The opening question of today's Socratic Seminar is "What is Singapore's national identity?" The Inner Circle Panellists' original idea was that Singlish and stereotypes of Singaporeans form Singapore's national identity.
However, one of the panellist pointed out that the national identity does not only consist of Singlish and Singaporean stereotypes such as "kiasu-ism", as these were part of Singaporean culture.
The next panellist argued that our unique identity is shaped by Singlish (our so-called "National Language") and our unique culture. I agree with this comment as national identity is shaped by what is our nation's, which are our culture and our national language.
This Socratic seminar led me to think more deeply about the topic of National Identity. National identity is a unique identity which is shared by the citizens in that nation. It is like a unique imaginary identity card which tells everybody else which country that person is from. National identity is most often shaped by the nation's citizens over time. This process usually takes a few hundred years as the citizens develop their own culture, which then shapes their national identity.
Ho ever, Singapore has only existed for slightly more then half a century. Thus, it is obvious that its national identity is hardly formed, if not non-existent. The Socratic seminar topic was about national identity. Soon, it was agreed that Singapore did not have much of a national identity
Afterwards, the discussion focused on whether the government should help shape Singapore's national identity. The government's involvement in this matter is like a double-bladed sword, it could both be a bane and boon. The government could help speed up the development of our national identity, but on the other hand, it could cause problems as well. What do you think?
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I feel that a national identity is not something that is natured easily. Take Singapore for example, are we really qualified to have it? Or are we just making fusions of every culture and language and cuisine and accept it as ours. We should not take the government as the core of the subject, rather, look at how we as peoples of the nation are evolving the nation's soul. We live in this country, we are the change for the future; the government is only there to guide us when we have gone off course.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Xu Yi. National identity is to be created by the nation, not just part of it (aka the government). We must all work hand in hand to create our own unique identity, and not just pick and choose from other cultures and nations and "cook rojak" with it. :D
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