Freedom

I have an army of aunts who take turns to come to Singapore to take care of me and make me authentic Vietnamese food. Although their personalities are very different from each other, they share the same thought: Vietnamese people enjoy much more freedom than Singaporeans.

In Vietnam, people are free to chew gums.

People are free to litter. (Throwing dead mice on the streets is one common thing, for instance)

People are free to pee openly in the street corners, or trees. (Kissing in public, in contrast, is less common!)

People are free to break queues. There is no such thing called taxi-stand. (If any, it would be a place for vendors to sell tea and cigarettes)

In Vietnamese hospitals, doctors and nurses are free to treat their patients like crap. If you want to have an extra blanket, you go find a staff nurse, give her some money, ask her nicely and wait. She might still yell at you: she has a lot of other things to do – she is not there to give you an extra blanket. And, you already have one blanket – a lot of other patients do not even have one!

Just a few examples of how free we are.

But all of my aunts wanted Vietnam to follow the Singaporean model. If I am not wrong, it is also the wish of the late former Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet, a well-known reformer who led the country away from poverty and isolation.

Some people (i.e. Prof. Welsh) would say: if Vietnam ever became something like Singapore, it would only be a change from this type of authoritarianism to another.

Many would just simply enjoy seeing street-peeing people getting fined, at least.

In the meantime, however, what Vietnam is focusing on is not to be Singaporeanized or not to be Singaporeanized. Who cares about which model of development to follow? We are busy preparing for the next National Party Congress. We are first and foremost busy with the power game.