Today's ST editorial ("High cost of Singlish", Straits Times, May 18, 2005) is a glowing tribute to the recently launched Speak Good English Movement (SGEM). It lauds the organizers for adopting an "educational approach" by convincing Singaporeans that "good English is an economic necessity".

Economic survival aside, the editorial argues against Singlish (Colloquial Singapore English or CSE) as a cultural identity in two ways:

A) CSE fails as a communication tool because non-Singaporeans and some Singaporeans do not understand it.
B) CSE is a "crippling identity", analogical to spitting and addiction, and should be consigned to history rather than adopted.

Using these two lines of arguments, they conclude that Singapore will be made the better if CSE is literally fined out of existence.

The editorial's arguments are problematic and, to use their own adjective, "juvenile". The first argument that CSE is unintelligible conveniently glosses over three pertinent facts. First of all, no single language, not even English, can claim to be understood by everyone in the world. This is a measure of our diversity, not a fault of CSE. Secondly, no single language, not even English, is understood by everyone in Singapore. Again, this is born out of our diversity, proudly touted by STB whenever it suits them. Going by these two criteria, no single language (save perhaps Mathematics) can be safely adopted as ST's favoured language. Finally, the point that all non-Singaporeans do not understand CSE is a gross misrepresentation. A large number of non-local English language authors have studied and used CSE in textbook illustrations and academics, showing a deeper understanding of CSE than most Singaporeans.

Furthermore, in their zeal to paint CSE an unsavoury variant, ST also makes the mistake of generalizing Singaporeans as insipid simpletons who fail to realize that CSE cannot be used as a communication tool. Perhaps the editors should pay closer attention to blogs like mrbrown.com and myveryownglob to judge for themselves the level of misunderstanding that is obviously running rampant (ST does not have permission to quote this line out of context. I was being sarcastic, and sarcasm is a literary tool ST chooses to ignore all too often for its own convenience). We do not need a paper to tell us that a language cannot be understood among ourselves. Language is not garbage that must be collected by garbage collectors. Should a language become unintelligible among speakers, changes will be initiated regardless of ST's participation.

The second argument that ST raises rests on the assumption that CSE is a "crippling identity". This is purely subjective and of no import to most Singaporeans (do you buy ST for demonstrations of erudite thought processes?). Many bloggers for example, believe that ST is also a "crippling identity" of Singapore, and yet here it still is. The analogies (CSE to Singaporeans, addiction to drug addicts, spitting to Singapreans) are amusing, but serve no larger purpose other than to cloud the issue at hand. More unique identities can be raised (AmE to Americans, BrE to Britons, all-white to PAP, questionable to ST) but similarly do not really make an argument to eradicate CSE. This is simply because at the core of these analogies is a subjective judgement. Think all-white is pure? Then it's a usable identity. All-white reminds you of panty-liners? Then it's a crippling identity. What has this to do with SGEM and CSE, except that we now know certain ST editors think of CSE as panty-liners? There you go, you've been given a first-hand demonstration at the questionable value of analogical arguments.

Ultimately, English and CSE will have to come to terms. CSE is here to stay, something even ST admits it unwillingly. This should be the starting point of a SGEM. Globalisation is a fact and English is its medium now. Singaporeans have to speak and learn the language well, but in the words of Chinua Achebe, I hope we will not ever learn to use it like a native speaker and lose the ability of speaking CSE. Maybe one day in the distant future, if we are so fortunate, people all over the world will fully understand and be comfortable as I am in saying "You see there, got, got". [previous post on SGEM]

We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race. - Kofi Annan

We must ensure that the global market is embedded in broadly shared values and practices that reflect global social needs, and that all the world's people share the benefits of globalization. - Kofi Annan

Filed under: Singapore, News, Politics, Language