ABSTRACT
So in these anxious, exuberant ways the Singapore State makes its appearances and works its magic on the people and the international world.
Since these are affairs of culture and settled habits, they do not change radically. Observers are of course wont to look for ‘patterns’ in the official policies and their banal, quotidian effects. But the State is itself deeply committed to keep to the customary approaches: the Singapore Way should be upheld because ‘it works’, so the refrain goes. The task of the commentator is thus made easier. More exactly, it is not so much that things do not change as that what is new always retains some essential elements of the old. And these elements we recognize as the ‘foundation’ of Singapore: the restless ‘culture of excess’ with which the PAP State makes and remakes itself, and instils its visions and values on the people. The most lasting effect, as I have made plain, is to give a powerful urgency to all aspects of life in Singapore, thus binding the State and society to the common purpose of striving ambitions. The ‘culture of excess’ may be fretful and apprehensive; it also gets things done.
