5. To what extent does your society tolerate failure?

Singapores society is highly competitive, looking down on those who fail, be it in

business, in moral areas or in other areas. We are seen as complain kings,
expecting nothing but the best and overly critical of the tiniest mistakes others
make. However, there are indeed some in Singapores society who take a more
compromising stand towards those that do not succeed and in some cases,
defend those who fail from the criticisms of others. It is of my belief that despite
the more compromising stance of some, most of Singapore society still looks
down on and does not tolerate failure.
Singaporeans can be seen to be highly demanding and quick to blame others for
not living up to expectations. We focus on criticising the persons involved when
something fails, that we do not consider how we can resolve such issues. An
example would be the criticism of various sorts on social media, from
inappropriate comments by officials and directors such as Amy Cheong, slow
response of public transport companies when transport networks fail and people
who do inconsiderate acts in public (moral failure). Though social media was
filled with negative comments condemning these failures, there were few
constructive comments on how to improve the situation. This can be seen
especially on the popular online media platform known as STOMP, where people
can post pictures of others and criticise them for their failings. With modern
Singapore being a highly wired society, it is difficult to escape the influence of
such criticism and most people are affected to take a similar stand. This results
in part Singapore society not being able to tolerate failure.
The Singapore government likewise does not tolerate failure and seeks to correct
it through punishment or campaigning. For example, corruption is viewed by the
government to be a failure of morals as the corrupt public servant broke the oath
to serve Singapore and is thus punished severely. Peter Lim, the former chief of
the Singapore Civil Defence Force, was jailed for 6 months after he was
discovered. The willingness of the government to punish failure can be seen as
an uncompromising stand towards it. With the government being an integral part
of Singapore society, its policies have great effect on the views of Singaporeans,
and this contributes to the intolerance of failure in our society.
However, some argue that Singapore society is accepting of those that fail. In
fact, they say that we offer support to those that do not succeed, especially in
business. They cite examples such as SPRING Singapore, which offers financial
support for entrepreneurs, even if they have failed before. They believe that we
accept that failure will eventually lead to success and thus do not look down on
those who fail in business. Thus, they proclaim that Singapore society does
accept failure
The problem with such an argument is that our tolerance towards failure is only
so when we see benefits in supporting those who have failed. These people could
eventually boost Singapores economy with their businesses, thus it may be
beneficial to support them for a better economy. As a result of being pragmatic,
we tolerate failures selectively. An example of our intolerance of failures that do

not have from our point of view much practical use would be the lack of support
for Singaporean artists. We criticise our children for wanting to become artists,
instead calling for them to be doctors, lawyers or engineers, just as long as it is
useful and able to generate a steady amount of income. There are few
avenues of support for artists in Singapore and lack of a large arts scene in
Singapore. The few successful artists such as Stefanie Sun and JJ Lin had to go
overseas to succeed. The many artists in Singapore who dont succeed are just
labelled as failures and are ignored. This proves that society is intolerant towards
failures that do not benefit them.
In conclusion, Singapores society is intolerant of failure, with the sole exception
of when those who fail can potentially benefit them. This can be seen as a result
of our social media and government and of us being pragmatic. Despite the
Chinese idiom Failure is the mother of success being well known by many in
our Asian society, we still do not tolerate failure, perhaps due to the
competitiveness of our society. It is of my hope however, just with the hopes of
many others that we can grow to become a society more tolerant of failure