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The Star/Asia News Network
Sunday, Nov 25, 2012
MALAYSIA - We always knew it, but now we have confirmation: 2,000 Singaporeans were asked about their views on Singaporean society, and from a list of almost 90 values and behaviours, the one that came out top was - wait for it - "kiasu".
I can imagine fellow Malaysians shaking their heads and saying, "Singaporeans ..."
Adopted from Hokkien, the literal meaning of "fear of losing" doesn't quite convey what kiasu really means. It really is about how much you effort you put in to get the best that you can.
Just this week, there was a story about K-Pop fans across the Causeway queuing up a week in advance so that they could get the best places for last Friday's SMTown Live concert, even though the organisers had insisted that those who'd queued overnight would be asked to leave by security personnel.
There are even Singaporeans who were happy to queue up on your behalf, if you were willing to pay them S$4.50 an hour to do so - although a truly kiasu person would put in the effort to line up himself.
(To put that in context, Malaysia's minimum wage of about RM900 (S$360) a month, as announced recently, works out to about S$2, or RM5, per hour.)
Another article from this previous week concerns a Singaporean bride who posted a note via an online social network admonishing a friend for coming to her wedding reception and not leaving an angpow as a gift. She wrote:
"In the event you can't give a love offering due to unforeseen circumstance, it is still basic courtesy to let us know as my family were counting against the guest list but did not see yours." (sic)
If you're willing to go a few years back to when our neighbours drove over in droves to buy cheaper petrol in Johor Baru, you would marvel at the lengths to which they went to maximise the amount they could get into their fuel tanks.
Some petrol stations even let drivers use a small ramp to tilt their cars over. Even without a ramp, there were those who would bounce and shake the car in an effort to make the petrol "settle", so they could then fill the tank to the brim.
These stories and many others sound like they should be urban legends, when they are urban fact. These are Singaporeans, opportunistic, shameless and kiasu.
There will be no better demonstration of how we feel about our neighbours than tonight, when Malaysia takes on Singapore in the first game of this year's Asean Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup championship.
Despite not having done well in the preparation games (our last match before tonight was an insipid draw with Bangladesh), Malaysians will expect the national team to beat Singapore.
Part of the reason is because we feel superior to our neighbour in the things that matter - we may have a lower GDP and poorer safety records, but at least we know how to play football well. Singapore, on the other hand, has to depend on naturalised foreigners to make up its team (as many as five may take the field tonight).
And how will we demonstrate our superiority? By booing the Singaporean national side at every conceivable opportunity, of course. And by booing the referee should he dare make any decision against us. There may even be booing during the singing of the country's national anthem. Yes, somewhat unsporting, but somehow, there is the belief that because of who they are and what they do, they deserve it.
Next Saturday, there will be a game against Indonesia and we should be grateful that it will be at Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, and not in Jakarta.
The Gelora Bung Karno stadium is a tough place to play in at the best of times, but the furore caused by the alleged rape of an Indonesian maid by three Malaysian policemen would have added more fuel to the fire. It is probable that any Malaysian spectators present, and not just the players, would have to face the crowd's ire.
Of course, most of us will claim we are not those three policemen, that they are individual blots that soil the rest of us, and nobody should punish us for the sins of others. But then the game will be played in KL, and this could be forgotten. We may even forgive those on "our side" who stoop to conquer. Two years ago, the crowd in KL shone laser pointers at the Indonesian goalkeeper, but there was no public outcry.
We are blind to our own faults, and find those in others glaringly obvious. Worse still, we are unaware of the ugly hypocrisy we exhibit in the process. One thing may have been obvious to any reader who has followed the stories on Singaporeans stated above - that is, practically all the commenters were Singaporeans who condemned the ridiculous, extreme behaviour exhibited by the few culprits.
The stories were about individual Singaporeans and not of their society as a whole. And we have to remember tonight that it will not be about two cultures at extreme ends of some moralistic scale, but just 11 Malaysians against 11 Singaporeans.
Or perhaps I should say, seven or eight Singaporeans and a handful of naturalised foreigners...
Logic is the antithesis of emotion but mathematician-turned-scriptwriter Dzof Azmi's theory is that people need both to make sense of life's vagaries and contradictions.
