Don’t Be Late, the Nanny State Tells Its Citizens

As his wedding day approached, Chng Kai Fong fretted over just one thing -- ensuring his guests arrived on time for the time-honored rollout of the traditional Chinese dinner feast.

He busily sent e-mails and telephoned friends and relatives to remind them not to be late. Then he got some unexpected help -- from a Singapore government that is ever willing to prod its citizens to be good and thoughtful neighbors.

A state-financed organization is now taking aim at wedding latecomers, adding them to a hit list that already includes drivers who fail to signal when changing lanes, people who talk on mobile phones at the movies and those who fail to flush public toilets.

Chng, 25, a civil servant, was all for trying to change attitudes about being on time.

“It’s a vicious cycle that I am trying to get my friends to break out of,” he said a few days before his wedding. “My one fear is that my bride would walk down the aisle and no one will be there.”

The Singapore Kindness Movement is happy -- and eager -- to assist. As of late April, it had printed about 1 million reminder slips for distribution with wedding invitations.

To reinforce the printed message -- “On our special day, thank you for arriving in time.” -- the body is following up with electronic reminders sent to guests’ mobile phones.

The wedding punctuality drive will last until the end of 2005, says Noel Hon, president of the Singapore Kindness Movement.

“It’s not a campaign, but a movement.... What we are trying to do is create social consciousness,” he says.

Behavior modification campaigns are a fact of life for the 4 million people in this wealthy self-confessed nanny state in Southeast Asia.

Last year, a monthlong “Romancing Singapore” campaign sought to help the unmarried link up, offering heart-shaped pizzas for romantic get-togethers and even giving tips for clueless males on what to do on a first date.

The “Speak Good English” initiative provided help with language as the government tried to thwart the use of Singlish, a mishmash of Chinese dialects, Malay and English, in fear foreigners could not understand Singapore residents.

In April, the Singapore Kindness Movement launched its annual “Courtesy Campaign,” a long-running event in the social engineering campaign that exhorts people to say “please” and “thank you,” respect queues and not litter.

Not everyone likes the campaigns.

“The government does treat us like children sometimes, and they sweeten the deal with free gifts,” says Daryl Gan, 29, a computer engineer. “It’s our fault for buying it. We allow the government to tell us how to do everything ... how to love, how to talk, how to adjust our watches.”

He refers to prizes like the $60 shopping voucher being offered by the wedding campaign to couples who begin their wedding dinners on time.

Hon acknowledges there are complaints about interfering in people’s lives but says the city-state’s efforts to change how people behave and relate to one another is necessary.

“We are simply not considerate to one another,” he says.

Since its independence in 1965, Singapore has transformed itself from a malaria-infested backwater into a gleaming regional center for finance and manufacturing with one of Asia’s most prosperous populations.

“We have developed very well economically, but the social graces have been left behind,” says Hon, who works for a Japanese electronics firm.

The social engineering sometimes is more than a gentle nudge. The government maintains firm social controls, censors regularly snip movies and TV shows, and outdoor gatherings must have a police permit. The U.S. State Department says there is little room for democratic debate here.

Lee Kuan Yew, who founded modern Singapore and whose eldest son is now prime minister, defends the strictures, arguing they have helped create a wealthy, safe, prosperous and spotless nation.

As for the drive to deal with the problem of wedding latecomers, Hon says: “I guess if it solves it, it doesn’t matter what people say.”