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務實新加坡應包容更多詩意 Pragmatic Singapore can afford a little poetry

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One day in 1964 Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding prime minister, looked out of his office in City Hall and was horrified to see several cows grazing outside. A few days later, a lawyer driving on a nearby road hit one of the cows and died. Lee decided to act. Owners of cows and goats were given a few months to pen their animals. Stray beasts would be slaughtered.

1964年的一天,新加坡建國總理李光耀(Lee Kuan Yew)從政府大廈裏的辦公室向外看去,震驚地發現外面有幾頭牛在吃草。數天後,在附近一條公路上,一位律師開車撞上一頭牛後死亡。李光耀決定採取行動。牛羊養殖者被要求在幾個月內把他們的家畜圈養起來。跑出來的家畜將會被宰殺。

The incident is typical of Singapore’s founding father, and of the city state itself, which has mostly eschewed ideology in favour of practical solutions to practical problems. In a chapter on “greening Singapore” in From Third World To First, Lee detailed how he cleaned up unhygienic hawkers’ stalls, led anti-spitting campaigns, banned dangerous fireworks at Chinese lunar new year and started a methodical tree-planting and maintenance effort that has left Singapore one of the greenest cities in the world.

這起事件體現了新加坡國父以及新加坡自身的典型做事風格,這個城市國家基本上拋開意識形態,傾向以務實的態度解決現實問題。在《從第三世界到第一世界》(From Third World to First)中“綠化新加坡”這一章裏,李光耀講述了他是如何清理不衛生的街頭小販,發起反對隨地吐痰運動,禁止在中國農曆新年燃放危險的煙花爆竹,以及有條不紊地開展植樹養護行動——這讓新加坡成爲全球綠化程度最高的城市之一。

務實新加坡應包容更多詩意 Pragmatic Singapore can afford a little poetry

Lee, who died in March aged 91, knew that even centuries of custom could be nudged or bullied out of existence. What comes across most strongly in his memoir is just how practical and non-ideological he was. For Lee, a former socialist who became an enforcer of state-guided capitalism and even more guided democracy, the main preoccupation was not to create a utopian society but rather one that worked and prospered. The “improbable country” he helped build, which this weekend celebrates its 50th anniversary, is above all a pragmatic state. To adapt a phrase coined by Lee, who said the young nation could not afford the luxury of poetry, Singapore is a creation written in prose.

他知道,即便是沿襲了多個世紀的習俗也可能在規勸或強制之下被打破。李光耀於今年3月去世,享年91歲。在他的自傳裏令人印象最爲深刻的是,他是那麼的務實和超越意識形態。李光耀曾經是一名社會主義者,後來成爲國家指導資本主義乃至指導民主體制的踐行者,對他來說,那時的當務之急是讓社會運轉起來並實現繁榮,而不是建立一個烏托邦式的社會。他幫助建立的“不可能的國家”首先是一個務實的國家——新加坡於8月9日迎來建國50周年紀念日。李光耀曾表示,年輕國家負擔不起詩歌的奢侈。套用他的話說,新加坡是用散文寫就的。

Its dogged practicality was not typical of the 20th century. At one extreme were totalitarian states, both communist and fascist, that pursued ideology at any — invariably disastrous — cost. At the other were liberal democracies, or “open societies”. Somewhere in the middle were kleptocracies and crony capitalist states. Singapore, along with a few other mostly Asian states, pursued a genuinely national project aimed at lifting the living standards of its people.

它那根深蒂固的務實性在20世紀並不具有代表性。20世紀的一個極端是不惜一切代價(這始終是災難性的)追求意識形態的極權政府——無論是共產主義還是法西斯主義。另一個極端是自由民主體制,或者叫“開放型社會”。處於中間路線的是竊國政治和裙帶資本主義國家。新加坡與其他一些國家(以亞洲國家爲主)則推行一種真正的國家方針大計,目標是提升人民的生活水平。

Professor Kishore Mahbubani, of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, says that pragmatism — along with meritocracy and honesty — are the keystones of Singapore’s transformation. In the mid-1960s, when its per capita gross domestic product was $500, he remembers a school feeding programme where he drank milk from a pail using a ladle shared with other children. Today, GDP per capita is $55,000. “Pragmatism is a dirty word to western intellectuals,” he says, but it can be an ethical principle if it improves people’s lives. At its simplest, it means learning from others. Singapore’s administrators scoured the world for practical solutions. They modelled their port on Rotterdam, their army on Israel’s and their government housing schemes on Europe’s.

