in half a decade Singapore achieved dizzying heights of success we're one of the wealthiest countries in the world and a high-tech powerhouse our rags to riches story is unparalleled but recently the attention has turned to our rags and riches stories I'm John Apothecary chairman of the national body to promote harmony here in Singapore called one people god SG over the past two years I've confronted the controversial issues of race and religion but I've come to realize that those are not our biggest fault lines today it is the divide between the haves and the have-nots that is creating the most tension in the most expensive things yeah the most popular so let it get cold children are starting to have different accessories our sofa I'll be speaking to people who face this divide every day I don't have meaningful friendships with people from the other side therefore de Fiori and be confronted with some uncomfortable realities most of the people in my questions live look down on us anything that we are quite stupid is this conversation uncomfortable Tina Cesar we're always told that Singapore is a city of opportunity we can make it so long as we work hard I want to know if people still believe this is true if more handouts is not the answer than what is do you think that education is effective at social leveling today this is gonna be an explosive issue because it challenges some of the values that we hold so firmly and daily values like fairness like a quality and meritocracy we're a nation with a founding ideal but there'll be no such thing as a second-class citizen but today have we lived up to that standard for every single boring [Music] 8 a.m. and I'm off to meet someone standing at the edge of the class Devon Walmart rookery is the security guard at this luxury condominium how do people treat you as a security guard defense depends on which students at the we see this kind of hush things are useless and stupid ah sometimes even mental barrier is not hopefully there's something here oh and then you see useless security and then so when you first started how did you feel about this I was a bit short well how come they treat us this way but after a while I go sighs to sites and everything after she show me where everywhere some sort of seem so I get used to that when that kind of thing happened to me then I can just bend my anger or anyway so I just keep it to myself but what you stand on them I think I would say yeah it's like DLA no I say they're treating us Oh like not human but by a chilly day I like 15 people I state that security guards are one of the lowest paid professions in Singapore the cost of one square foot in this condominium his sugar ease entire month's salary shukri story is not new I hear them all the time in my work as an MP from waiters security guards cleaners salespeople they tell me about a deepening class divide I asked some of the people I met to write down their stories and I want to find a way to get other people to hear their stories - how often are we guilty of creating an us-versus-them we got some stories here real stories from real people pick one and read it I have been lying to you say that my mom is a busy business woman the truth is I'm afraid to let you know that my mom works as a beer aunty I grew up hearing nasty things said about her you came from an upper-class society even know about my mother I know I am invisible I have to get used to this and learn to stop caring I feel upset to be treated with contempt as if you look down on me VI so old and useless already I just sweep the floor and then you rubbish from the top of the block then after that residence complain the blame is always on me a stick cleaner son of a beer aunty a car collector buy a McDonald's kina oh well okay Wow okay there is something well what's the what is the OL waffle because it comes to a stickiness I don't really see them much especially so I do expect let me under if we shade it what do you think when you see them like they can't like oh it is so hard to see this to see I mean there was a people at us it's just that if they're destined to be cleaners we use our eyes as if we are apart they go about doing their own work I go about living mind my mask I feel sad words like I just got deliveries down I mean after all she's my mom now so I can really do watch ah so you think you've ever looked at someone that way of course I definitely have many times when I was young but when my dad took those jobs and I sat in the delivery truck for the first time with him I cry because my gosh my dad is one of these people that I used to look down as equal now my dad is that that's that's why I said how does that make you feel I mean upon reflection I think sometimes I myself don't always acknowledge the cleaners around me the people who clean our streets to be working our tables yeah I've learned that it's the little things that cause a sense of separation a look or a throwaway comment and it's the social cues that slowly widen the divide in the last year class divided became a buzz phrase [Music] research reveals the gap is more pronounced than ever and it's dominating many of our national discussions [Music] I'm going to meet with columnist drama whom I want to know if the average Singaporean cares about the class Devine we whom compiled all her articles on income inequality and class divided into a book Singapore disrupted why should we all care about this so much of this thing apply identity has been built on the idea that you know we can all have a fair call that you can do well in life regardless of your family connections your well who you know and so on but you want to preserve that going forward of course not just preserve but you know and trench it you know enhance it yeah so it becomes a problem if we are increasingly having a society where people who are really privileged and with access the resources are able to pass on those advantages with their children what does a divided