The world becomes more and more complex. Things have never been the same. Changes became rapid and impulsive that at some point, we are confused as to how to address these changes. Conflicts of the early times are not the same with what we're facing today. Solutions of the past are not exactly effective in the present.
We, humans, we're never stable. The complexity of our behavior is a great manifestation of the unending evolution of our world. The world today might not be the world of tomorrow. All of these, are results of changes.
Yes, I am going to talk about changes.Not in a simple way but in a more specific way. We all know that we can not just stand here and let changes dominate us. Though in an optimist's view, changes might also result to good events, we still have to keep up so that it will not overpower us and leave us in a state of ambiguity and confusion. In order for us to understand changes, we have to ask what causes these changes? There are many actually but we are going to talk about three examples here: Globalization, Neo-Liberalism and the rise of New Social Movements.
Very profound terms, I know. That is why I am going to define each of them briefly.Globalization, as common as it sounds, is not actually understood by most of us. Globalization promotes a global community among all countries in the world. It aims to bring a global culture that is obviously shared by everyone. A global community, a global culture, an interrelated economy, that is what globalization is all about.
Second is Neo-Liberalism. Neo-Liberalism emerged from Liberalism, which is actually based on the ideas of liberty and equality. What made Neo-Liberalism different from Liberalism is that Neo-Liberalism is more focused on the economy of the state.It supports free trades and open markets. Last is the rise of New Social Movements.
In the Classical Social Movements, it concentrates more about social struggle particularly the struggle between the bourgeois and the proletarian. In New Social Movements, it's not about the class struggle anymore, these movements are concerned with the masses' interests particularly in environmental problems, etc. Now that we have define each of the three examples that brought changes to our society, we can now discuss it in the context of a particular country – Singapore.What made me choose Singapore is that it is a very interesting country to study. Its status as the most non-corrupt country trigggered my curiousity to know more about this tiny state.
I am very amazed at how this country managed to gain this title since I grew up almost believing that corruption is a part of the government in every state. It is also very inspiring that this state can compete against the biggest countries in the world such as US, Japan and China where in fact, there are bigger states that should also be dominating the global economic community.I asked myself, how did all of this became possible? What does the country Singapore have that our country lacks? Singapore is actually a city-state which means that its capital is also Singapore. It is the smallest country in Southeast Asia. Its national symbol is lion or merlion for it represents the Singapore's reputation as a Lion City. Despite its size, it is a very urbanized country and has undergone processes of land reclamation to sustain growth and development especially in building MNCs and other infrastructures.
Let us look at Singapore in two different aspects: political and economical aspects.Politically, Singapore is a parliamentary republic with a Westminster system of unicameral parliamentary government. Its political system is a representative democracy which is actually an element of both presidential and parliamentary republic. This means that the executive power is managed by a chief or a head of the state and the legislative is managed by the members of the parliament. It can be looked as a combination of Parliamentary and Presidential government.
Laws are strictly implemented in Singapore. They are very strict when it comes to obeying these laws.Punishments are given to those who are not conforming to the rules of the state. Singapore is also called a 'partly-free' country. Economically, Singapore has a very unreachable and unbelievable status. Unreachable because it has a highly developed market-based economy.
It is one of the major traders in the world. Their GDP are largely based on their exports. Because of its low tax rates, work force, and business-friendly environment, and its being a free-market economy, Singapore has attracted many foreign investors. Thus, leading it to be one of the very prosperous country in the world.It is also unbelievable because for a country that is so small, all of these were made possible.
A brief history of Singapore is necessary in this case study. The name “Singapore” can actually be derived from the words 'Singa' and 'Pura' which means 'Lion' and 'City' respectively. In 1819, Thomas Stamford Raffles arrived and signed a treaty which allows the development of the southern part of Singapore as a British trading post. In 1824, the whole island became colonized by the British and eventually it became the capital of the Straits Settlements.The colonization of Singapore has led it to its status as of now.
It has strong global trading links with different countries and it owns a port that is one of the busiest ports in the world. This only shows that Singapore is a very active trading-country. Like the other countries, Singapore had experienced colonization too. But, despite these, it has still managed to outdeveloped other major countries in the world. It didn't allowed external factors to help itself to acquire their developed state. In fact, Singapore helped itself to develop its economy and political system.
