Constructing Singapore is a collaboration between historian Barr and sociologist Skrbiš, informed by interviews with a small selection of elite Singaporeans. Chapter 1 establishes elite formations as the central focus. Chapter 2 looks at the historical mythmaking of ‘nation-building’ via a slightly forced reading of the CD-Rom The Singapore Story: Overcoming the odds (1998). Chapter 3 places Singapore's elitism and ethnicity in general perspective. Chapter 4 then argues the elite is skewed by personal connections, at times rising above the obvious point that while networking matters, in a tiny island-state its importance is intensified. Chapter 5 then argues that Singapore's multiracialism has become ‘twisted into an exercise in Chinese ethnonationalism’. What is unique in this is not the accusation, but the suggestion this is calculated, and related to Lee Kuan Yew's ideas on ‘race’.
The most useful chapters are 6–9, which examine the education system and its elite formation role. They argue that the post-1979 introduction of rigid academic streaming from Primary 3 (later 4) skewed the system, making it less meritocratic and more reinforcing of ethnic differences than generally assumed. This was because the fear of losing out (kiasu-ism in Singlish) favoured those who could afford the best and the most tutoring, and because resource distribution favours ‘Special Assistance Plan’ schools that specialise in the Chinese language, as well as the more elite institutions and academically gifted students. Singapore-based studies have already shown how channelling people to choose ‘mother tongue’ according to ‘race’ reinforces ethnic silos (Khoo and Leng's Beyond riots and rituals, cited at p. 177, notes 67–9), and Jack Neo's film Money no enough has eloquently captured the angst surrounding streaming and kiasu schooling. But this book provides an additional, helicopter view of systemic shifts across time. Finally, chapter 11 extends the examination of elite formation and selection into the civil service and armed forces, before chapter 12 concludes.
What of the book's arguments? Its opening claim is that Singapore's nation-building project has become more like Malaysia's. Ostensibly Singapore remains committed to a secular, rationalist, modern, race and religion-blind civic nationalism. In reality, it has passed through three phases: ethnic mosaic overlaid with Malayan-centred loyalty from 1945–65; race-blind meritocracy from 1965–80; and ‘sinicisation’ from 1980. For the last, other writers have suggested a more general ‘Asianisation’, or increased emphasis of ethnic roots (pp. 53–4, 88–106, 137). According to the authors, however, this has not been even-handed. Since the 1980s: ‘Chinese ethnicity and “values” have surreptitiously come to occupy a similar place in Singapore society to that which Malay ethnicity occupies in Malaysia: it is the basis of full identification with the nation, but allows other communities to live and prosper in a relatively comfortable communion with the centre.’ This book builds on Barr's Lee Kuan Yew: The beliefs behind the man (Richmond, UK: Curzon, 2000) to argue (pp. 9–11) that Lee's worldview is informed by ‘ethno-racial hierarchies’, with ‘ethno-racial ascription’ permeating society, from identity cards and ascribing ‘mother tongue’ according to ‘ethnicity’ rather than actual home dialect, through housing rules, to the half-abortive 1990s attempt to foist neo-Confucian inspired ‘Asian values’ on the country.
The accusation that Singapore has become more sinicised is not unique (see Hong Lysa and Huang Jianli, The scripting of a national history: Singapore and its pasts, Singapore, NUS Press, 2008, pp. 27–8). There have been multiple pressures in this direction, including a majority Chinese population, the rise of China, neo-Confucianism's serviceability to state interests, and the government notion of utilising ethnic origin to help fortify Singapore's position as a hub in the global economy. But notwithstanding those, the book does a service in confronting key questions head-on, namely: how far does the essentialising of colonial-era notions of ethnicity lock irrationality into the Singapore system, working against creativity and optimisation of talents? To what extent does the system prevent Singapore ever totally becoming a post-colonial and post ‘plural society’? Above these is a central accusation, that non-Chinese groups must ‘mimic’ Chinese values to fully assimilate, and yet are prevented from totally assimilating by the state's promotion of ethnic difference, (see pp. 97–106 and pp. 214 and following, for systemic non-Chinese under-representation in scholarships and therefore elite posts). This ‘incomplete assimilation’ (p. 145), is offered as a central contradiction in Singapore's social and educational model.
