Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Who is a Singaporean?

2000; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 20; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/sais.2000.0024

1946-4444

Mui Teng Yap,

Asian Studies and History

Who is a Singaporean? Mui Teng Yap (bio) In the Southeast Asian Games, held in August 1999 in Brunei Darussalam, Singapore table tennis players won six of the seven gold medals available. This was easily one of the better achievements in the history of the sport in Singapore, a nation not known for its athletic prowess. The wins were, however, noteworthy for another reason: the victors were all China-born Singapore citizens, one of whom had been granted Singapore citizenship just weeks before the games, while two others had been in Singapore for about four years. Naturally, this irritated the other participating countries. Was the team that represented the country in the games truly a Singaporean team? The president of the Singapore National Olympic Council, who is also a government minister, argued that sportsmen are like the other foreign talent that Singapore welcomes in its open-door immigration policy, which aims to bring in the best to contribute to the country’s development. 1 Sports officials and sports commentators justified the action as being within the rules of the games as well as in conformity with current international practice. 2 The heavy investment Singapore put into the training of these and similar foreign-born Singapore citizens was also cited as justification that it was indeed a Singaporean effort. Not all members of the public agreed, however, as the following letter to the editor of a Singapore tabloid shows: [End Page 125] I cringe each time I read of our attempts to import foreign talent and, later, give them Singaporean citizenship just so they can represent Singapore in regional and international competitions....We should start taking seriously the suggestion to start a sports school soon if we want to entertain hopes of future representation of Singapore in sports by our local talents. The last thing I hope to see is to have our local sports transformed á la Vialli’s Chelsea. (Gianluca Vialli is manager of English Premier League club Chelsea. The club is anything but English—having in its ranks 17 foreign players). 3 In another sporting achievement that occurred last year, a team from Singapore, supported partially by funds from the president’s charity, set out to conquer Mount Everest. After an initial setback, the Singapore flag was eventually planted at the summit by two team members who, as it turned out, were Malaysian citizens although both had been long-time—over a decade each—residents of Singapore and hold the legal status of Singapore Permanent Resident. Given that the men were aged in their twenties and thirties, they had indeed spent a large part of their lives in Singapore, with one even married to a Singapore citizen. Was that a Singaporean achievement? Singapore government ministers took a keen interest in the team’s progress and quickly congratulated members on their success. The team was also accorded a hero’s welcome on their return. A debate soon started, however, with one letter writer to the press urging that the issue of nationality not be taken lightly. In this case, the balance of public opinion appeared to view the issue of nationality as merely a technicality (in fact, one of the two summiteers took up Singapore citizenship soon after) and felt that their achievement ought to be celebrated by Singaporeans. 4 The euphoria over the Mount Everest achievement could be, in part, recognition of the tremendous courage and teamwork involved. The matter of citizenship did not seem to figure. Furthermore, the fact that the table tennis team was made up entirely of Singapore citizens did not seem to increase peoples’ identification with its success—in part because the gold medals were won with players imported specifically for that purpose. Thus, in some way these players appeared as outsiders despite the money spent by sports organizations to train and support them. In addition, there was concern that not enough effort was being made by the authorities to identify and nurture “local talents,” as the letter quoted above illustrates. The two events cited above and the surrounding controversies [End Page 126] highlight the issue of citizenship and identity in a country like Singapore where mass immigration has been, and looks set to continue...