abuse is best summed up by former US President George W Bush when he said, “You are either with us or against us.”
This became most pronounced during the Trump Presidency when everyone was either cheering in delusion or foaming in the mouth whenever his name was mentioned.
As always, whilst America and the rest of the Western World get stuck in a debate on personalities, Singapore practices a more subtle but probably more effective form of abusing patriotism.
The most visible example is over the debate on the death penalty. The activists make one consistent tactical error, which is to write to the rest of the world about Singapore hanging people. Look at the last incident when Sir Richard Branson got involved in airing his views on the death penalty.
It is a tactical error because the government inevitably moves the discussion away from the death penalty and the chap waiting at the gallows to a question of “outsiders versus Singapore,” and suddenly anyone who is anti-death penalty gets labelled as “anti-Singaporean.”
Hence, the guy’s fate is inevitably sealed because, well, it’s no longer about whatever the guy was carrying but Singapore standing up to the rest of the world on a certain political position.
As mentioned in my previous posting, patriotism is an emotion, and when an emotion is stirred up, logic and rationality go out the window.
I think of the 2005 hanging of Van Tuong Nguyen, an Australian citizen who was caught carrying drugs. There was a lot of diplomatic noise, and an Australian politician mentioned something about banning SQ from Australian airports.
Speaking as someone who sees himself as educated in the West and rational, my instinct was – we should not only hang the guy but ensure that the Australian High Commissioner witnessed the event.
The emotion of sticking the middle finger at the “imperialist” bully when we are trying to apply our laws was strong enough to overcome whatever feelings I might have had towards the death penalty.
This is not the only example of how the debate has shifted from being about issues to being about “us-versus-them.” It has become all too easy to label anyone who disagrees with you as “unpatriotic.” Patriotism is the blanket used to suppress disagreement.
However, as anyone who has had kids will tell you, like and love do not go hand in hand. As I have said to my kid on a few occasions, “I’ll always love you, but I don’t like certain things that you do or believe in.”
What is true of parenting is also true of patriotism. I do not necessarily like everything that goes on in Singapore, and I write a blog about it a lot. However, that does not mean that I do not have a love for my country, which for the record is the only country in the world that I have a legal obligation to defend.
Singapore is my home, and it is the place where I have been trying to raise a family. There are reasons why I chose to do it here and not elsewhere. However, when it comes to the things that I do not like about the place, I express myself and hope that one day someone with the capabilities of bringing about change will do it and make it a better place.
I do not think this feeling is unique to me. There are, as they say, distinctions between Singapore the country and the Singapore government. There are distinctions between disagreeing with certain things and wanting to destroy them.
We need to remember this when we look at people like opposition politicians and activists for certain causes. Just because we do not agree with them all the time, it does not mean that they are less patriotic than the rest of us.
This was a point that was ironically brought home to me by a young man who was active in the PAP grassroots. He was talking about Dr Chee, who has been a proverbial punch bag for the powers that be. His argument was that when you look at Dr Chee and all that he has endured, it is a miracle that he stays and remains active in the political sphere. This is a man who could easily have packed his bags and moved elsewhere to make a more comfortable living. He has no reason to stay and like the place. Yet he stays because he must clearly believe he’s got something to contribute.
We need to remember this. People who love the country do not have to like everything about it. People who are critical are not necessarily against the system, but hoping to make it work for them. Not everyone can be a superscale wage earner, but most of us have to live here and make it work for us.
If we remember that disagreement is not unpatriotic, we can sit down and discuss ways to make things better for everyone. However, we can only do that when the people we disagree with feel confident enough that they won’t be labelled “unpatriotic” for holding different views.
A version of this article first appeared at beautifullyincoherent.blogspot.com