2002-02-08 - 8:08 p.m.

The normally affable Jack Neo, an icon in his own right here in Sunny $ingapore, gave (whether) in truth or mockery an austere interview with the Straits Times into his new film 'I Not Stupid'.

To paraphrase the title: 'in a typically forgiving world which dishes out 2nd chances', what Neo perhaps meant was that 'Nobody is a loser'... whether u are the stuttering, bent Liang Po Po or the uneducated Hokkien uncles in "Money No Enough".

This perhaps is the reason why the film is a comedy to me... 'a typically forgiving world'... the film is set in $ingapore for goodness! I did't laugh at the slap-sticks, nor at the Hokkien dialogue (which is probably more faithful to the vernacular tongue of $ingapore than the polished and well-articulated lingo on Channel 5 --which Convent girls ape to much annoyance). I laugh when the losers get the break, when Liang Po Po was released by the police after a bank hold-up... when Henry Thia's car-cleaning biz got off the tarmac of poverty, again, I let out a chuckle... and it is out of bemusement slanted towards the fairytale element of the absurdity of scenarios happening in my dear country itself.

To start with, I love this country.. and when I see my dear Malaysian cousins from Ipoh, the differences in our characteristics just stood out like a sore thumb. It's not the accent nor our mannerisms (that I'll place under cultural differences) but rather it's our THINKING that growing up in different lands had imbued in us: They didn't serve NS, they don't live in a place where money is tight, nor did they grow up in a school where your classmate's parents are Genting Highlands developers, Tong Guan towkays or top flight professionals. As for me, I did't get involved in the tumble of rugged childhood games, nor get to know older people who operates bars, help in parents' delivery business in Ipoh nor endure being stigmatised in your own country on basis of (well, I shall not comment on sensitive issues)...

The difference is apparent, I wouldnt put to claim which set of thinking is better...some things cannot be quantified like 1 +1 =2. The mindset had been deeply ingrained in us and will be influencing what actions we take. The socio-comedy (not slap-stick comedy) in 'I Not Stupid', 'Liang Po Po' and 'Money No Enough' probably brings out what is wrong in my dear island.

"For Human growth, material or conceptual, in monetary terms or in the currency of ideas, freedom is a necessary condition. This is a metaphysical, hence unescapable, law of human nature."

---Taal Ben Shachar

Freedom...

I smell... but I don't taste it...

I'm not talking about the freedom from material world which monks talk about; material and money is intertwined with life, there's no way to escape from that. But what I'm talking about is the freeom to choose... if a rational adult can discern the good from the bad, shouldn't the right to exercise our choice accordingly be a birth-right? Or is it too ingrained in the Singaporean brain that it is not?

Singapore had more or less the same cultural, historical and social heritage as our Malaysian neighbour... and much respect must be given to Mr Lee who by much of his very dynamic management established a political stability which had got us to where it is today. A small island whose GDP was less than Sony corporation's annual turnover (in 1960s) had by 30 years later became the strongest economy in S.E. Asia bridesmaided by a high standard of living.

But the freedom to choose? We had took a step forward and 2 steps back. My grandparent's generation by most counts driven by factors of fear, a capitalist lust for money had the most chance to exercise their rights. During my parents' nation building generation, maybe freedom had diminished. But again the principle of money applies universally. They choose to start business, work in cut-throat professions, they helped built a nation with their industriousness... if they fall; it is so they can climb back. If they made a wrong choice; they had the freedom of second chance...

Now, to the new millenium... you do badly in studies at a young age(I Not Stupid), there's no freedom to escape from the reality that your paper chase had been screwed and is besetted with little freedom to choose an alternative route to success rather than through the clout of paper qualifications. In 'Money No Enough', the 3 Hokkien uncles who had lost their jobs probably wouldn't have the 2nd chance to start their own business when bills start piling and when their morale and self-esteem melts away by rejections at job interviews and of all things when sneers from relatives are at their loudest. As for Liang Po Po, u do the crime, u will pay the time... justice is blind (a very fair philosophy)... blinded to the circumstances under which people have to turn to petty crime. Once you have a criminal record, you would have lost all freedom to bounce back... a low-life cycle begins after spending time behind bars.

Freedom... let us have it, and thus to not choose the conventional route --which by social conditioning and in the culture in this island is the only route... The freedom to choose what we want to do... it's too dynamic to go into specifics, and Jack Neo's movie allowed a glimpse of the details, albeit rather superficial ones. One must live the life of a true Singaporean who'd been saddled by the lack of freedom to really understand it.

PM Goh Chok Tong once remarked:' We will bring about a mindset change amongst Singaporeans. We must get away from the idea that it is only the people on the top who should think, and that of everyone else is to do as told.' (I remember this line cos of a GP essay in JC)... I'm not trying to do a political commentary, this entry is more of a social commentary... but the words of SM Lee and PM Goh -- 2 leaders who must be given much credit to -- would be appropriate to comment on the situation.

It is time now for a free flow of not just ideas as advocated by PM Goh... but also of choice from the culture burden in my beloved little island today.

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