From the Straits Times:
SINGAPOREANS have no self respect, action movie star Jackie Chan told an audience of businessmen.
He said this in the same speech at the annual Boao Forum in Hainan last Saturday, at which he said Chinese people need to be ‘controlled’.
In that address, he reportedly said of Singapore: ‘A lot of people are not like those in USA and Japan who voluntarily have self-respect. When you don’t have self-respect, the government will have to control you.
‘In Singapore, you have to abide by Singapore’s regulations. In China,you can litter, In Singapore, try littering and you will be jailed immediately.’ Shin Min Daily news had earlier this week published a transcript of his ‘freedom speech’ which touched on the issued of liberty in China.
The 55-year-old sparked an uproar after he told a business forum last Saturday that ‘we Chinese need to be controlled’, lamenting that freedom had made Hong Kong and Taiwan societies chaotic. ‘I’m not sure if it’s good to have freedom or not,’ said Chan, who added: ‘If we’re not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want.’
Read the rest of the report here.
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I’m trying to find a consistent trend to both of his arguments and I think I have found one. He didn’t say Singaporeans have no self respect. He said Chinese people have no self respect. Therefore when you allow them freedom as in Hong Kong and Taiwan, it is chaotic everywhere. And when they are orderly and well mannered, it is only because they have strict laws, like in Singapore.
These comments matter because what is at stake is the soul of China. When the country develops, are they going to follow Singapore or Hong Kong / Taiwan? We hope it is the latter but we think it is the former.
Many people on this board think that the comments are about Singapore but they are wrong. Many people also think that Singapore doesn’t matter in the big scheme of things but they are wrong.
But I don’t agree when he says that Japan has self respect. Not when I read about WW2. Not when I read about comfort women. And not when I’m surfing for their AV girls for soft porn.
And I don’t agree when he says that USA has self respect. Not when I’m listening to gangsta rap, not when I’m reading about sub prime problems, not when I’m hearing about random gun massacres which are becoming really common.
Quote: “When you don’t have self-respect, the government will have to control you.”
I disagree. It should just be the reverse, i.e.
“When the government control you, you don’t have self-respect.”
Could Jackie Chan be speaking in the capacity of the Vice-Chairman of the China Film Association? Just a thought.. only a thought.. but it would make sense if his speech is about the PRC population. Nevertheless, it would infuriate the more liberal Chinese population in Hong Kong and Taiwan…
I wish to express my support for the following views:
1) blackfeline: But you know what? In a sense, he’s spot on! We have no self respect for our basic rights and that’s the reason we are caged creatures!
4) m: In Singapore’s case, you can’t simply blame us for having no self-respect. The Government didn’t even give us a chance to earn the self-respect and learn to have it. They simply banned everything which they deemed undesirable with an iron fist. For efficiency and economic pursuits, they simply banned everything from the start. How can we learn to have self-respect if we have no control over what we do and suffer the reprecussions of what we did wrongly.
11) Mr E: …. I believe the society around us should foster a sense of dignity and moral awareness so that we can choose not to do not do such things petty things like littering among others even though we can.
3) Oh I din know people in the world has impression of singaporeans: But to be fair, he is a man of great wisdom and wealth and credibility and is well respected and loved. I am sure his views may be logical in some ways. Contradictorily, he said needs control and then says singaporeans allow to be controlled becos they no respect themselves. Of course, what he means is ‘in general’ and definitely not saying that ALL singaporeans are like that.
14) Joel: In a way, this is also a display of the lack of self-respect. I mean, seriously, you need someone to give you the chance to earn self-respect? And if your argument is that the government is too restrictive, then don’t you think it’s a show of self-respect to stand up and do things (in appropriate manners) to change the country?
15) Curious: IMO, it is when the govt controls every facet of your lives is when you lose your self respect ! That is why, as Ho Kwon Ping said rightly, it is the civil society that buffers us against the govt. Without civil society we will all lose our self respect!
