Perceptions of Meritocracy in Singapore: Inconsistencies, Contestations and Biases

ABSTRACT

This article questions how meritocracy, as a state-sponsored narrative in Singapore, is variously negotiated and interpreted by Singaporean youth. Conveyed as a tenet central to Singapore’s national identity, meritocracy is often referred to as the “Singapore Dream” where socioeconomic mobility is made possible through hard work and ability regardless of ethnic difference. Critics of meritocracy in Singapore problematise how the narrative exists as a political instrument, conceals systemic discrimination and perpetuates ethnic inequality. Yet, how the population receives meritocracy remains unexplored within scholarship. While recognising its dominance within Singapore’s socio-political landscape, this article takes a bottom-up approach to understanding how meritocracy is perceived on the ground. Interviews conducted with Singaporean polytechnic students reveal differential experiences and articulations of meritocracy, demonstrating a gap between the endorsement of meritocracy as a positive value and conviction that it exists in practice. Furthermore, where ethnic discrimination is recognised among Singaporean youth, it is oftentimes normalised as a function of a multiracial society. This belief is problematic as it vindicates state and society and reduces the impetus to seek redress and change.

KEYWORDS:

• Singapore
• meritocracy
• multiculturalism
• discrimination
• hegemony

Acknowledgments

This article is informed by research funded through the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. The author would like to thank Norman Vasu, Nur Diyanah Binte Anwar, Pravin Prakash and Priscilla Cabuyao for being part of the research team in this study and commenting on earlier drafts of this article, as well as Michael Barr and the journal’s two anonymous referees for their views. I am also grateful to participants in this research.

Notes

1 There are exceptions to this view. For instance, see Bloodworth (2016) and Littler (2018).

2 The initial objective was to attain an even distribution of interviewees across gender and tertiary institutions. A larger number of women responded to calls for participation, with 18 women in comparison to 12 men. Noting this difference, this study does not make conclusive statements about how gender affects perceptions of meritocracy.

3 As the study sought a random sample, there was not an explicit attempt to seek demographic representation of race. That said, the ratio of members of different ethnic groups reflects the racial demographic in Singapore. Singapore’s population of 5.5 million consists of 3.9 million citizens and Permanent Residents (PRs). Among citizens and PRs, there are 74.2 per cent Chinese, with Malays forming the largest minority racial group at 13.3 per cent, followed by Indians at 9.2 per cent and “Other races” at 3 per cent (Singstat, 2015a). Among the 30 interviewees, there were a majority of Chinese (67 per cent), followed by Malays (20 per cent) and Indians (13 per cent), and none of the interviewees fell into the “Other” category.

4 The results of the matrix comparisons are explored in the section below on “Inconsistencies”.

5 A discourse particle often used within colloquial Singapore English (see Lim, 2007).

6 JCs are Junior Colleges, actually the equivalent to just sixth form at a college in the UK, which students aged 16 to 19 attend in preparation for advanced school-level qualifications, which include the GCSE A-levels and International Baccalaureate in Singapore. JCs are generally perceived to be held in higher regard by employers and society than vocational colleges and tertiary institutions such as polytechnics and ITEs.

7 In Singapore, students are streamed according to ability, with those who achieve poorer academic grades placed in classes ranked downwards – e.g. the top scoring students are placed in class 1A, with those scoring lower in class 1H.

8 One such example would be Sikhs’ exemption from wearing hardhats on construction sites (Kymlicka, 1995, p. 97; Parekh, 2000, p. 244).

9 An epithet used to describe Caucasians, derived from the Hokkien expression for “red hair”.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.