Merriam-Webster defines nationalism as “loyalty and devotion to a nation”, and even goes as far as to describe it as “exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations or supranational groups”. In Singapore, nationalism depends greatly on the Chinese heritage of most of its citizens.
The 2011 census states that of the 5.4 million residents of Singapore, 74% are Chinese, 13% are Malay, 9% are Indian, and 3.3% are from other descents such as Eurasian, European, or Arab. The government has implemented language policies that shift away from less popular forms of Chinese such as Hokkien, Cantonese, Teochew and that point towards Mandarin. It is noticeable that among major ethnic groups in Singapore such as the Chinese, the Malays, and the Indians that over the time from 1980 to 2010 there has been a massive surge in speaking more Mandarin and English overall.
Indigenous populations and minorities in Singapore are being overshadowed and in a way exterminated to make way for assimilation. There is a major trend of indigenous people being attacked and ignored simply because they do not necessarily fit into what is efficient for the economy. The government is trying to exterminate the indigenous languages of the Singaporean people because they pose a lot of problems. Former Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew said that “For political and economic reasons, English had to be our working language. This would give all races in Singapore a common language to communicate and work in”. Prime Minister Lee was also a huge supporter of the ‘Speak Mandarin Campaign’ that started in the late 1970s. His support of this campaign turned nationalism from being multiracial to now being ethno-nationalism, a mindset that Singapore has been unable to escape to this day.
Zakaria dislikes nationalism as he explains that it is the one thing untouched by globalization, despite things like information and economics changing (page 34, The Rise of the Rest). Zakaria describes that formal political power has not been globalized in nation-states, He depicts them as being stubborn and not willing to work with other nations to solve problems. Steger has a similar issue with nationalism, claiming that the 20th century “period of extreme nationalism culminated in two devastating world wars, a long global economic depression, and hostile measures to protect narrowly conceived political communities (page 35, Globalization).
A good example of a conflict between an ethnic/religious group and the government in the region of Asia would have to be the Moro conflict. There had been a decades-long armed conflict that had to do with Muslim rebel groups resenting the marginalization created by continuous Resettlement Policy. In 2014 the Philippines’ government and the main Muslim rebel group (the Moro Islamic Liberation Front) signed an agreement to help close the conflict.
Inequality is not a major issue in Singapore. According to Business Insider, “the number of Singaporeans with wealth under US$10,000 was 14 per cent in 2019 – far lower than the global average of 57 per cent”. They also noted that “those with wealth between US$10,000 and US$1 million formed the majority (82 per cent) of Singapore’s population”.
The GINI Index (alternatively known as the GINI Coefficient) was developed by Italian statistician Corrado Gini in 1912 and it captures the amount of economic inequality in a population. It ranges from 0 to 1, with 0 meaning perfect distribution and 1 meaning completely unequal distribution. For 2018, Singapore’s GINI coefficient was 0.458 or 45.8%, which is among the lowest levels they’ve had in a decade. This rating puts it among countries like the United States at 45% and China at 46.5%.
Asian Globalization 