National Consciousness
We are about a week from Singapore’s National Day. Despite the fact our celebrations will not happening on the day itself, a sense of national consciousness has already been building up for those of us who count ourselves as citizens. This of course has been helped along by the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. For fans of sports, competitive sporting events have the potential to generate a variety of emotions - “referee kayu!”.. “oleh oleh oleh oleh oleh”… anger and frustration, relief and hope, tears of sadness can become also be tears of joy. Who said being a spectator is a passive thing? Watching sports might not have the physical demands as the sport itself, but it is an emotionally demanding activity. One that can incite violence, and moodiness that spoils family outings. So what happens when we join sporting passion and national passion?
The disappointing results of the first few days of Olympic competition has been real. For citizens of Singapore who want to see the Flag of Singapore flown well at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, it was not a good week. And surely no one has faced it worse than Joseph Schooling. I missed the event, but knew of the Schooling’s results because of a cold remark that appeared minutes after he finished his heat - “He went for a holiday in Japan, on the way went for a swim.”
The fact that our President herself decided to write something on her facebook page in defence of Joseph Schooling’s performance is very telling. Why does the Olympics generate such deep feelings? Isn’t sporting performance and achievement the domain of the athlete? Why did our nation make a big fuss of Joseph Schooling’s gold medal performance at the Olympics in Rio De Janeiro? And why are we fussing over his performance at Tokyo?
Similarly, the story this week of Ms Hidilyn Diaz success has been incredible. I’m not Filipino, but I was simply overjoyed when I read about her success. Headlines all of the world called her “a national hero”. It wasn’t just the success of Hidilyn Diaz, but the success of a nation. They hailed her as the first Filipino to win the gold medal since the Philippines joined the Olympics in 1924 - ending in 97-year gold medal drought. The nation has rewarded her with at least 33 million pesos and has been offered two homes. What does the success OR failure of Hidilyn Diaz or Joseph Schooling have to do with us? Why is their success our success? Their failure our failure?
As we know, NDP has been postponed to 21st August. This has inadvertently extended the time by which we are made more conscious of our national identity. What is it to be Singaporean? Do we need to have this identity? Why? Isn’t enough to identify with our friends and family?
As we move towards 9th August and continue our journey into Singapore’s National Day celebrations, it’s a good time to consider and observe why our need for national identity?