It’s clear to everyone that Singapore is a country with no sheep to produce wool.
Yet for the longest time, people have been calling Singaporeans sheep. To understand why, we have to look at the characteristics of sheep.
Sheep are known to be meek and obedient. In a herd, all the sheep listen to their leaders and show total esteem.
However, sheep are not stupid animals.
This is what BBC Earth says on its website: Sheep are actually surprisingly intelligent, with impressive memory and recognition skills. They build friendships, stick up for one another in fights, and feel sad when their friends are sent to slaughter.
So we can say that being called sheep is neither an insult nor a compliment for Singaporeans.
If we have to single out a key factor, it’s probably because the Singaporean is perceived as submissive to authority, displaying blind, unshakeable allegiance and support to leadership and government.
The Singaporean is conditioned to think that he cannot do without the only ruling party he and his forefathers have known, the People’s Action Party (PAP).
This is why the Singaporean only wants an opposition to throw stones and pebbles, and not the kitchen sink at the PAP. He is afraid that if the PAP sinks, the country will sink along with them.
There’s a voice inside the Singaporean’s head which tells him that he and his country cannot do without the PAP. Such conditioned thinking (some call it indoctrination) start from young and it has worked wonders for decades.
The voice tells him that the country can quickly go from first world to third world, investors will run away, jobs will disappear, the trains will stop running, utilities will be disrupted, and he and his family will suffer, if he goes against the PAP.
Even if the Singaporean doesn’t admit it, there is such a voice inside his head. Maybe not all, but at least 70% of the population.
Is this the reason why Singaporeans are called sheep?
If so, the Singaporean needs to do two things: First, he must forever banish that stupid voice inside his head. Then he must always remember that he has nothing to fear – the only thing he has to fear is fear itself.
