Overheard from Mr Ong Ye Kung
Citizens of Singapore
As we prepare to celebrate SG50 in a few months, recovering from the somber mood after the passing of our founding Prime Minister, many Singaporeans have become more reflective, asking what defines us as a people.
For the Chinese, 50 is the age of epiphany 五十知天命 where one knows the “Will of Heaven” – a metaphysical awakening about identity and the meaning of life.
The issue of identify and race was recently discussed at a lecture by Mr Ho Kwon Ping, Institute of Policy Studies’ SR Nathan Fellow. He said Singapore is becoming more diverse, and the concept of CMIO (Chinese, Malay, Indian, Others) that is used to categorize major ethnic groups in Singapore should perhaps evolve, by blurring the lines that differentiate each group.
What Mr Ho said resonated with a friend. She is in her mid 30’s and while she felt Singapore is not ready to do away with CMIO grouping, perhaps if we stop telling and reminding people of their ethnic categories, we can move towards a stronger shared Singaporean identity.
This desire for a strong Singapore identity is as old as our history as an independent state. It was etched in the words of our national pledge by our founding leaders – ‘regardless of race, language or religion…’ It is an ideal that endures and lives amongst old and young Singaporeans today.
There has always been a limit to the CMIO blunt categorization. Singapore has always been diverse. Within each community, there are numerous heterogenous sub communities. There are Hokkiens, Teochews, Cantonese, Hakkas, Peranakans etc amongst Chinese; Orang Melayu, Boyanese, Bugis, Javanese, etc amongst Malays; Tamils, Malayalees, Sikhs, Sindhis amongst Indians. Immigration and inter-community marriages add even more diversity and color to our ethnic mosaic. CMIO does not capture even half of this.
As I was writing this, I whipped out my IC for a closer look. After all, CMIO is only on our ICs. We do not have CMIO branded on our foreheads.
My IC indicated me as O+ blood group – supposedly the blood group of the oldest human ethnic groups such as the Eskimos in Siberia and Red Indians in South America. That is why we can donate blood to everyone. But while interesting it is irrelevant to my identity now.
Then comes the important identity information, which have deeper meanings:
First, my IC says I am Chinese, and by extension, Asian. My thought patterns, my sense of self versus family and community, is different from those brought up in a western culture.
Second, my surname Ong indicates I am Hokkien, because Teochews would likely be Heng and Cantonese likely Wong. Our family on my father’s side were immigrants from Fujian province, but our ancestry traced back to Shanxi in China, where Ongs originated. We were villagers, with an innate instinct to help out each other.
Third, my IC is pink, and I am Singaporean and born here. I am a citizen of this small island that fought for its independence and success. I have many Singaporean experiences – PSLE, National Service, National Day Parades, SARS, hawker centers, KallangRoar, mourning the loss of founding fathers, ERP, Singlish. And even though being Asian is part of my identity, I am different from Chinese from China, from the way I speak, the way I behave, of the food I miss when I am out of Singapore.
Most importantly, I am different from Chinese from China because of my neighbours and close social circle includes Malays, Indians and Eurasians. So because there are other fellow Singaporeans carrying pink ICs with M, I and O on them, I do not melt into the identity of 1.3 billion Chinese in China. And I believe the same applies to other ethnic groups – my Malay friends who are Singaporean are different from Malays in Malaysia, and Indian friends who are Singaporean different from Indians in India.
The truth is no label can adequately capture the complex essence of a person, nor is it meant to.
The broad strokes of my identity, revealed through information of my IC, does not reveal many other deeper aspects that make up who I am. That I am a family man; that I enjoy team sports, music and painting; that I am also half Teochew; that I spent almost two decades in public service; that my late mother, a teacher, with her traditional and strict upbringing shaped and defined my life values.
My label as a Singaporean is inadequate in describing who I am as a person. But does not mean the label of Singaporean should be discarded or de-emphasized. It is an important starting point to describe who I am.
Likewise, being CMIO cannot be an adequate description for a stronger national identity, but that does not mean it should be de-emphasized or discarded.
I tend to think the national identity of an immigrant society like Singapore, is water in nature. We start with several major C-M-I-O ice capped peaks. The ice melts and flows into numerous streams and tributaries of sub communities, sects, clans, before converging back into rivers of shared experiences and national identity. Then all rivers flow into the sea of humanity, which evaporates into clouds that feed the peaks again.
Each part of the system cannot exist without the other. They are interdependent, reinforcing, and although different, never mutually exclusive.
We are better off if we respect and appreciate each other for all our rich diversity, treating everyone as equal, striving for a common destiny. As members of our respective community, we are also citizens of Singapore, with a lifetime of common experiences, creating an identity as a one united people.
