Culture and Privilege in Capitalist Asia - Jurusan Antropologi ...

158 CHUA BENG HUAT AND TAN JOO EAN
young girl and using the occasions to raise funds for charity. The ‘proms’ are no
longer newsworthy and the ‘coming out’ parties were never repeated. In contrast, the
social editor of the Hong Kong Tatler says, ‘Hong Kong people are proud of
what they have achieved; that’s why they display it with Rolls Royces and Chanel
suits. They don’t look at it as showing off. The term “nouveau riche” has no meaning
here’ (quoted in ‘Rich and Righteous’, Asia Magazine, 19—21 January 1996).
12 For the business practices of boutiques that cater only to women who are ‘selfemployed
or unemployed’, see Chua (1990, 1992).
13 In 1994 alone, these schemes had cost the government 160 million Singapore
dollars, benefiting 4,000 households (Straits Times, 1 March 1994).
14 This scheme has not been widely popular because of the conditions imposed (Straits
Times, 5 June 1995).
15 It has also institutionalised its position on welfarism by establishing the office of the
elected Presidency in 1991. The elected President is empowered to veto any drawing
down of the national reserve by an incumbent government. This is meant as a check
on any future government’s readiness to expand social welfare provisions for reasons
of political expediency. More speculatively, senior minister Lee Kuan Yew has
suggested that the one-person-one-vote rule may have to be changed in future to
some-people-two-votes in favour of the able-bodied, gainfully employed heads of
family against an expanding population of retirees, for fear that a future incumbent
government may be held to ransom by the retirees and forced to expand social
security measures. This fear is, perhaps, obliquely substantiated by a survey finding,
in 1994, that Singaporeans who are 45 years of age and above are more inclined
than their younger counterparts to see the government as the provider in times of
need (Straits Times, 18 September 1994).
16 Consequently, in Britain, for example, working individuals who are able to pay for their
own consumption needs in transportation and housing are inclined to vote for rightwing
candidates who promise reduction of welfare spending (Saunders 1984).
17 To the presumption that the middle class is being taxed for such subsidies, the
Minister of Finance pointed out that in fact the level of personal income tax has been
declining steadily since the mid-1980s, from a high of 33 per cent to 25 per cent. The
subsidies could not possibly be raised from such taxes, he said; rather it is paid for by
the non-tax revenues of an efficiently managed economy. On the question of helping
to upgrade private housing estates, the government countered that the values of these
properties have escalated tremendously through the early 1990s and such asset
inflation should enable these privileged residents to pay for the upgrading of their own
facilities.
Bibliography
Chan Heng Chee (1975) ‘Politics in an Administrative State: Where Has the Politics Gone?’,
in Seah Chew Meow (ed.), Trends in Singapore, Singapore: Singapore University
Press, pp. 51—68.
Chua Beng Huat (1990) ‘Steps to Becoming a Fashion Consumer in Singapore’, Asian
Pacific Journal of Management, no. 7:31—48.
––(1991) ‘Not Depoliticised but Ideologically Successful: The Public Housing Programme
in Singapore’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, no. 15: 24—41.