In one sentence, I think Singaporeans complain so much become we have an overdeveloped sense of entitlement. I am a sociology major, hence I personally tend to favour the nurture over nature argument. I hardly think anyone can possibly be born with an innate sense of entitlement. This sense of entitlement was ingrained in us by our parents, school and our government.
Our generation was born in the good times, into a country what had such standards for quality. Standards which we have come to take for granted and come to be almost invisible to us, so blind are we to our high standard of living that you have to go to other developing country to feel the differentiation. I did not have to fight a war for my country’s independence; I was born “free”. My girl friends did not have to fight for their right to an education or to vote, I never had to be afraid of other race and he never needed to fear me. We were born into a world which was cushioned, we were given but it was not our entitlement, we were blessed but we did not deserve it.
Since I could remember, I was told by my parents that I must study hard or else “next time” I will be a road sweeper or other such mediocre professions. When I entered school, I saw how the better students were given different treatment because of their position in “class”. So interesting that in school we are grouped into classes, its psychological training I guess to prepare us to accept out place in society when we enter as adults. Better students don’t have to go for remedial classes like me, they get more recognition by the teachers, more respect. Lesser students like myself make up for it by being attention seeking and talkative. Better student were awarded prestige based on their position within the system, we were shown that there were “entitled” to such treatment based on their grades. Social forces like demographical backdrops did not matter; socio economic class did not qualify as an influential element in one’s performance as student. It did not matter that you have to share your computer with 3 other siblings so you can read up on the net, it did not matter that you didn’t have a place to study because your father keep singing KTV during crucial study hours of 7-10pm or even a fixed place to keep your books. I kept my books in a cardboard box when I was younger.Nothing matter but your position in class, your position entitles you to its rewards everything before your ascension did not matter.
When we enter the employment of the biggest employer in Singapore, the Civil service our reimbursement was pegged to my GPA. As if how well I did for Basic German contributes to my competencies as a CPF officer, it does not matter how many dependents I have, all that matters is my position determined by a collection of alphabets averaged out into a figure rounded to 2 decimal places. But by this point in time we have already internalized positions within institution are legitimately allocated certain rights. Our depravations are heighten by being reminded how much those with positions are endowed and how we will be further depraved if we did not keep pace.
It is this overdeveloped sense of entitlement I feel which makes Singaporeans complain and complain. Some can even complain that the seniors working at MacDonald’s are slow. I mean come the fuck on man, try working at 70 in a fast food joint which did not exist in your era that serves stuff you never ate in your life nor like to eat with arthritis in your bones and cataract in your eyes thickening.
We complain of low pay for graduates... we expect a certain level of pay just because we are more fortunate than others to be a little more educated. Why not ask for a lower pay but perform at your new job? or do we complain that we are already proven ourselves in school its time to take it easy? Are we afraid of hardwork and performing after we graduate? or have we been socialized to think that we only needed to put in effort to learn and achieve till we finish formal education?
Of course there are valid reasons for complaining, a dead cockroach in your soup is a good reason. But there are also unreasonable complains. Like slow service during peak hour, its peak hour for goodness sake, or how crowed Little india is on sunday, where you expect poor immgrant indian workers to go on their one day off from hard manual labor? Sentosa? Holland V? Dempsy?
its really simple, people complain because they think they are not getting what they are entitled for. Singaporeans complain so much because we think we are entitled to a lot and this attitude spills over into many areas of our lives.
Lets learn to appreciate those around us and how fortunate we are, and trust me, we will complain less and compliment more, be less jealous and more joyous.
V
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