Stranger in your own country

I have been warned by well wishers & net-citizens that the Singapore government does not take kindly to its people migrating.  My family and I may be ostracized and may even not be allowed to return to Singapore if we decide to migrate.  People who have migrated are sometime called "traitor", "quitter" etc.

I find this view difficult to believe or accept.  While the government is not known for its compassion and sacrificial love for its people, it has certainly not gone to the extend of victimizing its people.  While the government may be overly pragmatic, it is certainly not malicious in its dealing with the people.

To me, the decision to migrate is like a son having grown up, decided to move out of the family to explore his own dream and a lifestyle that best suit him.  It is not an issue of who is right or who is wrong.  The child is not a traitor nor a quitter in the family.   Perhaps, he may return someday and decide that this is home. He may also not return as he has found a new place call home.  But I am sure he will not forget his roots.  He will still want to reconnect, to relive the memories, to treasure his roots.... because he is never a stranger in the family.....

I have been a good citizen of Singapore.  I paid all my taxes for more than 2 decades of my working life.  I faithfully served the army (National Service) full time for two & a half years and continued as a reservist over a 13-years cycle.  I did not find excuses to avoid in-camp trainings, even to the extend of affecting my work prospects.   Unlike some people who were contented to "go through the motion" in the army just to fulfill their national service liability, I trained hard to become an officer and maximized my contributions to the security and defence of the country.

Even as I prepare to relocate, I make sure that I can be contacted by Inland Revenue in order to pay my tax promptly.  I have obtained an exit permit for my son.  I am also making arrangement with the Ministry of Defence to put up a bond for my son's exit permit.  I have kept my obligations to my country.

For years, Singapore has welcomed strangers to our land with open arms.  Many of these highly qualified immigrants have excelled in our schools and work places.  While they have contributed to our economic growth, they have also displaced and replaced many of our less talented Singaporeans.  As seen from the last general election, they have caused some disquiet among the locals due to differences in culture, lifestyle, habits ...etc

If Singapore is willing to welcome these strangers with open arms, why would she treat her sons & daughters as strangers, even though they may have taken the step to relocate overseas?  Will we treat our own children as strangers when they grow up and decide to leave the family to start their own in a new place?  Will we not welcome our prodigal son with open arms when he decides to return one day?

Singapore is my birth place.  She will always have a special place in my heart no matter how much it has transformed over the last 4 decades.  I may not like her present form and the pressure & demands that she has of her people, she is still my country of birth.  She has nurtured me, given me many opportunities and provided me with all the material gains that I have achieved over the years.  I have wonderful memories of this country.  I will always be proud of her no matter what her destiny will be in future.  I may not know if she will still be my home or my children's home in future, I know I will speak of her with pride. 

The decision to leave this country is a difficult one.  But I have already decided on this major crossroad of my life.  I am assured that this is right for me and my family.  I have no plan to return, whether I will be welcomed back or not.  But if I do return one day, I wish I will not be a stranger in my own country......

Will I miss Singapore?

As I make my final countdown to D-day when I will leave Singapore for good, the nostalgic feeling started to creep in.  After all, Singapore is my birth place and I have lived here for almost 5 decades.  I have explored almost every corner of this small island.  I was a scout during my school days and had hiked and camped  around the country.  During my army days, I had trained in remote parts of Singapore, some of which were not open to public. After I came out to work, I was in marketing jobs and had visited clients in industrial estates and posh offices all over Singapore.

I have witnessed the miraculous transformation of Singapore from a messy dirty backward country to a beautiful cosmopolitan garden city.

I grew up in the countryside where our toilet was only a shed with a hole & 2 wooden planks for squatting.  There was no flushing system and the shits just piled up.  We could literally see germs crawling all over the shits and there was certainly no way to avoid the stench unless we were prepared to be suffocated.   My family reared chickens & pigs for living.  Even as young kids, we had to help our parents to feed the chickens, collect the eggs, dispose chicken drops.   We did not have air-condition but were fortunate to have a black & white TV.  Telephone was a luxury.  I could still remember vividly the first time I used a the phone when I was a young boy.  I was so excited and when the line got through, I asked proudly to speak to "Ah Chay (meaning father in hokkien).  My cousin laughed & made fun of me for expecting the person on the other line to know who my Ah Chay was.  I was basically a country bumpkin.

While I did not have the luxury of modern day technologies, I led a spartan but carefree life.   I did not have to worry too much about school works except during exams.  I had so much fun climbing trees, plucking rambutans, picking durians, catching fishes and spiders, kicking football, playing in the rain with paper boats.....etc.  My toys were things like marbles, discarded boxes, matchboxes...etc

Over the last 3-4 decades, Singapore has completely transformed. My children now do not even have the opportunity to see a rambutan tree, a durian tree or even a rubber tree, not to mention to climb a tree.  They would probably not even dare to touch a chicken, not to mention slaughtering one which I am proud to have done as a child.   Their toys are computers and their hobbies are computer games.  They are under tremendous pressure to perform academically.  While they have excelled academically having obtained excellent national examination results and successfully entered one of the top secondary schools in Singapore, I am not sure if that is all that matters in their growing up years.  Somehow I feel that they may have missed a part of their precious childhood life that I had the privilege to go through.

While Singapore is now transformed into a beautiful island state, somehow the feeling is that these are all so artificial.  It is like a facade.   Life seems to revolve round physical and material things.  Perhaps the small island and a growing immigrant population make the place even more congested and stiffing.   The work demand, in the name of excellence and world class standard, is like a pressure cooker without an outlet.  Nobody knows when it will explode.  There is really no time to care, to love or to smell the roses.  Although there is time for coffee, but it is only to help to stimulate the weary mind and get it to over work again.  This is perhaps what progress is all about.

So, I do not think I will miss Singapore, at least not in the short term.  I am escaping and taking a long deserved break with my spouse.  We are looking forward to walk hand-in-hand and enjoy our first autumn in the midst of beautiful falling golden autumn leaves. I hope my children will rediscover a part of their missed childhood.

But I am mindful that one day, we may just want to go back to our roots.........I am certainly not cutting it off.