Lousy Singaporean Propaganda

For the past couple of weeks, I have noticed the Total Defence ads on the publics buses in Singapore. They are an attempt by the government to create a 'nation' or (for those in the know, Ben Anderson's) 'imagined community'. They have economic, social, ... and others which I can't remember.

Anyway, I take offence at the Economics defence slogan - it sayd to "Read something Useful during your bus ride" (or something to that effect). This is so that we (the citizens of Singapore .. pledge ourselves as one united .... ahem .. got carried away) .. so that we can defend the economy of Singapore by being employable.

It got me thinking - WHY should I read something useful to defend the country? If I wanted to read something useful (and I do - my Economist), I read it so that I can know what is happening around the world without the "red and white" tinted glasses of the Straits Times. I DON'T do it for the sake of staying employable. And who is the government to tell me to read something useful... How irritating! But then isn't this the usual PATERNALISTIC method employed by the government.

(Too bad I could not get a picture of it. I was sitting too far away and the camera click of my k700 would have been too obvious.)

But I did take a photo of another ad on my side of the bus:



This, I find interesting. Sure I don't disagree with the whole concept of Social Defence - we have to have racial harmony to function. They have four names there and I guess that they are meant to represent the different races in Singapore - Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Eurasian (the order is based on the population composition). But the order of the names are reverse according to their composition. Also

Vjay = Indian
Yusuf = Malay
Chiew = Chinese (if you can believe the weird spelling. Question: why not TAN or even LEE?)

The big Question is what race is Jeff suppose to be?? I guess Eurasian. But isnt that kind of generic - it could be European, American, or even CHINESE!!

Another thing is when people inscribe "WE WERE HERE", it is usually behind the bus chair, on the toiler door or on a school desk. Does this ad subtly promote VANDELISM?

Okay, enough analysing. See what happens when you are in the bus without any reading materials (of course so that I can stay employable) or any friends to talk to (of course here I am refering to my multicultural friends. The Ceylonese-but usually mistaken as an INDIAN and my Chinese-but usually mistaken as MALAY).