Singapore look like very unhappy one full of resentment you know full of envy full of talk about the divide between the the best and the rest full of criticisms or you know of the Alita so on totally sexual politics you know the Athena society could become quite on carbon alone now is it over here I I would have to throw the question back at you because you are a policymaker right a nun governor bull Singapore that's a disturbing thought how extensive is this class divided I want more data on this issue so I worked with Channel NewsAsia to Commission one of the largest surveys on this divisive topic we have here a whole lot of data representing two months of fieldwork and some of the results are quite unsettling well what we're seeing here is that if you compare between race religion sexual orientation nationality and class class methyls almost half of the respondents feel that income inequality is most likely to cause a social divide in Singapore and it's a huge gap between this and the rest of the options people think about this you know Security's low class job they see your security earlier sometimes feel like a llama this stuff this this show why people look like very downright for his work [Music] when I work as a accountant I was treated professionally but when I do part-time jobs things were very very different being a banker with us I was not even like treated properly as a human being [Music] most researchers define class by income housing type and education what about the rest of us my name is who's easily I'm 29 years all I am a content creator online to me I'm a lab analyst also just graduated from University Adrienne along I was a money broker my name is Ching hai and I'm fiscally I'll be like identifying Singaporeans Josh the social class its Lomita in high right we will expect certain behavior from the way we brought up over here I set up a little social experiment oh hi good to see you to see how people decipher which social class a stranger belongs to nice shoes okay idea you prefer yeah okay okay middle class I'm just gonna be safe I never put anyone that's low whoa okay I do you mind if I see you like whatever Wow okay you come from me - hi guarantee if this is the Singapore Math right are you on the coastal side or are you in the middle of Singapore Northwest so you treat like fish nice boots these are boots how many minutes of commute does it take for you to get to work for a visa we shall car okay which you like going you can go poking hello because a Boeing is not ready expensive please where you go in your free time this accident is it from your lifestyle of watching Americanized content or is it from you traveling abroad I lived in America for like five news I'm gonna put this girl hi there you go yeah one two three four five out of how many people do we have seriously a right oh seven okay okay you tell Milo in Congo no why did they see don't they they see I'll be live I say no right if I'm being honest my subconscious mind do immediately box people up how are you behaving and they were strictly this our human nature that's true we do classify you as you are with Mitch glass but at the same time I think I do that out of interest like okay that means this person and I we can have the share interest well did I get wrong you what are your hobbies where do you shop what are your favorite brands where do you travel to questions our participants asked to determine a person's social class is that reflective of the rest of us [Music] so this is website called Quora calm how it works is that you input a question and members of the public can contribute their replies and I thought I would look up how I would determine my socio-economic class in Singapore and it looks like someone has already asked the same question there's a few replies some have suggested your income or your property and others have thought about your occupation or your education or your state of mind that somehow your confidence your social etiquette and how brand obsessed you are can also contribute to your socio-economic status your perception of social class here in Singapore [Music] we can make class markers out of anything how someone speaks or dresses and it may be wildly off the mark yet we can't help labeling people and often along with the label comes the stereotype the stereotypes between classes are so common that recently a social science guidebook even codified them into text this would cause such an uproar that it got pulled off the shelves but I've managed to find a secondhand copy here this book says that using Singlish playing soccer at the HTTP void deck and eating at Hocus enters are markers of a lower socioeconomic status when this first went viral online I was shocked too but I can't help but wonder if it reflects what people are secretly thinking in the siene survey we asked what people really think of others from different social classes of society they were given over 20 characteristics to choose from simply in terms of perception Singaporeans have of the upper class the top three are able to speak good English almost everyone check that box tend to plan ahead and domineering as for the perceptions of the lower class most people thought they were friendly caring but tend to speaks English but what was more interesting were the differences between how people saw the upper classes versus the lower classes arrogant that was the biggest gap people also thought that someone from the upper classes was more likely to plan ahead and be luckier than someone from the lower class the survey reveals that we think differently of people depending on their social class but how did these inherent biases come about I decide to bring together people from different ends of the class divided for a conversation on my right on my left I'm going to be reading out some statements [Music] I I don't have meaningful friendships with people from the other side step forward if you agree it's not that I'd want to