Singapore campaigns for courtesy

SINGAPORE (JP): A common view on Orchard Road, and elsewhere in Singapore, is the young men, with earphones seemingly glued in their ears, oblivious to their surroundings.

Notable to a visiting Jakartan is also the absence of smiles on the street, except for wide welcoming grins from store keepers.

Singaporean girls, a fellow reporter, said, "are pretty but cold. It's hard to get a smile from them."

But his impression altered when he was received by a family in Clementi, in the west of the island state.

The hosts, a mother and her two daughters, were very kind and answered his numerous questions about living in an apartment.

"Actually, they are nice and kind and they make me feel at home," the reporter, Norman, said.

Still, the launching of a courtesy campaign by the Singapore government last month proves that the impressions were not Norman's alone -- but of Singaporeans themselves.

Lack of warmth and respect toward the elderly, for instance, are blamed on the spread of western influences, hence the push to re-instill "eastern values."

The Strait Times daily quoted Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong as saying that Singapore is still "half a generation" behind in manners despite its economic progress.

The Prime Minister also observed that his country has turned into an urbanized island where, he said, people are not "ingrained with the need to be courteous."

Goh said the campaign should make Singapore number one in the courtesy stakes.

People will be advised to hold the elevator door open for others, keep the television volume low and dry a wet mop indoors rather than allow it to drip into the apartments below.

And senior citizens should get seats in public buses and on the Mass Rapid Transit trains if youngsters get the message.

However until recently, the campaign was still overshadowed by Singapore's main attraction, the Great Sale.

Do Singaporeans think they need such campaigns?

"It does not mean we have a problem with our manners, but maybe the younger generation has started to neglect good manners," Adida, a tour guide, said.

"Actually, we are taught about courtesy from elementary-school age but it seems it cannot be practiced in society. The young generation is more and more influenced by western culture," Adida said.

She says the vanishing of 'Asian values' is because Singaporeans are too busy working every day.

"They don't have time to socialize with their neighbors," said Adida, who is in her 40s.

"We are too tired to visit or talk with our neighbors. But it does not mean we do not know them at all...we just don't associate often," she said, a view echoed by the family members I met in the apartment.

Adida thinks the island's super-efficient system contributes to limited socializing.

For instance, almost 86 percent of its three million population live in apartments. Every conflict is settled through a council which represents all the residents.

It is efficient and quick, but in the end residents have fewer chances to relate with neighbors.

"We don't have to meet our neighbors to settle something, we can do it through the council," she said.

The Indonesian ambassador to Singapore, G.H. Mantiri, said that the Indonesian government should follow Singapore's steps.

He said that although tourists appreciate Indonesia for its hospitality, the government should make sure that such behavior will not vanish because of new lifestyles.

The Ambassador was referring to the onset of high rise living, particularly in Jakarta, vociferously encouraged intensively by the municipality. High rise living, Mantiri felt, could be the start of a decline in contact and courtesy with neighbors.

"We cannot let that happen and we should anticipate it. It will not do any good if we lose our reputation for hospitality just because we are living in apartments," he said. (yns)