李光耀公共政策學院(Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy)的馬凱碩教授(Kishore Mahbubani)表示,務實主義加上精英政治和誠實是新加坡轉變的基石。在新加坡人均GDP只有500美元的上世紀60年代中期,他記得有一項學校食品供應計劃,可以讓自己和其他孩子一起用一個長柄勺子從桶裏舀牛奶喝。現在,新加坡人均GDP達到5.5萬美元。他說:“務實主義在西方知識分子眼裏是一個貶義詞。但如果它改善了民衆生活,我們就可以把它作爲一個道德準則。簡言之,它意味着向別人學習。新加坡政府從全世界尋求務實的解決方案。他們向鹿特丹學習港口管理,向以色列學習治軍,向歐洲學習政府住房項目。”

There has been much debate about whether this small city state holds lessons for bigger countries. In its philosophy of pragmatism it surely does. Even a country of China’s scale, after the change of direction engineered by Deng Xiaoping from 1979, was able to loosen its ideological shackles and pursue more practical policies. Prof Mahbubani argues excessive adherence to ideology is not limited to dictatorships or theocracies. The US refusal to admit it could improve its “disastrous” healthcare service by learning from others is evidence of a blinding ideology, he says. When it comes to gun control, “the US is as un-pragmatic as North Korea”.

關於這個城市小國是否值得較大國家學習,一直存在着很大的爭論。就其務實主義哲學來說,當然值得學習。即便像中國這麼大的國家,在1979年鄧小平設計改革方向之後也能夠放鬆其意識形態桎梏,追求較爲務實的政策。馬凱碩辯稱,過分執着於意識形態的不僅僅是獨裁者或者神權政體。他說,美國拒絕承認它可以通過向其他國家學習來改善其“災難性的”醫療服務,這體現了一種使人盲目的意識形態。就槍支控制而言,“美國和朝鮮一樣不務實”。

Pragmatism comes with costs. Insofar as it seeks to shape people’s behaviour and values, it is an ideology in itself. Lee picked bad policies as well as good ones. He encouraged small families and pursued a mild form of eugenics, discouraging less-well-educated couples from having children[HOW?]. Today, Singapore is stuck with a disastrously low birth rate. He also hounded opponents, using libel laws and the courts, to silence critics. The resulting “air-conditioned nation”, in the phrase of Cherian George, a political analyst, purrs like a machine. It also lacks a richness of debate, divergence and dissent.

務實主義並非沒有代價。就尋求塑造人民行爲和價值觀這一點來說,它本身也是一種意識形態。李光耀推行的政策有好有壞。他鼓勵人們減少生育,並提倡一定程度的優生,不鼓勵教育程度較低的夫婦要小孩。如今新加坡仍困擾於災難性的低生育率。他還逼迫政敵,利用誹謗法和法庭來讓批評者噤聲。由此產生的“空調國家”——用政治分析師契連吠治(Cherian George)的話來說——就像一臺機器一樣轟轟作響。新加坡還極爲缺乏辯論、分歧和異見。

Ho Kwon Ping, chairman of Banyan Tree, a hotel company, calls Singapore “first world-minus”. In an extraordinary series of lectures, he asserts the need for a “second act of this great Singapore miracle”. Renewal will mean the development of a more holistic society, where the social, cultural and political realms flourish. It will also mean that the People’s Action party, which has ruled since independence, will have to contemplate ceding power to forces outside its self-ordained priesthood. Mr Ho sees cause for optimism in a young generation that is prepared to question and probe — and one that, above all, believes it has the agency to exact change.

悅榕度假酒店集團(Banyan Tree)董事長何光平(Ho Kwon Ping)將新加坡稱爲“第一世界-”(first world-minus)。他在精彩的系列演講中提出,“這個偉大的新加坡奇蹟需要進入第二幕”。革新將意味着建設一個更加全面發展的社會,讓社會、文化和政治領域蓬勃發展。它也將意味着,自新加坡獨立以來一直執政的人民行動黨將不得不考慮將權力讓與其自封神職體系以外的勢力。何光平認爲有理由對懷着質疑和探索之心的年輕一代感到樂觀——最重要的是,年輕一代相信他們擁有促成改變的力量。

Lee and his generation made Singapore work, and work spectacularly well. What is now needed, in Mr Ho’s phrase, is “a flowering of the Singapore garden”.

李光耀及其同時代人讓新加坡運轉起來,而且運轉得非常好。用何光平的話來說,現在需要的是讓“新加坡花園百花盛放”。

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