elitism. yucks.

okay, so i am extremely behind in my knowledge about Singapore society. perhaps living obliviously in my rather comfortable middle-class existence? but while i was doing research for my soci exam on Monday and trawling the internet for news on Singapore, i came upon the Wee Shu-Min scandal. it piqued my interest because of her extremely elitist remarks (well, she unabashedly proclaimed herself as an elitist. whatever rocks her world.) and it disgusts me about the state of affairs in Singapore. i mean, her father, MP Wee of Ang Mo Kio GRC, basically shared her opinions and essentially shoved the blame onto the 'rest of society' who cannot accept the brutal truth. bullcrap. okay, so granted - it's happening in Singapore, elitism. so it's true. but that doesn't mean it's right. by saying that people cannot accept the truth, he was essentially endorsing his daughter's point-of-view.

it frustrates me now, cos i realise it's the fundamental ideology of the PAP that is behind all this elitism in our education system. it is no secret that the 'brand' of your school is extremely important in excelling in Singapore. it's a sad fact, which i think is not something that should be happening cos of its fundamental flaws, but it is something that is happening - and hence is a fact. and among the branded schools, there're the different types of brands. it's so dumb, but that's how it is. cos of the school culture. people who come from the top 5 jcs have a MUCH HIGHER CHANCE of getting a scholarship than someone who comes from a jc outside of the top 5. i don't have first-hand experience in this area, as didn't try applying for a scholarship after my As. but i've heard from so many people personal anecdotes about how two people with identical grades get offered interviews for different classes of scholarship - the one from a jc out of the top 5 gets an award interview, the one from the top5 jc gets the scholarship interview. if that doesn't reek of elitism, i don't know what that is.

it's no use saying that PM Lee should reprimand MP Wee or whatever. the 'upper' echelons of our society think this way because of the way the people in our government think. our education system has conditioned so many people like the abovementioned to think the way they do because of the way it rewards and punishes. the people who excel academically get scholarships whose selection panels reiterate over and over again that they're looking for 'the cream of the crop', looking for people who have the 'it' factor, who have an extra something - and the list of wonderful adjectives that're labelled on potential scholars just goes on. so these people just tend to think that they're really 'better' people cos of the scholarship they hold and what they're told the scholarship means. i'm not saying that ALL scholarship-holders think like that, i know of many who are down-to-earth and know that academic exellence isn't the be-all-and-end-all in the gauge of how 'good' you are as a person - my own boyfriend being one of this sort. :)

but too many people think this way, people who are in power. unfortunately.
according to the abovementioned, i'd belong to the working-class and i'd be a "lazy leech of society" if i ever got retrenched. i take it very personally because being retrenched and taking a pay cut to get a job again doesn't make a person unqualified or worse off. hell no. i'd do it.
i wouldn't think of myself as unqualified even though i'm not from any of the top 5 jcs or from a 'branded' secondary school. i'm on pretty good terms with the education system even though i'm not an elite nor a scholarship holder. i have a future waiting for me, one that i'm really looking forward to. and i do think many of my peers who are like me - not in an elite profession like law or medicine, and not from a 'top' school - don't see themselves as underqualified. and definitely not subservient to the so-called elite of society. sure, i accord them respect in a proper social setting because it's the norm and because some of them really do deserve respect. but there're some of the 'elite' who may be accorded respect and deference because of their position of authority, but solely because of that and not because they deserve it per se. there's much difference between the two. it's like paying lip service, and meaning what i say. the 'elite' who thnk they're respected ARE, on the surface. but cut to the bottomline of it all and i'm sorry, but it's all just lip service. or done out of fear. people in this country can get thrown into jail for any number of 'defamations' to high-ranking people in the government. in the old days, it'd be like King Henry VIII killing his wives for treason. draw the parallels and you'll see how 'uncivilised' it really is - that is if the linear flow of history is supposed to bring along with it progress.

i'm no politician, i may be one of the mere masses who don't really count for much in the eyes of sad, shallow specimens of people that elitists are - but i have an opinion and i think that elitism, or any kind of discrimination, for that matter, is not right. it may be 'true' as MP Wee trumpeted because it is happening, so it's a fact. but truths aren't always right. while it is true that Jack the Ripper killed all those women back in Whitchapel all those years ago - the mutilated bodies of the women proves that and hence makes it a fact - it doesn't mean that what he did was correct. same for elitism. miss abovementioned saying something like that means that elitism is present in our society, but it doesn't mean that her way of thinking is correct.

i may not ever become one of the 'elite' of my society, because of the middle-class position in life i was born into and the career path i want to take. but i'm more than okay with that cos it's what i want, and i wouldn't have it any other way even if i were born as Bill Gates' daughter or as Paris Hilton. i grew up believing my family was relatively wealthy cos of our consumption habits when i was a child. i grew up doing well in school relatively easily. (well, for my primary school life for sure.) it was the perfect breeding ground for elitism to take root in my young mind, to think that i was better than everyone else. but as things turned out, i'd always met people who kept me perfectly grounded and who reminded me that grades and academic exellence are definitely NOT what make up a person (thanks Tri!) and that i was loved because of who i was and am and not because of the number of As i got in my exams.
i admit, i'd make a lousy politician cos i'm just so idealistic. but all i know is that this elitism thing in Singapore (and probably the majority of the wealthy capitalist countries of the world) makes me disgusted at the narrow-mindedness of the so-called elite, and these second-generation 'elite' ought to realise that it isn't that they're better people than the rest of us middle-class people - not by far. these people were just born luckier. either with a silver spoon in their mouths, or for some, up their ass.