The Zhui Xing Forum

Is Singaporean Courteous?

新加坡人是否有礼貌和公德心？

Remember in the 80s, we used to have all these courtesy campaigns reminding people to be courteous and not to be rude to others? Or the cute Singha icon of the courtesy campaign? Well, all these have disappeared for quite sometime already and there is indeed improvements in the courtesy level of Singaporeans over the years. Thats what i personally think. Improvements aside, do we really have what it takes to be courteous? Have we really reached the standard of a developed country? Do we behave like citizens of a developed nation? I guess all of u will more or less have doubts before answering yes to all those questions right? Indeed, i think though we have improved over the past years in terms of our courtesy, we still have lots to do, and i mean a lot, before we can truly count ourselves as being courteous.

Let us talk about all the improvements we have made first ba. Spitting in public, littering our public places or even urinating in lifts are becoming a rare sight in Singapore. When taking the MRT, people will also tend to give way to alighting passengers before boarding the train. On escalators, we will also move to one side of the escalator to let those we are rushing of time walk pass the other side. But i personally think doing all that doesn't mean that we are courteous. True, i am happy to see that there are improvements made to these areas but there are still many areas that we need to look into.

Of instance, there are some things that Singaporeans do that simply just annoy me. Like switching to loudspeaker mode inside of using the earphone when using the handphone to listen to music. Leaning on the pole on the bus or MRT when there can be like about 5 people holding the pole. Some Singaporeans are worse, they lean on the pole even if they see someone grabbing on to the pole. Singaporeans, in other words, generally lack considerations for others.

Personally, i also think Singaporeans are a selfish bunch (well, maybe not all Singaporeans but a lot of them). This might arise from their kiasuism ba. Many Singaporeans have this mentality, "If we are to kind to people, we will be easily bullied and eventually lose out to others".

On the roads, especially during peak hours and heavy traffics, you will find that sometimes there is no courtesy at all. People like to just cut lanes as and when they wish, a lot of drivers also don't let other cars cut in between them. All these causes a lot of unhappiness and might lead to accidents if drivers are not careful.

Some might also argue that Singaporeans only act on when the government implement policies. Before, we ask people to keep to the left on escalators, do we automatically keep to one side of it when people want to walk through it? Before authorities started drawing yellow lines on the MRT stations platform, do anyone queue by the side of the MRT to let passengers alight first? I just give you one more example, currently on the LRT stations platform, no yellow line is drawn. The result? People squeezing in to the train cabin once the door opens. Passengers also finds it very hard to alight the train. Lots of pushing and shoving involved. You guys should try taking LRTs during peak hours and you will know what i mean.

In other words, we are not courteous enough, we need people to remind us to be courteous. Courtesy is definitely not in our blood.

Why do Singaporeans lack courtesy?
The only reasons i can think of is stressful lifestyle and improvements in technology.
We are so stressed up by so many things like the inflation rates, pressure from work and family that we are so easily angered and irritated that we forget what courtesy is all about.
With improvements in technology, we begin to rely more on these machineries, computers and internet that we begin lose our human touch. We are weaker when comes to communicating people face to face, and our interact less and less with each others that we forget how to properly do so.

With the technology moving forward and the stress level doesn't look like it will drop as time passes, i think it is high time that we bring back to cute little lion and start our courtesy campaign again before we become a rude nation.

Xian Hao

P.S:~ Let the discussion continue k? I wish to see what u guys think.