On Race and Progress:
“The Yellow Peril” exists in the Western mind since the Mongol hordes swept in from the east, then the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour and now the rise of China.
Western Identity feels threatened despite its invention or Modernity’s primacy of Reason over traditionalism. Asia is proud of China’s Modernisation and progress but also concerned that its “Wolf Warrior” stance against Western aggression might spill over into Southeast Asia.
Multiracial Singapore plays it cool but always with an eye on our non chinese neighbours while maintaining a somewhat neutral stance between the great powers.
With today’s DNA research and archaeology, we know more that we all came out of Africa a million years ago into continental Sundaland into what is now Nusantara
Science and archaeology do not yet enter into race and culture consciousness. We don’t feel DNA neither does language. DNA similarities tell us that Malays are Austronesians and they are closer to the Yeh people of south coastal China. The Han call the darker skinned Yeh barbarians. These crossed to Taiwan and then sailed Southward into Nusantara where they settled and then eastwards into Polynesia and westwards to South India, Sri Lanka and Madagascar. We are a maritime adventurous people.The probability that southern Yeh people of China are actually related to Malays may not be all that improbable. Mount Kinabalu, the main river in Sabah Kinabatangan are names with China as prefix.
The traditional folk religion in Kebatinan is a mix of taoism, buddhism, hinduism and Javanese mysticism. A Sumatran hindu-buddhist town was a staging place for scholars to learn sanskrit before going to Nalanda University. An early Indian settlement in Kedah called Kadaram smelted metal ores for export. Chinese Islam came via Semarang to Java. Arab influences came to Nusantara via Aceh. Inter connections enriched Southeast Asia.
Research on pre-Columbian maps (1492) show they are based on earlier Chinese maps researched by Dr Wang Shenh-Wei of Taiwan. She shows that the Chinese ( most probably Hokkien) sailed worldwide in search of mineral wealth long before Columbus. Such geographical knowledge is verified by archaeological evidence and imputations from Cheng Ho’s records.
CMIO is made up of such broad categories for administrative convenience. There are so many kinds of Chinese so as there are so many kinds of Indians, Malays and Others (Eurasians)
Having English as a working language in a bio-lingual education policy facilitates cultural identity and access to Western science and knowledge. Singapore has huge potential beyond being just “A little Red dot.”
Together as a people we have the potential of becoming a creative civilisational matrix. This is the challenge concomitant with economic material progress towards becoming a regional catalyst.
Singapore’s huge financial and economic reach can become the heart of a new Southeast Asia only when it is able to think out of the “little red box” it is presently in.
In the final part 10 of this series, I will discuss my Manifesto for a New Singapore that brings together the wealth of possibilities in front of us if only we think through the assumption that block our minds. …
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