Make chinese culture part of our life
Straits times/ 21April 2006

The first question that pop to my mind was ( Do we Singaporeans possess any cultural identity?). Despite the fact that many Singaporeans are very successful in their career and education, but, none of them have seriously emphasized about their roots. And what makes us a winner? if our individual knowledge of our identities are vague and inexplicit.

Mr Baey, one of the 24 newest PAP candidate says that the Singapore government views chinese language and culture through either strictly ''economic'' or ''cultural'' lenses, which is very extreme. He adds on by giving an example of our chinese politics gearing towards the economical factor almost similar to China because of the need in boosting tourism in Singapore, which is not all- rounded.

I agree that Singaporeans has to go beyond the obvious. Instead, to look at the larger, ''holistic'' frame work. It is simply a joke that Singaporeans being chinese could not even master their mother tongue well. In fact, the education system have trained many students in just memorising their work without really understanding its meaning and contents. As such, many Singaporean students are failing in the sector of problem solving areas. Afterall, their aim is to make it into a prestigous school and not taking an interest in real knowledge. I believe this is one of the reasons as to why we fail in grabbing hold of our mother tongue. Therefore, I agree with Mr Baey in schools being more holistic, less academic.