Could Singapore lead the world into a Citizen Future?

“Singaporeans are always studying new concepts to improve the functioning of their country but at the end it is always about ensuring the ruling party retains power so the spirit of what they do is more about power than empowerment."

“Government functions almost too well here. It infantilises people. Then they behave like children. And government infantilises them more. It’s a vicious cycle.”

I’ve just spent five days in Singapore, speaking twice at the Writers’ Festival and running three days of workshops sharing some of the New Citizenship Project toolkit with various civil service teams. As I reflect on the experience, the two quotes above, both from people who know Singapore far better than me, are turning over in my head. What I take from them is that the deep story of Singapore is one in which both Subject and Consumer modes are writ large. The question that remains is whether the Citizen Future I described in this BBC Future piece could take hold despite this - and how likely it might be to happen here relative to elsewhere.

Singapore’s history as “the accidental nation” makes it deeply vulnerable to Subject dynamics. Booted out of Malaysia in the 50s, the most likely future was pretty hideous. Starting with no real resource basis, it is hard to contend with the assertion that Lee Kuan Yew - the first prime minister and instigator of what is essentially a one-party system - performed miracles of leadership. He saw what needed to be done, cleared the obstacles and any opposition, and made it happen. If ever and anywhere the Subject Story has “worked”, it is here.

Then came the Consumer phase. Singapore more or less deliberately cultivated the “5 Cs” - cash, car, credit card, condominium, and country club membership(!) - as a set of aspirations for its citizens from the 80s onward. It seized early and effectively on the idea that what sold was good, and became the world’s marketplace. The perception of it as a libertarian free market utopia, though, has never been true - the state remained a major player throughout, well-resourced and with a firm guiding hand.

Now, though, change is coming, and Singapore is onto it, at least in theory. A major exercise called Forward Singapore is under way, explicitly intended to redefine the social compact. A new set of “3 Cs” - care, cohesion and confidence - is intended to replace the 5. And this, it became clear, is why we were invited. The Singaporean state wants to understand how to make the shift from Consumer to Citizen.

So… can it? Could Singapore radically evolve its deep story and lead the world into a Citizen Future?

There are things that make me believe it could. I have rarely met such smart, open, insightful people as the Singaporean civil servants we worked with - and with such commitment to the good of the people. Their concern for the migrant worker populations, their commitment to inclusion across age and physical ability. The fact that some of the most outdated and oppressive laws are relaxing, even as many supposedly freer nations seem to be reimposing them. And most of all, Singapore’s proven ability to anticipate and embrace the next wave of thinking at pace and scale.

But stepping into the Citizen Future is a very different kind of shift. It cannot be delivered top down; it cannot be “delivered” at all. It needs to be created BY citizens and communities, not FOR them. Borrowing a metaphor from Cormac Russell, a leading advocate of “asset based community development”, helping while walking forward closes down the space for the agency of the recipient of help; as such, the role of the state in a Citizen Future will be to help while walking backward, enabling and facilitating, but stopping short of either commanding or serving. And yet the Singaporean government is very deeply rooted in exactly those functions, its society in those relationship modes.

This is to say nothing of the more obvious challenges. While it may have worked for many, the Subject Story here as everywhere has been rooted in oppression and division that still runs deep: there is a reason why the plight of migrant workers is something to be concerned about (and why I have left the quotes above anonymous). And as for the Consumer Story, the timing of our visit coincided with a fintech festival, and with the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, in which Singapore's sovereign wealth fund was a major investor...

And so to the question I've posed myself in this piece. I need a little more time to digest and reflect, but I do have a draft understanding forming. Where I land, at least for now, is that all three futures - Subject, Consumer, and Citizen - are emerging in Singapore, as everywhere. But if it is to step into the Citizen Future, Singapore will have to overcome an opposing set of challenges to the UK, the context with which I am most familiar. Singapore’s government sees the need and the opportunity, and there is resource available. But there is little or no oxygen for Citizen power to breathe and grow. In the UK there is plenty of oxygen, but little visibility or resource. What I mean, I suppose, is that Singapore may be a highly unlikely place to lead us into the Citizen Future, but perhaps no less likely than others - and by no means impossible.