make friends I try to make friends but they from the way I dress I mean like well I wear something like that they'd be like well very low-class they say this time yes they do say this you from where what's your education ever so kind of like why are you asking me that kind of question it's not the way it's supposed to be I could switch so that I can speak to the other side we are the one the middle class and the lower class people have to sometimes react or change ourself in order to blend with them so we have to act is always uncomfortable for you to be very uncomfortable because it's not you you have to be somebody else in order to to be has it to be with yeah yeah the group itself so when you are finally just yourself do you feel excluded definitely definitely I guess I mean you see other people we might might feel that oh we have a stereotype in mind and you know something we so we might speak a certain way but but that really doesn't mean that I think he's up a different class that I think that you know she's lesser than me or he's more than me I think the other side judges me for which side I'm on yeah if people know for example that I grew up with a made at home I think they judge me as being incompetent I don't know how to take care of anything at home myself yeah I guess sometimes people think that you know you've got it easy the thought that I don't have that means I I don't have that power the money power the judge sure totally really really you know really condemn you I would spend a day on the other side yeah it's not like going somewhere dangerous or oh like our life we do have obviously we go for the interest and I just put those homeless people are you willing to go to the streets just all go to the beach just sleeping down there alone you know we've like no food maybe like you got inside your pocket maybe like five bucks so how are you gonna survive that have you been in such a situation before I've been yeah so forth please but I made you survive and Here I am for both sides this is the first time they are having a conversation about the class divide with someone from outside their social class the wealth of our country is easy to see you get clean streets orderliness skyscrapers not a beggar in sight the personal distribution of wealth may not be so visible until you look just a bit closer here on one side of the river a luxurious condominiums and expensive restaurants the most luxurious homes can go beyond two thousand US dollars per square foot just one bridge away is a vastly different seat [Music] this is where the poorest people in Singapore live one room rental flats that cost less than 20 US dollars a month geographically the rich and the poor don't live very far apart at all in fact the government has plans to bring them even closer these new blocks will be called integrated blocks comprising rental and sold units in the same area to encourage social mixing I'm here in neighborhood today Jimmy dr. Liang Channel because he thinks it's not a good idea when you bring them together there will be tensions because the the needs the parties the values are different so how do you ensure that bringing them together but able to mitigate or address some of the potential frictions on the grow I think that would be the challenge how do you deal with the potential complications of mixed housing I think it's important to recognize that contact alone may not necessarily produce the desired outcome or is important to ensure that the conditions of the contact is acceptable to everybody what do you mean by conditions of contact so in other words you have to ensure that nobody feels intimidated nobody feels that we're being slighted you know because they are engaging with someone of a different level or different Saders classism that means a prejudice against someone who is from a different social class shared spaces won't work if classism prevails so what I want to know is when we start becoming class conscious my producers asked me to come here today they say they have something to show me hello what's happening we have interviewed 9 to 11 year-olds and I want you to watch this ok they like the those stationary that have they just admire my stuff and they take it asking for it how much Jeremy or their friends just don't care how much money they give their kids because it makes me sad I am selfish and I like this money if you have the most expensive things you're the most popular so sneaker pencil case Mingo bet what there was no cost they're quite expensive they're just very nice-looking you can show them off when I was a kid playground politics was about who was faster stronger or better a football but now it's more about pocket money and pencil boxes and other things that reflect how rich or poor you are I think makes people more people how come you're rich so they don't really know what it's like to be poor these business about how the pokemons take a [ __ ] they don't create them but they don't see any things just like yeah I've been said these were people say nice things like go get a job and soften them my father has become have to be a dentist or doctor cuz he says we've been a mannequin jet boat and about who goes my father Eugene tells me that I have to like what harder in my exams in my studies or ask our our becoming one who is like those like garbage truck those are the curvature in those Tina's on streets if we don't side yet we don't have money and beer it as I know back then what do you think of the poor people are they they may be good socially but maybe they don't have the skills to cope a job the interesting thing is that all the kids regardless of whether they were rich or poor felt that the key to success was hard work while the children believe in this I want to know if the rest of us really do my daughter guess she said to me she carries a lot of pocket money even some of the girls they look because she's reached each she doesn't want to mix wrong with her she will