A Little Red Dot Broke My Heart

I caught the live proceedings of the parlimentary session on “Casino Decision”. I missed the part where the prime minister made his speech, but I heard enough to surmise that a casion will be allowed as part of an “integrated resort”, and there will actually be two, one at Sentosa and another at the Marina area.

To hear the self-serving rationalisations served up, while unsurprising, disappoints me tremendously. I am not sure why either but the thought of a casino (worse yet, two) being built on my little island nation breaks my little char-kway-tiao-clogged heart.

I’ve been to many developed countries around the world, and in many aspects Singapore pales. Despite it all, there are many things that I’m proud of in this little red dot I call home. In half a century, we have moved from being a backward little former British colony to a proud member of the first world. It took tremendous determination, an undaunted work ethic, and a good dose of integrity. All this is a big part of why Singaporeans can stand upright and hold our heads high in a region where sometimes a little coffee money can make a speeding ticket disappear, or save yourself from a broken nose getting through immigration.

If nothing, my little island home has always stood for how the little guy can survive and make it big, through grit and determination, not compromise.

I’m not a moral objecter; it’s just that the picture of a casino with bright flashing neon lights right next to the backyard, of which it has often been said, one of the best ones to raise your kids, feels… for lack of a better word, incongruous. On one hand, we tell our children hard work and integrity paves the path to success, and with the other we wave our visitors on the false path to quick riches.

As I hear our leaders champion the construction of casino, so that we may not “become a backwater”, I wonder if they remember we have left the backwaters before, without riding on the roll of a dice.

Whilst we try like the Pied Piper to summon the rich M.I.C.E. to our casinos, we forget that it too was the Pied Piper that led the town’s unsuspecting children to their doom with the same bewitching tunes.