Commentary

ST Jan 30, 2005 - Worldly but wise

Business graduates who can toast with high society as well as break bread with the common man have a grasp on the real nature of globalisation
By Asad Latif

WHAT should one make of the revelation that students at the Singapore Management University (SMU) have to know how to peel prawns, with only their forks and knives, before they can graduate?

The test comes at the end of The Finishing Touch, a compulsory seven-week module that all SMU students have to take and pass.

The course, which aims to give them skills which they will need in the working world, covers topics such as personal grooming and dining etiquette.

These are not the only skills they are expected to have, of course. The Finishing Touch includes modules on career planning, resume writing, how to do well in an interview and effective networking.

But it is the prawn-peeling bit that is startling.

It has roused the ire of reader Daniel Koh Kah Soon. He minces no words.

'In real life, using a knife and fork to peel prawns may suit a small percentage of people who belong to a high society associated with a Western culture. In such a society, from which common people are excluded, different types of glasses are used for water, white wine, red wine and champagne, and a variety of cutlery is used for different courses during a meal,' he wrote to The Straits Times Forum Page.

'To be sure, some SMU graduates will be privileged enough to host or attend dinners where skills such as peeling prawns with the appropriate knife and fork are required, and different glasses are used for different drinks,' he adds.

'But my guess is that most Singaporeans, including SMU graduates, will not use a knife and fork to peel prawns during a meal. In our Asian context, it is more important to learn how to peel prawns with one's fingers without making a mess of it,' he declares.

That is quite an indictment.

So, is SMU equipping its students for the social skills they will need in real life, or is it being elitist and un-Asian?

I think that the charge of being un-Asian does not stick, especially in today's globalised world.
Knowing how to eat spaghetti and peeling prawns without using one's fingers are no more exclusively Western ways of eating than it is purely Asian to know how to use chopsticks and use one's fingers to break crispy prata without spreading the flakes across half the table.
Business etiquette is global because business is global.

Students of a management university, in particular, would benefit from being comfortable with the norms and practices of business, including social etiquette.

True, that etiquette includes being able to peel prawns with one's fingers without making a mess of the job. But, surely, this is something that Singaporeans at SMU would be expected to know anyway. And if they do not, it should feature on The Finishing Touch.

Then, is peeling prawns with fork and knife elitist because most Singaporeans do not do so?
It is difficult to accept this argument because, elitist though the practice might be, SMU's graduates are likely to mix in circles where such social skills are necessary, whether for business or for leisure.

But Mr Koh makes an important point that goes beyond prawns, forks and knives and, indeed, SMU.

To my mind, he is asking the intellectually talented in our society not to be carried away by the rarefied rituals that mark their entrance into the exclusive world of privilege and power.
They should remember that the rest of Singapore is not like them, and they should be able to relate to this larger Singapore.

I could not agree more.

Let me tell a story by way of illustration.

Some time before his death in 2002, the dramatist Kuo Pao Kun visited Kolkata in India, where I had been born and raised.

I beseeched him to take a trip to College Street, famous for its leftist scholars, second-hand bookshops and first-rate colleges, including the Medical College, Sanskrit College and my own Presidency College.

When he returned to Singapore, I asked him what he thought of College Street. He looked at me and smiled. The students there were extremely well-educated, but the poor youths selling them books did not appear to be well-educated at all, he remarked.

In one perceptive glance, the master-dramatist had captured the fractured economy of Kolkata's intellectual life.

Those who belong to the college streets of this world owe the booksellers, and hawkers, and taxi-drivers they live among the comradeship of recognition.

In my case, I was among those middle-class students who took public transport to college, occasionally travelling second-class on trams so that we could scold - in our superior, literary Bengali - sadistic conductors who ill-treated the mute poor who were forced to travel by that class.

We shut the conductors up with our superiority, and felt happy to be spokesmen for the travelling proletariat.

This was pseudo-socialism, of course, because the proletariat remained in the second class and we joined it only when we wanted to, but perhaps we made a small difference to their day by taking their side.

Anyway, such was the culture of Presidency that students with really rich fathers mostly hid the fact as an embarrassing family secret over which they had no control. The middle class ruled the roost.

Those days are gone, and this is another country.

But even here, cautionary thoughts are in order as the word 'class' makes its way back to the political lexicon in an age of globalisation which enriches nations but also threatens to widen disparities in them.

By all means, Singapore's students should know how to use forks and knives to peel prawns. But do spare a thought for others and their different ways.

That said, prawns are not worth a class war over the cutlery of the haves and the bare hands of the have-nots.

I believe in peace, in living and letting be.

For me, peeled prawns will do.

Send your comments to stlife@sph.com.sg

Well, what did this article do for me?

Is class a socially constructed concept? Why is this concept so dramatically manifested in our society? WHat class do we belong to?

I'm not sure what to make of my class; dunno where to put myself in... my parents had the basic of basic education; my dad was a blue-collared worker who recently started a business venture (well, áctually I'm not sure of what his work is, after 23 long years of living in the same 100 sq m2 of living space; but that's another story...), while my mom is a housewife who had worked in a production factory before she had my bro, then as a babay sitter and briefly for the Golden Arches. My relatives are mostly doing ok, though none are doctors, lawyers and the blah....

Actually, class consciousness was something that I truly realised and came to terms with only when I reached uni... before that, I had always thot that everyone had what s/he had precisely becos s/he worked hard for it, ala the true spirit of meritocracy. Guess the state propaganda was so efficient and effective to lead me to think that way. Well, I'm not saying that meritocracy did not exist; i believe it did, at least maybe for ppl before my generation (not that I'm old...)... somehow, the sense of elitism kicks in the moment tertiary education begins; suddenly, not everyone is equal anymore; some are more equal than others, some had a headstart that is virtually impossible to catch up, some are simply biologically inclined to be ahead of others. Sometimes, one wander if there is really such a thing as breaking out of your own class.

Indeed, I guess what we have been seeing is the proliferation of the upper-middle class, something which i guess is happening everywhere, not just in the tiny red dot.... in sociology and EU studies, one learns how the middle class tries to 'promote' to the upper class and yet at the same time, prevent the lower middle class and lower class from getting up. The point now then, is that room in the upper-middle class seems to be getting a lil too tight, to the point where the lower middle and lower class is beoming more aliented. That's where apathy comes in, with ppl from my generation and after getting a lot of stick for it. Sure, I agree that there are ppl who are simply oblivious to what is happening to other ppl who are not as privileged, but I guess that doesnt'speak for the fair lot who are not that ignorant.

What I wanna highlight is the dangers in the pursuit of perceived upper-class living, that these pitfalls may accelerate the metamorphosis of a segment of the population into an isolated elitist and apathetic segment. Its is not a sin to be born lucky/fortunate/with a headstart/with a silver spoon in your mouth; its how you appreciate your situation and environment and live with the awareness that poverty is still prevalent and may never be eradicated that would be useful in shaping a more considerate and conscious population.

Signing off............... If you cant tahan, treat it as crap: HAhahaha.............
RC