be affected so she will come back and enough to search [Music] when they see that I Drive p.m. nobility actually meet comments like wow you're so young and you are already driving BMP you are very successful you know sometimes it's a Foss run it makes me feel a little bit empty and desert of all this [Music] I've served in the education ministry for two years and in those years I visited all kinds of schools I've conducted dialogues with hundreds of students teachers and principals but this time I'm doing things slightly differently I've invited students aged 15 to 17 from different schools and different educational tracks to come together for an honest face to face how would you describe the expectations that the parents have of you I am the humanities so for a period of time my mom was quite adamant about me pursuing law they expect me doing just like us very high weight so at least and all my subject it to be more they don't really have much expectations on me right they were just go to the floor what are the expectations you place upon yourself at uni I want to study um either political science or maybe law and after that I want to pursue maybe a career in the Foreign Affairs may be studying ID and get a certificate in getting me job I hope that I can at least get into NUS but if I find myself having the opportunity to go overseas I would definitely take that my petition is just to pass on my subject because I've been feeling since everyone for the things that I'm good at minimally is for all of them and a tool but an e-2 would be considered disappointing I guess because I expect myself to get at least anyone it's probably obvious by this point which educational track each child is in beyond the expectations I want to know how much they interact with students from a different stream hang out with people there from excess in my school because most of the people in my experience and they looked down on us and the thing that we are quite stupid so the so so them talk to us as well the kind of activities that like my school may exposed to me outside of school generally tend to be quite populated by the hire extra streams are like IP streams rather than like lower streams like any and team but so for example for me to make friends with people from any and and T or like normal like neighborhood schools requires a lot more effort from me how about yourself because for my school like the space right tend to see themself like very good directory stated in the school so the tenuous years like we are nothing today the behavior did you just ignore us is it just because they are an expression your aunty or something else or even it allows us we don't beef this image them like yeah very quite a need in school not as like we usually create chaos yeah that is good you should just say like you are from Norma ketamine you are stupid she said that I mean I just inputs that one and so we I start to become very quiet in squares right I don't really like to talk do you try to make friends what do you think it's not what they don't know interest or what some some misplaced yeah I try easily topic me like interact from a bit but an sometimes I you know because you really spit and really defend their English like what kind of behavior do they show that makes you angry rule the ice us sometimes sure if we just put all of you all in the same class do you think that would look helped I don't if they are willing to teach I have us yeah you know I wish Lou yeah I didn't I get it you won't teach me or mixed class suggestion may not be very viable and comes off like closing the gap it might even increase the gap if these students feel like they can't cope so they just give up completely is this conversation uncomfortable either because really classing yeah I was feeling awkward and embarrassed and maybe maybe I had engineered a situation to highlight the differences between the kids I feeling a bit bad about that but I think the reality is that's what they face every day we want to remove ourselves from situations where we feel embarrassed or awkward and maybe that's one of the reasons why it's so difficult for kids of different backgrounds to interact regularly all the time and develop deep friendships every Chinese New Year my mother will make me high all my school books and homework under the bed because she's doing our relatives to see the work normal on the book covers unless you sum all of them say that I'm from Express this is an excerpt from a play called normal it tells a story of two normal academic stream students you see that you're Ashley and Daphne had to battle negative stereotypes the play caused quite a buzz when debuted in 2015 I didn't manage to catch it then so I thought I would meet the playwright faith owned to find out what she had gone through that inspired the sold-out play she was herself from the normal stream how did your family's circumstances affect what was happening to you I think the clearest memory I have is my parents having conversations about finances and things being quite heated and these conversations were continued until 5 a.m. in the morning and I wouldn't sleep at all we will be late for school and then we were getting trouble with the prefect and the discipline mistrust and then we wouldn't have the energy to focus in class and also emotionally our head would be somewhere else worrying about our parents worrying about the family I guess to the teachers people look like we were daydreaming or just not paying attention in class yeah and will you frankly I was not paying attention in class you weren't very motivated I wasn't I had a very poor self-esteem why the things that the teachers were saying I guess as far as the things that we were telling each other just because we came from normal so that he just would say things like even though we are from normal and that even though already what would imply a lot so you can't deduce that it means you're not as good as everybody else