Where Did the Local Heroes Go?

 

Around two months ago, I got invited to a Stand-Up Comedy show hosted by the Association of Comic Artist (Singapore). The acts were great fun and it was an eye opener into a side of Singapore that few get to see.

At the end of this event, the President of the Association, who is a British chap of Barbadian decent, and calls himself, “Singapore’s First Black President,” proceeded to distribute comic books that he and his team had come up with. These were locally made comics, created around Singaporean heroes. I have to admit that I’ve yet to go through the comics and thus cannot comment of what the comics are like. However, whilst I have not read the comics, I appreciate the irony of the situation. Here we have a group of comic heroes designed around Singapore and Singapore’s culture that were designed by someone born outside of Singapore.

 

 

 So, here’s the question – what has happened to Singapore’s heroes? Not only do we not produce heroes in real life, we can’t even produce them in fiction. In real life, we’re told that Singapore needs people from elsewhere to do things for us. You need economic growth; the solution is simple – invite the world’s richest to buy overpriced housing in Singapore. If you want innovation, invite a world-famous scientist to set up a lab here. The solution to just about every problem in Singapore is based on getting someone from somewhere else to come up with a solution. What is true in the “real” world is also true in the world of fiction. We know all the heroes of the DC and Marvel Universe like Superman and Spiderman but, until I met the chaps at the Association of Comic Artist (Singapore), there was no evidence of a local Singapore comic hero.

Seriously, just walk into any given bookshop and you’ll find that the only hero that is allowed to exist in Singapore is Lee Kuan Yew. To his credit, the late Mr. Lee was a very special man who, like him or loath him, led a team that made Singapore a text book case study of how to build up a nation with not very much. However, it’s been 23-years since he stepped down as Prime Minister and eight-years since he died and the he remains the only Singaporean that we’re allowed to hero worship and turn into a cartoon.

While Singapore does measure up pretty well against most places, we desperately need heroes. Our fabulously famous government is showing signs of getting creaky. I mean, we actually have a minister who is being investigated for corruption. The people whom we were trained to look up to, are looking, well rather less shiny.

So, its time for a Singapore to get a new set of heroes, even if they are the comic book variety. Heroes in fiction have a way of inspiring heroes in real life. We need to make that mental leap into trying to be our own heroes rather than waiting for heroes from elsewhere to solve our problems for us. This is not to say we are closed to the outside world. It just means that we face the outside world like adults who can manage on our own without a crutch mentality that states that only people from elsewhere and politicians are the solutions to everything.