When talking about Karl Marx, most people have the idea that he is the ‘founder’ of communism, and since communism has so often been demonised, it is perhaps not surprising that some people have a rather mistaken view of Marx. It is true that Marx is a proponent of the idea of communism, but the communist ideological developments that succeeded Marx were rather different from what Marx envisioned, particularly the development of communism in China.

Communism aside, what is more important about Marx is what underlies the concept of communism, i.e. the issue of class divide. According to Marx, human history is nothing but that of class struggles. In the Communist Manifesto, Marx famously wrote:

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

In medivial days, it was a struggle between the master and the slave. Then it became a struggle of the lord against the serf. Then, we have the bourgeoisie against the proletariat (aristocrat versus worker). According to Marx, if we examine every period in history, we are bound to see the same dialectic occur over and over again. The form may be different, but the substance is the same: a struggle between those who own the means of production and those who don’t.

It seems to me that no matter what kinds of social and political systems human beings come up with, we never manage to escape from the clutches of class struggle. The practice of capitalism makes class inevitable. Even in Singapore, despite the practice of what is called meritocracy, the issue of class struggle is still present. It’s just in a different form. In Singapore’s case, it’s the meritocratic elite versus the meritocratic non-elite.

It is true that in Singapore, one is unlikely to be denied basic life opportunities. Quality education is available for everyone, and there are many jobs to go around, especially in the recent years where the economy is doing well. However, if we examine the Singaporean society a little more carefully, the picture isn’t as rosy as it seems. We have on one end rich government officials and business owners, and on the other end, we have everyone else who are dependent on the government officials and business owners for their livelihood.

Do not be mistaken. I am not saying that it is a bad thing to have rich government officials or business owners. If they earned their riches honestly, it’s their due reward. What I’m trying to say is that at the end of the day, we see what Marx observed operating again. There’s a small group of people controlling most of the means of production. For those who claim that Singapore has a capitalist head and a socialist heart, they might want to seriously rethink their claim. Singapore is not in the least socialist. The class divide is clearly present.

The question now really is whether the class divide will lead to class conflict. Marx thinks so, and he believes that the “oppressed” will rise up in a revolution. Certainly, revolutions have occurred in Russia, China and some other countries. Will Singapore see a revolution? I suppose it all depends on how much longer the ruling party can maintain what Friedrich Engels called “false consciousness”. As long as Singaporeans are willing to continue buying into the ideology that has been perpetuated, all will be well. If not, the predictions of Marx might very well come true once again.