Tolerance
In short supply
If we don't lighten up, it could tie the country up in shackles. By Seah Chiang Nee.
May 22, 2005

THE people of Macau are among the world's most tolerant, so said a Portuguese resident to a Singapore TV reporter who had come to report on life in a casino city.

It was to prepare Singaporeans for the changes that living with two mega-size casino resorts would bring from 2009. Her crew had filmed the seamier side of "Asia's Las Vegas", including prostitution and loan sharking.

Asked whether the bevy of women soliciting outside her house would influence her children, she replied, "No, they've long been seeing it. Macau has always been like this."

Nearby, a businessman said the flesh trade was not putting off customers. "The people here are the most tolerant in the world whether on sex or gambling," he said.

Does it affect his workers? Sure, he replied with a laugh and a shrug. Recently, one of them didn't show up for work. "He must have been naughty at the casino because there were some debt collectors waiting for him outside."

I had a recent experience with the famous sense of tolerance in Macau - and Hong Kong.

About a dozen of my friends and I were holding a reunion dinner at a nice little Macau restaurant. The gathering soon turned into a boisterous wine-soaked karaoke session.

The noise could have put off other diners but instead of complaining, many of them joined in the singing.

If this had happened in Singapore, the diners would have complained, started a quarrel or stormed out in anger.

I also encountered the same live-and-let-live attitude in Hong Kong, where I saw thousands of Filipino and Indonesian maids gathering in and around Victoria Park.

They were sitting on mats alongside streets, chatting, eating, shopping or listening to taped music. Local residents simply side-stepped them and went about their way.

Instead of setting the police on them, Hong Kong businessmen sold them goods ranging from cosmetics to nasi padang, and cell-phones to CDs.

Bank outlets were set up to accept deposits and change money; agents sold magazines and newspapers from their home countries.

By contrast, Singaporeans often whine about maids congregating outside their Orchard Road shops, and residents in Geylang and Joo Chiat complain about prostitutes from China.

If Macau is one of the most easygoing societies in the world, highly competitive Singapore is among the least tolerant.

Despite its progress towards globalisation, a modern lifestyle and higher education, tolerance remains in short supply.

Many Singaporeans cannot stand criticism or opposing viewpoints; they are intolerant of failures, under-achievers, bankrupts, school drop-outs or anyone who has made mistakes.

The Internet forums provide an insight into just how much it is flourishing among Singaporeans. Surfers often respond to the slightest disagreement with vulgar personal attacks.

Some cannot tolerate pets or playful children. Drivers fly into a rage when others cut into their lane and intolerant female employers abuse their maids for the slightest mistakes.

Why are Singaporeans so different from Macanese or their other Asian neighbours?

Some say it's due to their peasant background (Lee Kuan Yew sometimes talks of qualities handed down from thousands of years of drinking mother's milk).

Many forefathers had fled here from wars and natural disasters from China and India.

They had to fight for places on board refugee ships for themselves and their families, so any intrusion - real or imagined - was unacceptable.

Then how does one explain Hong Kong and Macau, which have a similar refugee history?

Others say it is shaped by Singapore's small size and over-crowdedness. People packed like sardines are usually prone to hit out at anyone intruding into their space and quiet.

If true, it isn't the whole story. There are other factors.

Since independence (until recent years), Singapore's economic growth had been one of the fastest in the world. The achievement has created a new breed of people intolerant towards those who don't measure up.

Another factor is over-dependency on the legal system to resolve disputes. Singaporeans cannot tolerate the slightest wrongdoing for whatever reason or infraction of their perceived rights.

A beggar, for example, may invoke sympathy from some but anger from others who insist that begging is illegal and will not hesitate to call the police.

In the early days when petrol prices were raised, it was done with short notice (to prevent rush) to take effect at midnight. They were often followed by complaints that some stations had jumped the gun by half an hour or so.

Officials would have a tough time appealing for tolerance. It took time to recalibrate the pumps, and not all could be done strictly on time, they explained.

The legal system obviously understands this. In recent years, more middle class individuals have been turning to the courts to resolve disputes that could have been done with a little understanding.

Some years ago, they began getting the quarrelling parties to go through mediation or arbitration, going into legal battles only if everything else failed. This has saved on legal costs. Success rates are high with many cases ending up in handshakes.

This is partly based on a realisation that as they become wealthier and better educated, Singaporeans tend to be less tolerant to intrusion of their perceived rights. It's all about saving "face".

Intolerance stems most among thin-skinned people, who cannot take criticism or who think too highly of their own achievements.

Or a thin-skinned civil service, which finds it intolerable for movies that portray Singapore in bad light, such as those ridden with drugs, violent crime or official corruption.

But as Singapore moves into the new economy in which countries compete on ideas, intolerance to change will retard growth.

Fortunately, it has not upset the state's multi-racial structure, although cases of casual racism crop up occasionally.

In a recent example, a student on a government scholarship (earmarked for senior position) wrote about Indians in his private weblog.

He shocked many people when he said that the Singapore association in his university in the US was dominated by Indians. "It's just so repulsive, these ugly guys with dark skin and irksome features."

If it were in jest, it was in poor taste and he was admonished. Some called on the government to withdraw his scholarship, while others say "we should condemn it with tolerance".
(This article was first published in The Sunday Star on May 22, 2005)