17) thecompulsivepianist: Don’t lose heart, lets open our eyes, use our votes wisely and build Singapore to be a more open society, it might not be for this decade, but at least the next generation might benefit.
31) truth hurts: there is much truth in Jackie Chan’s words. where is our self respect ? when this govt controls every aspect of our lives, treats citizens with contempt, implements policies and laws without public consultation or debate and yet we continue to vote them into power. the first step to regaining self respect is to vote in a govt that serves its citizens !
And now for my comments:
If we are to have self-respect, we need to have certain values that we can communicate to other people, and get their understanding and support. This allows us to stand by these values, and to speak out against injustice and oppression.
My personal values are:
a) honesty
b) fairness
c) public interest
d) courage
I see that some of our leaders infringe on these values, and are willing to speak out against their behaviours (but avoid getting personal). I find that some of our leaders are not honest (i.e. they do not admit mistakes and distort the truth) and are not fair (they allow other people to exploit the weak and poor). Most of my writings are against these bad traits.
As I am using my real name, I have to be careful not to make defamatory remarks and be sued by any specific person. Unfortunately, I have to live by this constraint.
Some of the comments criticised Jackie Chan for being an actor, and said that he has low intelligence.
I used to have a low opinion of actors and performers long ago, but I have since changed my opinion. I realised that to achieve the fame and be accepted by millions of fans, they have to be extremely talented people. Furthermore, as they move around the world, their perspective broadens and they become quite wise and knowledgeable.
In many respects, they have to be “voted” by their fans. If they talk rubbish, they will lose the popular support. The “voting” of the top performers is more democratic and fair than the voting of politicians in many countries (as the politicians have ways of manipulating the voting process).
I have seen the relatively impressive performance of actors turned politicians, such as Ronald Reagon and Arnold Schwatzernagger. They have positive and negative features, but on the whole, they came out quite well.
My personal view is that the views expressed by Jackie Chan are quite fair. I find that there are many negative traits of Singaporeans that should be corrected. (But, we have positive traits too – so Singaporeans are not all bad).
I know that many Singaporeans are hurt, but it is better to face some of these negative opinions with a stout heart.
Jackie Chan’s an illiterate. This is a fact that’s well known within the industry. People like Lee Ang openly publicize it to the media. You can google about it in detail.
My point? Why fume over the careless remarks of an illiterate?
the state of our public toilets reflect our self respect. it is improving but still lagging. if you go to hongkong, their toilets are too similar. i guess Hongkong and Singapore isnt any much difference, except the government is more open and democractic.
hongkong people come across as fast, aggressive, scheming and extremely selfish. we, singaporeans, are still way behind these traits which i think make us somewhat better in personality and character. but singaporeans also becoming very self centred and selfish too, maybe this is the issue with lack of resources and being in a very competitive country.
Other than being very rich, being to able to fight and make some movies, Jackie Chan really knows nothing much else. So we dont need to pay too much attention to what he says.
Dear #49 Kin Lian,
I think you brought up a very important point — people tend to find stark negative opinions repulsive. But this is something popular vote cannot resolve.
Popular vote gives the majority of people what they want. It does not make people come to accept hard to swallow opinions.
If people cannot even accept some of Jackie Chan’s reasonable comments despite his popularity, what else can? On the other hand, if people buy what he said because of his popularity, then how robust is this mechanism?
#10) AL on April 25th, 2009 11.43 am
Yeah, Jackie really kissing Chinese Government A** all the way!
————————————————————————————————————–
Yap…Jackie has to do just that.
If not, do you think he has the opportunity to advertise (VISA Card) & sing for Beijing Olympics 2008?
China is a big market. Jackie is a director & actor. For his movies venturing into China’s market, he needs to carry the China Govt ba*** often.
Now, he has to kiss s’pore govt a** often too. Bought some expensive properties & having business here, he needs to be a “spokeman for his new master”.
