Will the esprit de corps crack?

The rowboat speeds along the inlet between Singapore and one of its islands, Pulau Ubin. Filled with pride, LeowBan Tat prepares to give a tour of his floating fish farm, where hundreds of thousands of fish have been growing since March. Sixteen tanks fit on this gigantic raft which, by its shape, recalls oil platforms.

It’s no coincidence: Mr. Leow is a marine engineer who, in his mid-50s, left the oil industry to go into fish farming. At 64, he now devotes himself body and soul to his business, which aims to feed the world in a sustainable way. This man with always tense muscles, who sold his house to finance his adventure, barely sleeps.

“I love coffee! Every day, I drink at least five cups of it,” he says in his small office on the fish platform. On the walls are exposed his patents, but also several of his abstract canvases, which he paints at night. The insomniac also makes madeleines to keep busy – but only with butter imported from France!

Mr. Leow embodies the Singaporean ideal: a businessman open to the world – he has lived in China and Brazil -, brimming with ideas, who swims in Western-style capitalism like a fish in water. , but who cherishes very Asian values, such as an unlimited dedication to his community through work.

He is also part of a generation that observed firsthand the tremendous economic evolution of Singapore, which went from a Third World country in the 1950s to the select club of countries with a gross domestic product (GDP) per capita higher than that of the United States. This generation is willing to sacrifice its individual freedoms and lead a pragmatic life in exchange for extraordinary prosperity. Will young people also accept this social contract?

“It’s very hard to say… If I said no, I wouldn’t be doing my children justice,” Mr. Leow said. I always wanted them to understand that the country must continue to grow. And for it to grow, young people must continue to innovate and develop new technologies. »

The Singaporean model is based on an omnipresent “survival anxiety” since the country’s independence, notes Laurence Côté-Roy, a Quebec geographer who is doing a postdoctoral internship at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Lacking hinterland and natural resources, the country can only count on the tenacity of its people. “This anxiety means that it is not a choice to succeed”, explains this specialist in model cities, met at the Tiong Bahru market.

Jailed for stealing a bike

By its form, the Parliament of Singapore, typically British, is not surprising. The deputies face each other on either side of the room. Chinese, Malay and Indian ethnicities are duly represented. What may differ in this chamber where the same party – the People’s Action Party (PAP) – has been in power since independence, is the tone of the debates, posed, and… the subjects tackled.

On this Thursday afternoon, Parliament is particularly concerned about the rise in the price of social housing. Also on the agenda is the problem of cigarette butts thrown from apartment towers. A member of the PAP inquires about the effectiveness of surveillance cameras to discover delinquent smokers, but also about the possibility of doing DNA analyzes on butts to pinch them.

In Singapore, stealing a bicycle exposes the culprit to three years in prison. Carrying a durian (a smelly fruit) on the bus is prohibited. Drinking or eating on the subway can be worth a $1,000 fine. In practice, people follow the rules, and the police are very rare. For more serious crimes, we do not forgive. Drug traffickers incur the death penalty: several convicts have been hanged in recent months.

Organizing a demonstration is authorized at only one place in the country: the speakers’ corner from Hong Lim Park. When passing the To have to, it’s dead calm. An old man reads his newspaper on a bench. Are there often democratic expressions around here? ” From time to time. But you have to ask for a permit. And if you’re against the government, you won’t get a permit,” he says, laughing, before getting on his bicycle and continuing on his way.

In the last general elections, in 2020, the PAP won over 60% of the popular vote and 83 of 93 seats. Lee Hsien Loong, son of Singapore’s founding prime minister, has been reappointed as head of government. Observers agree that the conduct of the elections in this country is irreproachable. However, the government is adjusting the rules of the game in such a way as to strictly control the opposition and put public opinion in its pocket, in particular by controlling the main media.

Such a puppet game seems heretical from the West, but Singaporean democracy must be judged in a completely different ideological framework, argues sociologist Chua Beng Huat, 76. “If consensus building serves the common good, what do you do? Are you pushing ahead or are you insisting that everyone is entitled to their opinion? ” he asks. “It can be argued that philosophically, liberal individualism is undemocratic because it makes it impossible to reach consensus,” adds the Canadian-educated NUS professor.

free speech

Among young people – more educated than ever – a certain questioning nevertheless seems to be emerging. On the sidelines of an in-kind networking activity, members of an informal environmental group, which brings together several university students, wonder about the future of their sclerotic democracy.

“The PAP has made us progress enormously in 50 years, agrees Jerryl Tan, 21, in full military service. Certainly, economic growth is continuing, but the quality of life, in my opinion, is no longer improving as quickly. Our country started from scratch: it was easy to grow. But if we continue to rely only on traditional politicians, it won’t work anymore, we need a diversity of opinions. »

Absolute devotion to the nation through hard work also seems to be cracking in the new generation. Some follow the “traditional Singaporean path” traced by their parents, and embark on frantic careers. Others “prefer to get into something they like,” says Mr. Tan between two swigs of soup, after a walk in the mangroves. Basic arts and sciences are growing in popularity. “Here too, young people want to express themselves. »

This report was financed thanks to the support of the Transat International Journalism Fund.The duty.

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