The surprising reason Singaporeans complain but don’t correct bad public behaviour

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
This is a podcast by The Straits Times.

**Lin Suling** (0:09)
Every day, we encounter antisocial behaviour on the roads, as we get our food and in our estates. And in Singapore, we've chosen to tackle such action through the letter of the law. The most recent example, new rules proposed in parliament on driving, where drivers holding a phone would be committing an offence and people can submit photographs to traffic police.
These seem to build on our catch-and-find approach to keeping Singapore clean, from high-rise littering to people who don't return trays and other kinds of municipal issues. But do laws shape society, or do societal values shape laws? And in the context of a country with a strong complain culture, how much of this is shaped by public attitudes and a strong, legitimate emphasis on fairness versus a lack of trust in other Singaporeans to do the right thing?
Essentially, what kind of Singapore do we really want to build in the next 10, 20 years? I'm Lin Suling, Opinion Editor at The Straits Times. And today, I'm talking to Dr. Tan Ern Ser, a known name in the study of Singapore Society and Sociology, who's an Adjunct Principal Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies. Ern Ser, welcome to In Your Opinion.

**Tan Ern Ser** (1:15)
Thank you for having me.

**Lin Suling** (1:17)
I just wanted to start off with the fact that you're one of Singapore's foremost sociologists, and you've studied the evolution of social trends, civic norms, and you've also talked at length about Singapore's aspiration to become a gracious society. Just taking stock, because Singapore's 61 years old this year, we're a country reaching seniorhood already.
What words would you use to describe Singapore society today?

**Tan Ern Ser** (1:45)
Well, I would say that actually, of course, there's some bad heads, right? Maybe the bad heads could be amount to like 1 or 2 percent, and 1 or 2 percent of 6 million people is actually quite a lot of people in absolute terms.
So I would say that by and large, I think Singaporeans are law-abiding, and I think many are actually, you know, obeying the rules even when no one is watching, right? But it's just a few bad heads, I mean, a few with a certain percentage, that actually give us a bad name.

**Lin Suling** (2:14)
But if you step back, what are the words that come to mind?

**Tan Ern Ser** (2:17)
Well, I think we always think of Singapore as a fine society, right? We don't do what is right only when there's a fine, only when we are afraid of being punished, right? The idea of being punished, either be a big fine or going to jail or something, is just not something that we look forward to, right? The Singaporeans, when they go overseas, they just sort of suddenly decide they don't comply with the rules anymore.
Yeah, so even as I say that we do not want to sort of make it make it sound like all Singaporeans are bad, but the one or two or three percent is actually bad enough. They are the one who give us a bad name.

**Lin Suling** (2:54)
Just stepping back a bit more, right? You've said before that Singaporeans do sometimes exhibit what you call negative defensive mechanisms because we've got intense competition, a culture of kiasuism. But at the core of it, we actually fundamentally desire to build a gracious and cohesive society. Do you still believe that?

**Tan Ern Ser** (3:12)
Yeah, I believe so. I mean, very often, we still talk about education, right? How people should be educated and to be gracious and then to internalize this thing about being gracious, right? In other words, it is not external rules that cause you to be obedient, you know, of the rules, but rather there's something in there, some kind of a moral compass that guides your action.

**Lin Suling** (3:35)
Let's concretize that because it's when the rubber hits the road, that we really truly know ourselves. So for example, road behavior. The latest data shows that the number of road accidents are rising, cell phone violations have spiked by nearly 40% in 2025 alone.
So if we aspire truly to be a gracious society that is courteous, that's considerate, why is our baseline behavior on the roads worsening?

**Tan Ern Ser** (4:01)
Yeah, I think when someone get into a car, they can transform to a different person. But again, by and large, I think both of us are actually pretty good. Yeah, but there are that few percentage, right, who the moment they get into a car, they don't really care anymore. They think, I really think that maybe a lot, they think of it as sort of muscle memory, right? They just get in, drive, and then they get to their destination. And they get very uptight or angry if they don't get their way.