how long did it take you to then get out of this situation is low self-esteem it took a really long time and every stage I had this very strong imposter syndrome like I didn't actually quite belong and whatever success I had I was lucky Faith's studied hard and did well enough to enter junior college while it took her more than a decade to get over the stigma she went on to get a masters degree she's now a part-time university lecturer it's been one sobering story after another but faiths story gives me some hope because her story isn't just one of class bias it's also one of social mobility and that's what we try very hard to give to all Singaporeans the opportunity to rise above their circumstance I've always believed in this country it's your ability not your connections that's important but clearly not everyone feels the same way Channel NewsAsia did a survey on the extent of the country's class divide when asked what it would take to get rich people from the lower class suggested that knowing the right people was the third most important reason above this was education and most importantly hard work in contrast when people from the upper class were asked how to get rich they suggested that hard work was the third most important reason above this was ability and the most important reason of all was knowing the right people education didn't factor into their top three reasons at all when it comes to social mobility only half for people from the lower class are confident that their next generations financial situation will improve [Music] why do people feel this way his education still creating a level playing field Samuel Chun teaches at Anglican high a school many would deem as a branded school very good okay anyone else wants to add to this list of traits but he also volunteers at a nonprofit organization called readable where he teaches low-income students for free as a perception that the kids in the top secondary schools all come from certain primary schools you think that's true well the education system we don't stream for affluence we don't say oh you know our criteria is you have to be above us or an income bracket to get into a school what we do is dream for is academic ability what I think we see is that there are some primary schools where kids perhaps have higher scores for a variety of reasons why is it that certain primary schools just consistently do well then I guess there's a combination of factors going on because of public perceptions you know a certain school is a better school certain parents aggregate towards that school I think family it has a big part to play on because of the parents background they give me our children the familial the cultural the financial resources to really give them a head start so I do think that we're seeing a gap in achievement for different students so there's a perception about the effectiveness of education as a social level today compared to the past what do you say to that this question is can I'm addressing something very real which is the felt sense that society is more unequal but if anything I think education is kind of a symptom of that rather than a cause there's this perception that athlete children have more of a head start but in terms of where their education can still function as a social worker yeah I think so I think very much so there's a stigma associated with streaming do you think that's right the rationale for streaming wasn't we're gonna choose the best and train only the best but rationale was every single student has different learning needs and from one perspective streaming has been hugely successful because if you look at dropout rates now the rate the number of people who complete 10 years of general education I think it's something like 99% that's huge education is working as a social level but I am disturbed that it's also seen as a class label will we ever be able to overcome this bias study not so high before easily well you don't I feel really upset and set up [Music] so this arsenic will chain company Oh teens analogy Suzumiya - phenomena to the Jetta yo TN something young Harmon can be worn [Music] there are 60,000 rental flat units in Singapore the families living here earn less than $1,500 a month life is often a struggle in Singapore the government has significantly increased financial aid to the needy and yet there remains a segment of the population trapped in poverty as a politician I often grapple with this question what would it take to lift these families up if more handouts is not the answer than what is hello hey Sofia how are you maybe city Sofia who spent the last 15 years living in this rental unit can tell me married twice this divorcee now raises four children on her own I want to ask her all the things about poverty that most people don't dare to Sofia how did you end up in this financial situation my second child was diagnosed with hi v-- station of asthma so my money my financial wow it's totally very difficult for me to cope so at that point I couldn't work because I mean which employ I wanted to employ somebody who always technique because my son will be emitted like in a week three days he he will be in hospital when you go and renew your financial assistance how difficult is that they will ask me what is your plan ma'am are you planning to go out to work if I want to go out to work I need somebody to tend to my children where'd you get the money for things like phones and TVs okay like the phones my children can you hurry why are money they keep they accumulate then they buy TV TV this TV was donated from Salvation Army so I bought it about $30 quite go back in for the people in you know what about your expectations for your kids what's happening in their education I actually expect the my children to be like me in all my kidding me level you see but my children was in normal technical both my other boys yeah that part I do feel a bit sella that's hitch ah you say you would know