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王乙康：新加坡的身份认同
思维空间
在我们从建国总理李光耀逝世的沉重心情恢复过来，准备在数月内庆祝金禧国庆之际，许多新加坡人也进一步反思，开始探讨什么让我们成为与众不同的新加坡人。
中国人有五十知天命的说法，即到了50岁就知道上天的旨意——了解自己的人生定位和生命的意义。
纳丹访问学者何光平最近在一场讲座上，谈到了身份认同和种族的课题。他说新加坡日益多元化，华人、马来人、印度人和其他人（CMIO）的种族标签划分，或许应该改变，模糊不同族群间的区别。
何先生的看法得到我一个朋友的共鸣。30多岁的她不认为新加坡现在可以去除这种划分，但表示如果我们停止提醒人们这种标签，就可以孕育出更强大的身份认同感。
这种对国民身份认同的欲望，自我们独立以来便存在，也深刻反映在建国元勋草拟的信约里：“誓愿不分种族、言语、宗教……”。这是年长或年轻新加坡人共有的理想。
粗糙的种族标签划分一直有其局限。新加坡向来是个多元化社会。在每一个族群里还有许多次群体。在华人中有福建人、潮州人、广东人、客家人和土生华人等；在马来人中有“Orang Melayu”（讲马来话，信奉回教并遵从马来传统的人）、博亚人（Boyanese）、武吉斯人（Bugis）和爪哇人（Javanese）等；在印度人中有淡米尔人、马拉雅拉人（Malayalees）、锡克人（Sikhs）和信德人（Sindhis）等。移民和异族通婚，进一步为我们的族群形态增添了多元性和色彩。CMIO的划分只反映了实际情况的一部分。
在书写这篇文章时，我把自己的身份证拿出来仔细看看。毕竟，CMIO的区分只显示在我们的身份证上，不是烙印在我们的额头上。
我的身份证显示我的血型是O+——据说是最古老族群如西伯利亚的爱斯基摩人，和南美洲的红印第安人的血型。因此，我们可以捐血给所有血型的人。这虽然有趣，却和我的身份认同无关。
接着是有更深层意义的重要信息。
首先，我的身份证注明我是华人，因此也可以延伸为亚洲人。我的思考模式，相对于家庭和族群的自我感受，和在西方成长的人是截然不同的。
其次，我姓王（Ong），这意味着我是福建人。如果是潮州人或广东人，就大概会是Heng或Wong。我父亲的先辈是来自福建省的移民，但我们的祖先却可以追溯到中国的山西，也就是王这个姓氏的起源地。我们是村民，有一种相互帮助的本能。
第三，我的身份证是粉红色的。我是在这里出生的新加坡人。我是这个为自身争取独立和成功的小岛的公民。我有许多新加坡人共有的经验——小六会考、国民服役、国庆庆典、沙斯、小贩中心、加冷狮吼、缅怀建国元勋的离世、公路电子收费和新加坡式英语等。身为亚洲人虽然是我身份认同的一部分，但我说话的方式、行为、出国时想念的食物，却和大陆的中国人不一样。
更重要的是，我和中国人不同，是因为我的邻居和亲密社交圈包括马来人、印度人和欧亚裔人。因为有其他身份证上注明马来人、印度人和其他人的新加坡人，我不能对13亿中国人产生认同感。我相信其他族群也有同样的感觉——我的新加坡马来朋友觉得他们和马来西亚的马来人不同，我的新加坡印度朋友也觉得他们和印度的印度人不同。
事实是，没有标签足以反映一个人的复杂本质，而这也不是其目的。
我的身份证上对我的身份认同所透露的信息，并没有反映出我是一个怎么样的人的许多更深层的信息。比如我是一个顾家的男人、我喜好团体运动、音乐和画画、我是半个潮州人、我在公共服务任职近20年。此外，我已过世的母亲是名教师，她的传统和严格教养，塑造了我的人生价值观。
新加坡人的这个标签，不足以形容我是一个怎么样的人，但这不意味着这标签应该被丢弃或不再受重视。它是认识我的一个重要起点。
同样的，CMIO虽然不能用来反映一个更强大的国民身份认同，也不应该不再重视或弃之不用。
我倾向于把像新加坡这样的移民社会的国民认同，看成像水一样。我们从一些覆盖着雪的CMIO山峰开始，冰融化时会形成许多水流和支流，即次群体、宗派和宗族，然后再汇集成河流，也就是共同经验和国家认同。接着，所有河流流入象征人类的浩瀚大海，挥发成云和回到山峰。
这个体系的个别部分不能独立存在。它们是相互依赖和相互强化的，而且虽然不同却不相互排斥。
彼此尊重和重视我们的多样性，平等对待每个人并追求共同命运，对我们是更有利的。我们是不同族群的成员，也同时是新加坡公民，应该利用共同经验，创造一个让大家团结一致的身份认同。
作者是职总就业与职能培训中心（e2i）主席
叶琦保译