#14 and #17 (Joel & thecompulsivepianist)
Agreed with your points. Ideally everyone who has self respect does not need any “chance” from the Government to express it, case in point CSJ.
But in reality many don’t for a variety of reasons, so as an alternative they “need” this chance from the Govt without breaking the laws, as odd as it may sound and as dependent it may sound.
That was the point I was making in #4 and not in contradiction to your comments.
Overall, agreed with your points but do understand that that is quite ideal. :)
$58 m
The methods of CSJ are arguable. He has both gained and lost in his methods.
Kenneth Jeyaretnam is gathering respect in his expression of views, carrying on where his dad left off. These people respect their own views, and express it so that more audience can absorb the message and have some food for thought. Where does the government come in play in these cases? Its about one’s own desire and strength in the mind.
I believe Jackie was mentioning more along the daily lives rather than on a hard political line. I’ll try to give an example where Singaporeans lack self-respect in their own daily lives.
A couple months ago, a writer wrote into ST forum to suggest all bicycles have license plates + enact new laws so that erant cyclist can be reported to the police and FINED. Also another suggested a law to be able to ask a commuter on the train for their NRIC to report them to the police if he/she is caught not giving up his seat.
As recent as last week, another wrote to speak of the problems of more commuters grabbing small bites on train, and he actually attributes the root of the problem to the new foodstalls in/beside the MRT stations.So his solution is to banned these stalls.
Problem is, do we need a law to govern us? Or do we accept that change should come and we grow as an individual to more “automatic” people?
The government could easily take both suggestions and implement these rules/laws/fines. But is that the way for ourselves to gain self respect?
For your comment please.
A man who refuses to be accountable for his own deed is not fit to comment on other people’s behaviour
Remember this incident? After making a starlet pregnant, Jackie Chan claimed that it was the girl who made him drunk and then bedded him.
To side step the furore following his claim, Jackie compared his lecherous way with the romantic heroes in sword fighting stories. He called it feng liu 风流(romantic)
Jin Yong, the famous author rightly corrected for him to xia liu 下流 (despicable)
#59
Yes that is not the way, I didn’t say that was the way. It was merely an alternative given the circumstances, and it won’t hurt if that happened.
Of course, everything still basically lies in the individual, and from recent events it would be safe to say that we are moving in the right direction, albeit still with many obstacles in the way.
he should mend his own ways and teach his son before commenting
Jackie likes to boast to promote himself. Recently, he donated a few old wooden buildings to Singapore and claimed that they’re worth 100m.
If you believe that a few blocks of wood are worth 100m, you must be pretty dense. He doesn’t even own the land they’re sitting on!
Jacky is talking through his arse without indepth knowledge of Singapore. He is a runaway Hongkee with self control and end up like a migrated convict in Australia and now jumping like a kangaroo! Perhaps, he got to change his skin color from yellow to white, since he got so much of self respect himself. Don’t forget he is a stuntman in his own movie, because of his so called self respect. Otherwise he will lose it, not only his self respect but also something hanging downunder!!!
maybe people cannot take criticisms but i wonder are people cultured to hear only the good stuff?
regardeding
invisible t-shirt
A person with self respect for himself do not comment and judge others except himself. Let us not judge him but let himself find his own self and learnt to respect others once he discovered his true self. As for us singapore, please thank him for showing us his concern and let us prove to ourselves not him RESPECT .
A lot of comments, but when he come to Singapore,red carpet laying to welcome him. Just like Edison Chen, he fxxx around but Singapore still like him a lot. Juas couldn’t understand why so many people “Chiaba Botaiji” and “talk cocx sing song”
So… Jackie thinks that we need to have more self-respect so that we can stop our government from controlling us but at the same time having a government which doesn’t control us leads to chaos?