your spending know already sophia has been receiving financial assistance for years but she's still stuck in a rental flat that's not how it's meant to work [Music] I decide to pay a visit to Cindy she's head of a family service center and how come a social worker for decades I'm hoping she can tell me what needs to be done for people like Sophia [Music] so why is it that there are families that after years of intervention are still stuck in the social situation accessing resources just one and because it happens at birth and within sharing becomes worse the gap becomes wider the other factors would be really complicated sociological factors such as don't intergenerational abuse and poverty because poverty has a way of creating chronic stress in the body system with years and years of chronic stress it is an unhealed how sometimes to help them needs to stabilize and the Bible that she utilized some of the resources that are available so you're suggesting that access to resources is one and then the ability to use the resources another factor that's right what do you think needs to be done to bridge the gap for the education and early support for children who are in low-income families and not tie the excess of resources for children to their parents marital status while socioeconomic status or even in what state this what about the balance between the parental responsibilities and social responsibility isn't isn't that less important I think we want to look at the owner ability of the children because if they are dependent on their parents then if we want them to get a good start in life then it will be quite unfair for the children's outcome life outcomes to be dependent on whether dependents of 90 days of a man is right now most people either swing the swing both ways I want to say anything that you know the poor are poor because they are lazy unmotivated you just can't make good decisions on you string all together so I think you know it's all structural you know the poor has no responsibility either side really paints a very poor picture of how probably so what is the right picture which is somewhere in between there we recognize structural factors that maintains poverty then we also understand it the point of cost have the potential to inspire and x-file to us towards better life I'm not convinced that long-term government handouts is the solution I went in search of those trying to make a ground-up difference and it led me to a cup of coffee only 21 Evelyn makes a delicious and beautiful cup of coffee I can hardly tell she's only being at the job for a month how long did it take you to master this one to two weeks just one to two weeks so it was your first attempt as bad as mine no [Laughter] once upon a time people thought Evelyn was good for nothing after all she dropped out of school at secondary three ran away from home and got into trouble with the law what is it that turned everything around me I went for emotional training she taught me how to overcome my anger be more confident be more happy the only other people fight you so ten years from now what do you see in your future maybe become a lady boss yeah are people surprised when you tell them this kind of dream and ambitions probably I told my mom and she was like shocked what because in a pass I'm not that good actually I have no confidence in myself [Music] Pamela Cheung has helped scores of women like Evelyn she made a mid-career switch seven years ago to start better Forrester her vision to provide marginalized women with an employable skill what's your vision for the business going forward I think for us it's creating a culture and a mindset of trying to be able to help people to move up along the value chain in a kind empathetic way but yet not compromising on standards in quality to me there are two main segments right that's the home and family environment and then it's the work environment so there is little we can do about the home environment right but in the work environment I think businesses can do a lot to say rethink how we're working are you worried that this is very small-scale you're only impacting a small number of people through your approach I think the approach that we're taking here is really looking at the depth of the impacts and the longevity of the impacts so if we can change one person's life and they go around and change their children's lives their family's lives and then their community's lives then you can start to amplify the impact in the way so what you're doing is commendable but what's the incentive for everyone else to get on board not easy to do no absolutely not I think they said it is the future what future do you want to create for yourself it's only human to seek out people who are like us to find our tribe but I worry that our survey reveals divisions in our society people from the higher classes are much more likely to participate in society for example by volunteering in labor unions sports clubs into professional associations and non-governmental organizations or engaging in arts and cultural activities as compared to people from the lower classes and it probably explains the next set of results 70% of the higher classes feel a strong sense of belonging as compared to 46% of the lower classes and 76% of the higher classes feel proud to be Singaporean as compared to 50% of the lower classes and this is the gap that really matters to me the rich feel connected to Singapore and the poor do not June 2018 we celebrated Singapore's National Day here just two months back on that day while everyone appeared to be bursting with pride in reality your class affects how you feel about the country in 1965 we were worried that race language or religion would be our greatest fault lines in 2018 its class and I realized this class gap is really an inclusion gap tackling this divide is central to what makes a singaporean that no one should consider themselves a second-class citizen [Music] [Music]