Separation of Church and State

I'm surprised at myself. Usually August is the month where I go slightly batty with all the stupid propaganda patriotic displays by the island's citizens, civil servants, and leaders. Imagine, if you will, Singapore flags flying everywhere - not because citizens hang them up themselves, but the town council and "grassroots leaders" feel they have to show that their housing project is celebrating National Day. And then the town councils forget to take down the flags even when September has come.

At times, it gets a little ridiculous. I take the train to work every morning on the East-West line, and somewhere between Commonwealth and Queenstown is a multistorey carpark draped in flags ALL OVER. Singapore: Where even carparks must show their patriotism.

And then, there is the sublime.



This image fascinates me in its simplicity. There's a subject, an object, and a verb: Sheng Hong Temple salutes Singapore. Yet the visuals trump the text, add an indeterminacy to the message, reverses the relation, and finally melds the subject and object into one cacophonious whole.

Sheng Hong Temple. Salutes. Singapore.

But in the picture, who is doing the saluting? We have a boy scout, a soldier, police officer, SCDF officer, and various uniformed people, of different races. They can only be read as a representation of Singapore. To be precise, a fascist fetish of Singapore.

Yet if Singapore is saluting, who are they saluting? In the infinite distance, in perpetual deferment, the hidden object. There is only Singapore and Sheng Hong Temple. Singapore then salutes Sheng Hong Temple. The Singapore lion crest salutes the Merlion.

Yet the text says "Sheng Hong Temple salutes..." It insists the persons performing the action are Sheng Hong Temple. Who are doing the saluting? Through careful semiotic slippage, Sheng Hong Temple has become Singapore...

The very fact that this banner exists and is displayed in a prominent place (outside Pandan Primary School at Jurong East), also signifies that Singapore's grassroots leaders and the various layers of bureaucracy in the town councils approved of this poster. Sheng Hong Temple, it appears, has the ear of Singapore and the sanction to impose its image in the holiest of Singapore's secular calendar.

Separation of church and state in Singapore: nonexistent.