An article by this title appeared in the New Paper on 18 November 2007: Is it time for us to grow up?
Here is an excerpt from that article:
SMOKING kills; so ban cigarettes.Sex corrupts; so ban bikini pictures, and ban that computer game too.Cybergames are addictive, so the Government should pass a law...If there is any doubt that Singapore remains a largely conservative society, all you have to do is read the forum pages of newspapers, or man the feedback telephone lines at the various ministries.Ultimately, the message is the same: The Government should step in, stop that, enact a law.Call them the nanny-addicts.An MP's nephew got hooked on cybergames so she quizzed three Ministers in Parliament on what the Government was doing about it.The Media Development Authority banned Mass Effect, a futuristic space adventure game, because of complaints over a scene between a woman and a female alien. But it reversed the ban yesterday and allowed it to be released under an M18 rating....For NMP Siew Kum Hong, who led the emotionally-charged debate to repeal Section 377A which criminalises sex between men, Singapore is slowly moving away from being a 'nanny nation'.He said: 'When the Government consistently tells or directs people how to act, it is only predictable that people will have a reduced sense of ownership over their own problems or issues.'Staying with nanny is obviously not a good thing, he said.'In today's world, the Government cannot do everything. People need to take greater ownership of and responsibility for their own lives,' he said.Is it time to grow out of the nanny nation?
My answer to that question: A definite and resounding Yes!
I distinctly remember reading in the newspapers some years back about how a school had imposed a ban on tissue paper usage on its premises simply because litter in the form of discarded tissues was becoming a problem! (How innovative! An extension of the chewing gum ban...!)
Then there was this woman who went shopping in a certain store only to find the music being played there too risque for her liking. Undeterred in her shopping quest, she proceeds to another outlet of the same chain at the neighbouring mall only to find the same music blaring within. So what does she do? Issue a complaint to the forum pages of the Straits Times! I thought to myself: Honey, if you can't handle the music, just walk out of there! It's that simple. No one's forcing you to shop there.
I could go on ranting about the triflings that preoccupy Singaporeans...
The subject reminds me of what Malaysian writer Karim Raslan once wrote in The Business Times on 23 March 2002 about why Singapore is thoroughly provincial and will never be a great global city like New York, London or Paris.
He wrote:
If you doubt my conclusion, read the newspapers and examine the cultural concerns of the citizenry: the banality is astounding.
I cannot agree more with him.
