A friend once informed me enigmatically that Singapore is an answer without a question. His cynicism astonished me. Surely he did not mean that Singapore should not exist? When I asked him what he meant, I discovered that he had spoken because of a deep disquiet. He went on to suggest that Singaporeans owned so much by way of the country (the answer) that they had forgotten to ask about the world (the question). He was not questioning Singapore’s right to exist but the pervasiveness of materialism within it. Materialism privileges commodities over relationships in an unending quest for wealth and status that breeds social apathy, particularly among the young.
I wish this friend of mine had been with me when I visited the NUS Central Library recently. What I saw was an antidote to cynicism of any kind. Next to the turnstiles was a board inviting students to pen their visions for the future of the world. The board was set up by the NUS Caretalyst Club, a voluntary organisation which seeks to support young visionaries in community work, particularly with the underprivileged. Like Caretalyst clubs in other Singapore universities, NUS Caretalyst is affiliated to CityCare, a not-for-profit organisation established by a group of young professionals to promote volunteerism and social engagement. The board is part of NUS Caretalyst’s Project YOLO Brick Road. The enterprise seeks to combine the lure of following the Yellow Brick Road in The Wizard of Oz with the realisation that You Only Live Once (YOLO).
He went on to suggest that Singaporeans owned so much by way of the country (the answer) that they had forgotten to ask about the world (the question).
One student wanted to eradicate poverty, another wanted to help the disadvantaged and yet another wanted to bring joy to the people. One wanted to be rich, another wanted to fly, and yet another wanted to be happy–entirely legitimate expectations in themselves. Others desired peace and freedom, the empowerment of women, education for all children, less income inequality. One even suggested that everyone should do good. Another asked for more hours in a day.
Members of the NUS Caretalyst’s executive committee explained that the postings reveal what is important to NUS students today, and hence provide a platform on which to envisage the future. They added that the postings would enable the club to identify youth aspirations that could be turned into actual activities or projects. Although the NUS students who voiced these hopes obviously did not yet have what they desired (the answer), all of them possessed disquiet (the question).
This is good news because apathy is a dreadful burden to bear. Its meaning is exemplified in the words of the public intellectual Edward Said. He dismisses the intelligent and fluent individual who is “unable to attach himself to anything but an issue of the moment, with no consecutive history behind him, with no realism in his perspective”. That describes the apathetic person par excellence.
Apathy is not a new phenomenon, but students have always formed a vanguard of resistance to it. During the mid-1970s, as an undergraduate at Presidency College (now University) in Calcutta, I took part in an intercollegiate debate on the motion: “The problem is that there is no problem.” In other words, there were many problems in the world – illiteracy, poverty, unemployment, violence against women, Apartheid and the nuclear arms race – but the real problem was that the path to a solution was blocked by the inability or the refusal of people to view the problems of others as something they should concern themselves with. Speaking in support of the motion was a breeze. The opposition had to content itself with desperate semantic acrobatics, such as contending that the motion is a logical impossibility because it equates the subject (“the problem”) with its negation (“no problem”). The motion needed no such contortions of reality; it was informed by a deep Saidean realism.
A similar realism informs the perspective of projects such as YOLO Brick Road. They encourage a purposeful life among students instead of going along with the idea that university life is merely an opportunity to study for a degree.
“When students begin to think about their lives and not only their careers, they begin to dream not only for themselves but for the community, and seek to achieve social goals,” one Caretalyst executive member told me and added that, “Being able to live for others gives them a more stable sense of direction than going from one personal goal to another.”
Although the NUS students who voiced these hopes obviously did not have yet what they desired (the answer), all of them possessed disquiet (the question).
Students’ footsteps are still fresh; the road ahead is still unbuilt. There is no need yet to make a living, a demand that crushes everything in its way. There is still time to spare for the anguish, abandon and anger of youth. But the university also brings a new knowledge to the life of the student. Access to the great disciplines of the world – from Accountancy to Zoology – reveals to the student how undisciplined the world really is and therefore how important it is to possess knowledge to survive its anarchy. This combination of youthful freedom and necessity, a call to action, will never be repeated. Thus, to be apathetic while at university is to deny one’s place in the overlapping realms of freedom and necessity. University students do not only have a responsibility to the world, they also possess the aptitude to imagine a better world than the one they have inherited. In the enabling environment of the university, aspirations can turn into reality.
Apathy is not a new phenomenon, but students have always formed a vanguard of resistance to it.
NUS is very special because it is an integral part of Singapore’s development as an intellectual home that is not only for its citizens but also for students drawn from across the region and beyond. I believe that in terms of reputation, it is to higher education in Singapore what Singapore Airlines is to aviation. Therefore, it is only right for NUS students to play a crucial role in building a better world in which humanity can thrive. And the time for that is now because you are only young once.