Halloween
One conflict too many
An arbitrary, poorly-explained, cancellation of a fun show raises public ire. By Seah Chiang Nee
Sept 24, 2011

(Synopsis: More conflicts, once private, are moving into the public domain, not only between people and government, but between people and people.)

A GREAT-great-granddaughter of one of the founders of modern Kuala Lumpur, aeronautical engineer Isabella Loh has been caught in a political crosswind here.

The newly-appointed CEO of Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS), who settled in Singapore in 1982, came under public fire after she abruptly cancelled a Halloween project at Night Safari.

Her controversial decision was made after President Tony Tan commented during a visit that Wildlife Reserves parks should have more family-bonding and wholesome activities.

Loh, 50, who has a little personal history of her own, then pulled the plug on “Halloween Horrors” only two weeks before it starts.

It stirred anger among 1,000 fans who had bought advance tickets, some staff members and 17 polytechnic students, who were taking part in it as a final-year grading exercise.

The outcry shows the pace of change here and how strongly young Singaporeans would respond to a top-down policy decision, taken without a rational explanation.

Loh, who is a descendant of the last Chinese kapitan of Kuala Lumpur, Yap Kwan Seng (1846-1902), is an unlikely victim having been schooled in Britain and Australia.

Her corporate record has been impressive.

In 1982, the 21-year-old joined Singapore Technologies Aerospace to become an aeronautical engineer, the first female to do so in Singapore.

By 2000, she had made it as head of state-controlled environment management company, SembEnviro, starting with a four-man staff and ending up as a 1,600-man operation in Singapore and Australia.

She later told The Business Times of how she came to this island 29 years ago with S$300 in her pocket looking for work.

She became CEO of the government-owned WRS several months ago.

She said the sudden closure (loss: S$1mil) was due to “negative feedback” from the public and sponsors.

A senior manager made it worse by describing Halloween as “devil worship”, implying that religion was part of the cause.

In this religious-sensitive city, it had provoked thoughts that it was a scheme by rightwing fundamentalist Christians, but now most critics have ruled out religion as a factor.

A more plausible explanation is she had over-reacted to the president’s pro-family comment, by seeing it as a desire to end the show – but she denied the president had anything to do with it.

It is the latest indication yet of the rising level of divisiveness in Singapore after two hotly-contested elections this year, and it’s not always about politics.

After nearly half a century of people constrained from speaking out, the arrival of the social media has changed the political landscape, and youths are now doing just that.

“It’s like the gate opening after decades of control and people are taking advantage of it,” said a polytechnic student, who spends two hours a day surfing.

It has wrought other changes in society.

From Cabinet ministers and civil servants to grassroots leaders and from managers to the counter sales girls, people are becoming careful with what they say or do.

It was not so long ago that former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew was regularly exhorting Singaporeans to practise consensus.

Today, this word has almost disappeared.

More conflicts once private are moving into the public domain, with participants – including early teens – being able to get their messages across to the masses.

This new open environment is worrying Singapore leaders, prompting them to issue several warnings in recent days.

The appeals are no longer to build consensus, but along these lines:

“Prevent the current political divide from becoming a national divide” (former PM Lee) or “We are too small to afford a political gridlock” (PM Lee Hsien Loong).

With more than five million people packed into the world’s second most densely populated country, more disputes between neighbours or commuters are breaking out.

Since 2008, more than 300 such conflicts were referred to the Community Mediation Centre (CMC) every year.

Last year, it hit a record number. Unreported cases are probably many times more.

With most residents living in flats on top of one another in public housing packed like sardines, there have been many quarrels and fights.

“This has turned Singaporeans into possessive creatures that fight to protect their own rights against others,” an English language teacher said.

“The slightest perceived intrusion may start a quarrel.

“Every one wants to protect his own space,” he added, an added reason why the presence of so many foreigners has become an unending problem.

Recently, an official mediator provoked public anger when she agreed to a solution to ban a local Indian family from cooking curry when their mainland China neighbours were home.

The reason: They hated the smell.

One mediator told TODAY newspaper that Singaporeans in the public housing estate today were less tolerant of each other.

They often came to her with minor problems like noisy children or potted plants.

The biggest dangers are, however, inconsiderate remarks about race and religion.

Several youths have been prosecuted for posting disparaging remarks against Malays on the Internet.

Last year, a Christian evangelistic preacher was warned for making insensitive remarks about Buddhists and Taoists.

He later apologised publicly.

All these point to Singapore becoming a non-homogenous mass of people rallying behind a single policy, or what Singapore’s founding leader called national consensus.

If this current political divide turned into constant bickering, Lee warned last week, Singapore would become “another ordinary country”.

(This was first published in the Star).