On citizenship

Every now and then, someone would write to the press and suggest Singapore allows dual-citizenship in order to attract new talents and retain local talents.

Let me say from the beginning that an individual's concept of citizenship is very much shaped by personal experience, exposure and thinking.

My take is against multi-national citizenship - hey, there is nothing against having more than two if you think two is okay, right?

Ideally, everybody is a citizen of the world, of the planet Earth, of the Solar System.  Well, unfortunately, it is an ideal that many people is not prepared for.  I believe most people are still protective of the notion that certain they have the right over certain territories that others do not.

Back to citizenship - citizenship to me is not about what places or countries you feel a sense of belonging to, or fondness or loyalty.  A guy who has a British father, American mother, born in Australia, grew up in Singapore, studied in Italy, worked in Canada, married a Spanish and retired in France can have strong sense of fondness or loyalty to all or more than one of these countries.

But when it comes to one's duty as a citizen, one country has to take first priority.  It may be to serve military service, or it may be to defend one's country in times of crisis - if the call comes from more than 1 at the same time, one can only be there for 1 country.

It does not matter whether you will, out of sense of fond memories or sense of justice, volunteer to help another country if there is such a need.

As a citizen of my chosen country, I count as fellow citizens only those who can be counted to be with my country during her time of need, not those who opt to be with another country of his dual-citizenship when both are in need at the same time.

If your priority is with the other country, then please by all means be a citizen of that country instead of being a citizen here.

It may be that Singapore is small and cannot afford to have citizenry who cannot be relied upon to put the country first over another country.

One of the many things I have against multi-national citizenship is that while a single-national citizen can be expected to vote for the best interests of his country, which country's best interests would a dual-national citizen vote for, especially when the 2 country's interests are in conflict?

Hypothetically, take a UK-US dual citizen : as an eligible voter, he could vote for UK's interests in UK, and as a US citizen, vote for UK's interests rather than US's interests.

Hypothetically, a citizen's vote is assumed to be what he believed to be in his country's best interests, even if his decision differs from a fellow's citizen.  The assumption is based on the fact that he will be there to experience the consequences, for better or worse, and he is ultimately in the same boat as other fellow citizens.

But he is a dual-citizen, he can vote against the interest of one country and enjoy the benefits as a citizen of the other country.

I believe there should only be 1 class of citizens (not 2 classes such as proposing dual-citizens do not have right to vote), and all the citizens must be theoretically be on the same boat.

People of the same boat may disagree, but they will share whatever fate befalls on the boat.

As for attracting or retaining talents, I believe the whole world is open to anyone who wants to travel anywhere.  Having that piece of citizenship paper does not restrict anyone from going anywhere.

If Singapore offers what a talent wants, the talent will be here regardless of whether he is a citizen.

I abhor mixing other incentives such as unemployment benefits for citizens, housing subsidies etc., when it comes to considering whether to give up a particular citizenship or taking up a particular citizenship.

Being a citizen of a country is not like taking up membership of a country club or signing up as a customer of a bank.  There are serious obligations as a citizens as much as benefits.

During my minority years, I lived in several different countries, and when I chose to take up Singapore citizenship as an adult, I did it because I wanted to, and I felt the country of my former nationality had done things wrong, alienating me from it.  I felt no desire to be a citizen of such a country, and while Singapore was not perfect, I felt affection for the country and have a strong sense of belonging here.

During the course of my career, I had seriously considered moving to work in another country, but I had never considered giving up my Singapore citizenship.

Should circumstances in the future made me change my mind to take up another country's citizenship, I will only do it by giving up this one.