Singapore’s national narrative: Ripe for renewal

In the mid-1960s, the newly independent Singapore found a nationalist voice in defiant survivalism, but this has since been transformed into an unabashed expression of triumphalism. Always a top-down, government-generated narrative, since the 1990s, the nationalist message has been built on four pillars: Singapore as a colonial and Chinese success story; Chinese ethnonationalism and a form of ‘multiracialism’ that heightens everyone’s consciousness of ethnic identity; Singaporean exceptionalism and gratitude to Lee Kuan Yew as the founder and builder of modern Singapore. The memorialisation of Lee is the only element of this quadrivial construction that remains robust, suggesting that Singapore’s triumphalist nationalism is in the process of a fundamental recalibration. And not before time. Until about the turn of the century, national pride and national identity were beneficiaries of the government’s successful nation-building projects, pride built on the back of success. In a reversal of roles, today’s incumbent politicians are relying on waves of national pride to win partisan support for themselves. The situation has not yet reached a tipping point, but the linkage between politics and nationalism is now imposing an unhelpful burden on national loyalty and patriotism.