The second major focus is elite formation and selection. It argues that the construction of a ruling and administrative elite, which in turn enjoys overwhelming control of nation-building, lies at the core of the Singapore project. They identify this elitism as rooted in two key forces: Lee's reading of Arnold Toynbee's A study of history, with its emphasis on any civilisation's progress depending on a small ‘creative elite’, and on the resonance of elitism with Confucian Chinese notions of strict hierarchies in society. For the authors, institutions which link Singapore's progressive, creative elite to the masses (Citizens committees, Residents Committees, Trade Unions, community self-help groups) are not so much genuine feedback channels, as ‘circuit breakers’ and tools of mobilisation (pp. 48–9, 260). The main issues for Lee and his colleagues were quietening society so that this elite could lead ‘technocratically’, and the nurturing, refining and reproducing of the elite itself. Hence the book's focus on the creation of the nation-moulding political and administrative elite, via education from kindergarten to university, National Service, bonded scholarships, and the civil service and armed forces, and the flaws in supposedly ‘meritocratic’ selection.
A third major claim is that ‘personal power’ and party can and do override normal procedures, so that interviewed civil servants, for instance, claim substantive use of civil service resources in support of PAP election needs (pp. 74–80).
Above all, chapters 6–9 on education are the beating heart of the book. They describe how streaming, from the 1979 Goh Report on Education, transformed the educational experience. A fourth major claim is therefore that education is not as meritocratic as supposed, because kiasu-ism, combined with rigorous post-1979 streaming at primary level, leads to a ‘private tutor’ culture and hyper-pressure that favours wealthier and better educated families (pp. 116 and following). This disadvantages poorer Malays, for instance, who must either assimilate to the ‘Chinese’ values of PAP, state-subsidised kindergartens, or start primary school disadvantaged (pp. 137–45). Where these chapters flag is in under-emphasising how far, since 2004, Singapore education has shifted away from some of the problems they identify, especially from rote learning. Instead of recognising the experiments in using levels of response marking, giving Junior Colleges more freedom, reducing curriculum content to increase skills training, and allowing more flexibility for institutions to select by non-academic talents, the authors squeeze everything into their own negative model. Few would guess, from this book, that trainee teachers now all get hands-on experience of community work, or that dedicated and well-resourced schools have recently opened for special needs children, or that ‘abilities-driven education’ is now as important as elitism. As such they fail to adequately engage with the ethos of the PAP's recent struggle to engineer a different sort of leader and general student, and to consciously move towards a more genuinely diverse set of pathways to success. The more systemic significance of these changes is tackled in Hack, ‘Reinventing Singapore 1990–2004’, in Reinventing the global city: Singapore from Srivijaya to present, ed. Karl Hack and Jean-Louis Margolin (NUS Press, forthcoming). The key, post-2000 move towards pulling more genuine feedback into policy-making is also recognised in the book (pp. 243 and following), but without this being allowed to significantly modify its overall argument.
It is also a shame that the authors did not nuance their argument on ‘sinicisation’ more. They ignore counter-currents: the plans for a heritage centre for Little India due to join those already in place for the Malay and Chinese; and the increased stress on better English. This is a shame, because their point that the emphasis on China – including on producing ‘bicultural’ rather than merely bilingual students – has been accompanied by relative neglect of biculturalism for Malays and Indians is valid (p. 93), as is their forcefully made point about gender imbalances in the elite (p. 212 and following).
It is also a shame that the authors did not at least hint at a comparative perspective for some key areas. The UK, for instance, has also introduced early years curriculums and targets for 6 years and younger, so debates on formal teaching versus play for younger years (and on citizenship) are international; and the UK likewise has found that wealthier parents use every possible device to secure better schools; that grade escalation has been ferocious; and that how far to stream is ferociously difficult to decide. It is not at all obvious from the book whether the Singapore system has been more or less successful than other educational systems in tackling such issues, and in promoting social mobility. It is a great shame it did not devote more effort to identifying which Singapore problems are particularly distinctive, such as rigidity between streams, over-narrow criteria determining streaming across multiple subjects, and over-rationing of tertiary level opportunities due to relatively low provision of university places compared to other advanced economies.
In summary, this is a combative, carefully crafted, addition to a particular genre – the liberal critique of the Singapore model – which focuses our attention on the question of how such a successful model has impacted on ethnic difference and outcomes (see especially pp. 214–26), and how it generates a ruling elite which has a tentacle-like grip on all aspects of nation-building. It forces the reader to confront limits and contradictions within a highly successful system, and as such is invaluable. That the book has a critical reading of PAP motives and philosophy is transparent, and as such is easily considered by academics when reading more controversial parts. Its lack of any comparative element is a challenge for future researchers. In summary, the most valuable aspect of the book is that it encourages Singaporeans and Singapore-watchers to evaluate the island's educational and elite formation shifts for broader patterns and issues, and unintended side-effects. Anyone truly interested in education in Singapore, or in comparative education models, should critically engage with this book.
