ABSTRACT
While these observations may hold true, they do miss a significant point. I want to suggest that it is incorrect to argue that Singaporeans are totally subservient to the government, that is, state power is never absolute. While there has been some attention paid to Singapore’s emerging civil society and grassroots movements, very little research has explored everyday forms of informal and non-structured dissent in Singapore (but see Rodan 1993, 1996; Chua 2000; Lee 2002; Koh and Ooi 2004). In this article, I want to explore two such forms: a culture of complaint, and humour. These fairly ubiquitous practices when examined closely offer an insight into how Singaporeans deal with the economic and social pressures of living in a global city that is also an autocratic state. Drawing on my fieldwork in Singapore and internet sources, I will highlight examples of these forms of everyday dissent. Shared widely, these practices act not only as a coping mechanism – an outlet for Singaporeans to vent their disaffection, frustration and resignation – but also serve to express their dissent. In the words of James Scott (1990: xii) they work as a ‘hidden transcript’ that ‘represents a critique of power spoken behind the back of the dominant’. I argue that both a culture of complaint and humour represent modes of creative everyday resistance in a city which otherwise provides little space for expressions of opposition to the state. I am juxtaposing a culture of complaint and humour in this instance simply because in Singapore the act of complaining in informal situations – as is evidently the case in England also (Fox 2004) – always has an undercurrent of humour, and vice versa.