If it didn't entertained external factors to help them develop their country, it is normal to wonder how everything became possible after all. Yes, I do agree that it is very fascinating how this tiny city-state made it to the top without even allowing help from other major countries. So, how was it really possible? Is there some sort of changes within that paved the way to the top for this little country? As what I have mentioned at the beginning, there are three factors that we will discuss within the context of the country of Singapore.Globalization, Neo-Liberalism, and New Social Movements.
Globalization. “Globalization is not a recent or purely ill phenomenon. In fact the process of Adam and Eve spreading out with their descents across the globe after landing onto two different locations on earth, will probably constitute the first globalization phenomenon. Since then knowledge, language, religion, etc. have all globalized throughout time. ” (Ney Reed) It is obviously stated above that globalization is an inevitable phenomenon.
We can not tell that Singapore is not affected by globalization. The fact that it trades goods across the world is a great evidence that tells us this tiny city-state is moving within a global community. How receptive was Singapore to globalization? Singapore welcomed globalization in their country. We all know that not all countries are beneficiaries when it comes to globalization. Fortunately, for the part of Singapore, they were one of the lucky beneficiaries of this change.
Globalization paved the way for a more innovative market economy in their country.They have managed to establish a strong link to other countries with highly developed global economy. This is the reason why their country has prospered. Singapore is also a home to approximately 7,000 Multi-national Corporations (MNCs). Thus, foreign investors were encouraged to invest in Singapore for it is considered as a global business nation.
Usually, MNCs have their bases on United States, Japan, and China. These three have the largest economy in the world. It is very proud of Singapore for being chosen by the MNCs to build their bases.There are actually many factors as to why Singapore is considered as a global business nation.
Aside from the state's infrastructures, the country is also a corruption-free, has well-trained workers, machines of high standards and a culture that is suited for business. These factors are the reason why Singapore can challenge the US, Japan and China in terms of Multi-national Corporations. Neo-Liberalism. Does Neo-Liberalism, in any form, affects Singapore? Well, as what I have said above, Neo-Liberalism's main concern is the economic aspect of a country.
In a way, it affects the governance of the administrators of Singapore. Through the example of the island-state of Singapore, neoliberalism is examined as a set of economic tenets and as a form of governmentality by considering the neoliberal political rationality that forms the basis for their existence. Once a developmental state, Singapore has undergone much structural changes to its economy in the past decade. The economy has gradually been deregulated, liberalized and privatized to conform more to the neoliberal model.However, existing interests embedded within the developmental state prevents a transition to a full-fledged neoliberal regulatory one.
Instead what emerges is a type of hybrid state, in the form of the neoliberal-developmental state. It is hoped that by examining this notion of the neoliberal-developmental state, further light can be shed on neoliberalism and its impact on this tiny island-state and vice-versa. (Eugene Dili Liow) The government still holds power over the state even in economic aspects. There is no decrease in the government's intervention in managing the economic prosperity of Singapore.It is the state's role to maintain and implement economic policies with regards to the country's economy. New Social Movements.
Singapore does not have any kind of new social movements within their country. Knowing their political system, it would be very hard for the citizens to organize unions that would be against their government. Rules within this country are very strict that whenever a group of more than 5 individuals meet and decided to discuss something, they have to acquire a permission before they can gather. This kind of law made new social movements impossible to occur.
Also, I don't think that these people have to rally around, blame the government and fight for their interests because the government itself is very good in balancing every factors in their state. For example is the environment, the government is very strict about it and the people can be assured that the government won't let any detrimental things to happen to their environment. The government have created laws with regards to this and they strictly implement it to anyone and everyone. To conclude this study, these social changes really did affect Singapore.It affects the governance within this country.
But, unlike other countries, Singapore managed to maintain the centralization of power in the heads of their state. People, the Singaporeans, are obedient and really conform to the laws and policies created and implemented by their government. The relationship between the state and civil society is almost stable. The government do its role in creating and implementing necessary laws and policies, at the same time the citizens trust their government and do its part in following and abiding by these laws and policies.
This may be the reason why their country survived every encounters that they had faced. With a size like that, who wouldn't be amazed at how they have outdeveloped the other bigger countries in the world? Also, the Singaporeans have a very unique culture and tradition that really suits the kind of political system that they have established in their country. After researching about this city-state, I can now genuinely say that Singapore really is a small but terrible state.