And he’s using the fact that littering gets you jailed in Singapore to support his view that we have no self-respect? How is putting having a clean environment as a societal priority showing a lack of self-respect? I mean it’s trash Jackie. It isn’t like the government’s making us carry around nuclear wastes in our pockets till we find a bin… How does being considerate show we have no self-respect? Maybe Jackie wants to litter and he’s just irked that he’d have to pay a fine if he did it here…
I love Jackie Chan’s movies but methinks guy’s been hit one time too many on the head…
What a blinking moron…what biz is it of his?! He is being completely contradictory…not sure how much of his comments were taken out of context – but first he says we have no self-respect cos we abide by the govt’s rules. But then he cites HK and Taiwan as examples – saying that they are “chaotic” and that he’s not sure if freedom is good. Like, hello?! Pls make up your friggin’ mind before you slam us. And, I find it highly ironic that someone who does not even take responsibility for some lady he impreganted is commenting on “self-respect.” PAH. Load of baloney!
Having lived overeseas for more than 15 years. I have seen for myself the difference between Singapore Now and Then!
15 years ago, our streets wasn’t so crowded. Our malls was comfortable to breeze through. We will always keep the sweet wrapper in our pocket only discarding into our bins at home.. We take pride being Singaporeans.
With the influx of ‘New Singaporeans’ or ‘Ep holders’ or ‘Long-Staying Visitors.’
(Shall we term them as New People)
What is happening?
I observed a lot of these New People helping to create what is ‘THE NEW SINGAPORE.’
Littering is so rampant, jay-walking, bi-cyclists riding as if they are King of the Road.
Well, as MM said recently,”we must embrace these NEW PEOPLE”.
Anyway, the rich singaporeans and the elites have probably planted roots overseas and singapore can always be a circus or little playground to visit when one is bored.
is Jackie refering to Thio & gang?
i think Jackie’s last line is really apt for Thio & gang ‘If we’re not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want.’
^.^
#52) Tan Kin Lian
‘My personal view is that the views expressed by Jackie Chan are quite fair.’
…………………………………………
Respect means ‘the feeling of honour, high opinion or regard.’ Do
Singapore Chinese really have self-respect?
In a biography written some years ago, the author related a comment by LKY that if an ‘Ang Moh’ or Europeon becomes the emperor of China the Chinese would still kow-tow to him and obey him.’ Two dynasties that rules China for about 500 years were non-Chinese: the Mongols and Manchus.
Mao TT and LKY know their history well.
let’s take criticism with grace, guys
he has a good point
we have no self-respect and we are overly defensive
you rather our StraitsSlime interview another useless local notable who praise everything about Singapore is good?
i think he omitted the key point
in China they are allowed to litter, they do go unpunished and they have no self-respect either!
who says singapore got no respect?
i respect anybody who respect my tissue choopin a dining table
do you see in singapore parliament not enforcing a law on tissue choopin?
#69 – Andrew,
“Littering, jay-walking, bi-cyclists riding as if they are King of the Road, road bullies’ , these are what I noticed all the time since 31 yrs ago when I came to Singapore, this are our culture here that parents passed down to children. Is not come from new comer to Singapore. usually new comer always are more careful and obey the local laws than locals. Or may be you mean local Singaporean are good student and learn from new comers.
May I ask , where you stay for the 15 yrs. Most countries I stayed and work before , people are more courtious, seldom litter, give way and seats to elders, wheelchair / handicaps but not here.
If this url can be tolerated, please take a look at this video to hear what he said and decide for yourselves.
personally, i feel that he being a pr of s’pore, why would he say something that mere mortals cannot handle?
my opinion is he actually was trying to praise the singapore gubbermen.
but maybe he got tired or careless and kinda slip of tongue let loose of some words he did not mean to say. Somehow, maybe, i not sure, his subconscious mind took over? I really have no idea as I am not Jackie.
