the chicken and egg question in singapore social change

The thing about Singaporeans is that they aren''t actually politically apathetic. There are a lot of people actually who are genuinely concerned about the state of the politics in Singapore, and they talk about it among themselves in their own private circles, half the time they celebrate the fact that CSJ exists, half the time they laugh at him for his antics, or shake their heads. Maybe its because of the legal actions, but people know that here in Singapore you can't challenge the PAP head on a la the revolutions of decades past. People think that for social change to seriously happen in SIngapore, there must be changes in the external environemnt before anything can happen. They mean that the PAP should relax the rules for political and social debate, even to the extent of degrading the ISA, they mean that some sort of change must happen in the attitude of the Singaporeans on this island, they mean that change must come from the outside - that the trigger for social change would not be from the people...

Well, but the fact is, social change IS for people, BY PEOPLE. Without people to to even begin to think about social change, there would be just, nothing. The fact is, for there to be substantial social change, for Singapore to have a participatory democracy or even a civil society, then Singaporeans themselves must step up to the fore and encourage others to do likewise. We live in an age where we have all become connectors - to people, to things, to causes. What we need now are initiators, people who can and will transform all our connectivity - all our FaceBooks, our gmails, into social causes. We already know, and already some have begun acting.

If we want to have genuine participatory democratic civil society, then I think we should start actling like we are one. Rules can always be changed.

No one, especially not the government, will tell us, 'eh, we can have a participatory society now, go talk politics leh'.

Start now...

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