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Forum: Singapore, we can do better
Published Jan 01, 2026, 05:00 AM
Updated Jan 01, 2026, 05:00 AM
We built a nation on the premise that we could achieve more together than apart. Shared sacrifice and mutual consideration weren’t just nice ideals, but survival necessities in our small, dense island home.
Somewhere along the way, something shifted.
I notice it in my estate: raised voices, heavy footsteps and thundering subwoofers blaring through walls at all hours. Doors and gates slamming as if no one else lives here. Food dumped directly into communal chutes. Recycling bins filled with everything but recyclables. Litter left in corridors and void decks.
I notice it at bus stops where smokers light up beside the shelters they are meant to stand 5m from and casually dropping spent butts all around the bin, not in it. On footpaths where personal mobility device riders barrel past pedestrians, music blaring, swerving rather than slowing.
I notice it in the burning of incense and paper offerings in large bins at the centre of crowded estates, smoke and ash drifting into open windows, unburnt offerings strewn on the streets. We have traditions worth honouring, but, surely, after decades of high-rise living, we can find smarter, more considerate ways to observe them.
I notice it in something subtler too: the sea of bowed heads and plugged ears, each of us sealed in our private bubbles, navigating shared spaces as if no one else exists.
This is not about employing more cleaners to pick up after us. Civic responsibility should not be someone else’s job. This is not about pointing fingers at newcomers. This is about us, Singaporeans, remembering who we said we wanted to be.
The nation that punched above its weight did not get there through individual excellence alone. It got there because we understood that shared spaces require shared responsibility.
What if we decided, collectively, that we wanted better? Cleaner spaces. Peaceful environments. Kinder communities. Not just demanding higher standards, but living them, by example, as well.
Perhaps it’s time to remember that exceptional is not just about gross domestic product rankings or airport awards. It’s about how we treat the person in the next flat, on the next seat, or walking the same path.
Daniel Teo