1 thing for sure, he did mention chinese need to be controlled and he used, although just 1 , a single example where control is good , that is, chewing gum ban. Its just a shame, he only could give 1 example of it. He should have also given other side of the coin examples if you know wtf i mean.
injoy, the url is here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2Z4GdE95qU
i feel Jackie Chan’s words are taken out of context, while he did say “Chinese needs to be ‘controlled’…” he may be refering to individuals who, given too much freedom abuses it.
about being thrown into jail for littering, thats largely not true. i personally have seen litter in public places, & there is no police around to catch the person. heh.
re post 75) thanks for the link. =)
Gosh, you people slams him the way you like it acutally represents the no self respect.
Look around you, full of complaints but look at the HDB hall, if there is no cleaner, Singaporeans will be swarmped by those littering garbages.
Compared to western countries and Japan, there are indeed some lack self respect.
I think Jackie Chan is spot on. I notice this when it comes to the way Singaporeans treat foreigners. You get supposedly educated people actively spitting at Bangladeshi’s , Filipinos and Thais. These same people will then fawn over some barrow boys and Hicks from the UK and US who are not necessarily more qualified than they are. If you had self-respect, we would not need to treat people from the “Third World” with contempt and there would be no need to fawn over people from elsewhere.
I look at the way Singaporeans behave outside of Singapore. I remember being in National Service in Taiwan, and one of my colleagues, who happens to be highly educated (last I heard he’s on PhD course) threw a piece of litter and told me with pride, “I like to litter in other people’s country because it’s not mine.” Erm, does that represent the views of someone with self-respect? I think it represents someone who does not litter in his own country because he’ll be finned not because he respects himself not to do disgusting things.
Admittedly Hong Kong and Taiwan are chaotic but somehow, they are disciplined. I remember a top insurance manager telling me that Hong Kong restaurants appear more chaotic than Singapore ones but are somehow more efficient. Hong Kong companies (SMEs) seem to manage outside Hong Kong. By contrast, Singapore has a very poor record when going overseas – just look at the Shouzou Industrial project, which became miraculously successful when we had to hand majority control back to the Chinese.
I am 100% agree with Tang Li, that is what I like to express, however because I am not that eduated to express it . As we can see, Hong Kong and Taiwan are more clean and effecient averagely than Singapore for the pass 5 to 10 yrs. Here we Singaporean, litter, vandalism, Posting of Bills, crossing our road without watching the lights. All around our Housing estates.
I find that he is justified in making that statement about my country, Singapore. More people that I had encountered are ruthless and uncouthed than my elders. Singaporeans picking up fights with foreigners. Singaporeans distrust their own fellow countrymen (I am a born and raised, albeit differently in Singapore and there are people who asked me whether I am a Singaporean!!!) You can’t tell whether he’s a Singaporean as I knew some PRC-turned-Singaporeans spoke like a typical Singaporean. Do background checks on them, those my countrymen fools!
Oh! People used to pass to your left on the streets but these days, you’ll see many of them passes to your right. The absence of the Keep Left “rule” that used to exist in Singapore and present in many Commonwealth countries and Japan tells you something. Most Chinese here are either born and bred in China and took up SIngaporean citizenship (this happened since 1997 with a lot of mainland PRCs coming to SIngapore) or they don’t have no respect for safety and logic. Hong Kong still practises this rule after 10 years of reuniting with China. These “SIngaporean” Chinese are probably Chinamen and women!!!
If you read his remarks in context you understand what he’s trying to say – when he could so easily have said what he wanted to.
Anyway, he’s right about (some) Singaporeans having no self-respect. But that only because they’re not respected. There are no rules to Respect. No amount of self-respect can save the disrespect of others.
Quite the reverse in fact, self-respect is almost always construed as pride, even arrogance. The more self-respect, the more it be taken.
I agree with you Chan
Singaporeans’ lips are sealed cos government gives them money to shut their mouth! Singapore culture is all about money and status; comparing and keeping up even with their own siblings. They wait and expect others to do things for them. They are materialistic, poor manners, spoilt-brats; behaved like 3-yr olds! Singapore has a child-like society.