Majulah MacRitchie

MRT construction - it is impossible to
do this sort of work underground and not affect the surrounding
rainforest. Any idiot can tell you that.

There are two interesting things happening in Singapore - seemingly unrelated to each other. The first, is the probable destruction of the Central Catchment Area aka MacRithchie Reservoir by the building of yet another MRT line through it. The weasel words are something shocking as promises to mitigate the construction by having it all underground are totally obvious even to a very blind person - most Singaporeans have lived with MRT construction over the last 30 years and you cannot tell them that it will not fuck up the entire space for miles around, even if you are going to build it underground. It just will not wash. As Singaporeans start to very plaintively embrace the little nature they have left, the Land Transport Authority (LTA), who also brought us Bukit Brown, tell them to get fucked. You and your pangolins and your monitor lizards and your drogos and your kingfishers and your white-tailed sea eagles and your macques and the munias - yeah - just you all get fucked. This is all about PROGRESS - which then brings me to the next weird thing that is happening in Singapore...

There is this very creepy Hitler Youth type viral campaign which asks Singaporeans why they won't die for their country. What is wrong with you apathetic bastards? Why won't you die for your country? Have some social glue. Have some Majulah. Majulah means progress - forwards. When i was very young we would sing the national anthem everyday and it would fill my tiny little heart with soaring pride. Oh Singapore, Majulah, Majulah.

As i got older, i began to feel more alienated. As a Chinese Singaporean who spoke only Malay and English, i felt i was not really represented in the place. Most conversations around me took place in Mandarin, and i had no idea what they were saying. Public spaces were actually mostly commercial spaces, so there was not really that sense of belonging either. There was no ownership because the PAP just owned everything. And really, if you have a different point of view, just fall in line. Nation before community, society before self was the first tenant of the Five Shared Values.

The only places i felt i belonged in were the natural spaces - Faber Hill, the beach, the reservoir. They were places which were there for me - places which i thought - yes, these tiny fragments are home.

Over the years these tiny fragments began to disappear. Well, i studied in CHIJ in Victoria Street. My school was redeveloped into an entertainment centre - with pubs and karaokes and the peaceful gardens with their century old trees were destroyed to make way for subterranean restaurants. Fort Canning Hill, one of those truly mysterious spaces in the WORLD has been taken over by a private museum and cleaned up to within an inch of its life. Marine Parade beach has been renovated. Sentosa has been destroyed. And NOW, if the LTA has its way, Macritchie Reservoir is soon to be gone.

These places were sanity tests for people - here they could go and kick back, and relax. They could smell the rainforest and listen to the insects. They could walk beneath the trees and watch the fish jump. They could enter, with very little effort, a primary rainforest. A PRIMARY RAINFOREST in the middle of the CITY. Surely that is the equivalent of the Hanging Garden of Babylon, but BETTER, because it was made by nature over many years.

And all of this is in the name of what? PROGRESS. Majulah. I disagree with this idea of progress. This idea that things have to be always IMPROVED. The greatest artists and scientists in the world are not inspired by progress. They are inspired by the search for the truth. Michaelangelo said that his sculptures called to him from the stone - he was simply liberating them. Nicholas Tesla listened to the voice of the universe. Issac Newton believed in the truth in the stars. It was not progress that inspired them, but sincerity and authenticity.

Underlying this idea of improvement is the connection with MONEY. The problem with money, the MAIN problem with money, is that people do not understand how it works. Honestly, they do not. Money is a convenience, but it is not the end. It is a means to the end. But because people do not understand how it works, money has lost its bearing and the genie is out of the bottle. It has become money for money's sake and as a result, under this spell, the justification of the destruction of lives and the planet is made possible through the seduction of money. I agree that money is needed in order for people to speak a common language when we try and sell things to each other. But there needs to be limits, there needs to be equity. There needs to be compassion and recognition. It is JUST MONEY. It is not to be confused with morality or success or flourishing. It is not to be confused with inspiration and creativity and love.

It is this nexus which is so corrosive. It is so awful. It is also WRONG.

It is kind of thinking which says, well, who cares about another place in Singapore which is not doing its bit for the economy? Surely it would be far more productive to put an MRT line into the place and then eventually one day, create high end houses which are connected to the city centre? Who needs rain water now that we have NuWater? Who needs snakes and wild deer and butterflies that we never get to see when we can have condominiums with impossible to pronounce French names to serve an overpopulated island? Tranquility when you can have jet skis. Think of the PROGRESS, think of the MONEY.

Are Singaporeans so crass that they cannot find it within their souls to connect with the unsaid? They cannot understand that this drop of silence in a sea of noise is so valuable? What  does this say of our education system when people say, well, if we want on outdoor experience we will go to Malaysia or Indonesia? Can people not understand that having something intrinsically beautiful and untamed, something quite pure, is essential to the general spiritual well being of the entire country, however little it may be. That tiny blade of true green? If the construction of the Cross Channel line goes ahead, to me it would be like watching the last tree being felled on Rapa Nui. Nothing is sacred. Nothing is cherished. Everything changes - all is lost.

So, back to the let us die for Singapore movement. Why should anyone die for Singapore if there is nothing to die for? If they are dying for corporations and lives of smartphones, and consumption and competition? If there are only overpriced houses which they don't really own? If they do not have something worth dying for, places where the water is still and clear and they can see their reflection, hear their own voices, be with those whom they love. What is the point of dying for something which cares nothing for you? Which you cannot care anything for?