The New Paper Column: Face

If we Singaporeans do only one thing better than the rest of the world, it’s saving face. So we’ve had a really horrible year of negative international publicity, with the A*Star debacle, our Press Freedom Index ranking, and now accusations of treating Australia with contempt regarding Australian death-sentenced drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van. If we know anything about saving face, it’s that it means never having to admit that we’re wrong, even if we are (and I’m not saying that we are, necessarily), and never having to say sorry even if we do admit that a mistake has been made. Since we have done neither despite considerable pressure, I can say that we are indeed very good at saving face.

But I’m no longer sure that we save face better than everyone else.

Unlike Singapore, a person in America is more likely to get run over by a cyclist than a driver. Unlike Singapore, there is only one 7-11 in the whole of Manhattan. But like Singapore, Americans are just as good, if not better, at saving face.

Hands up if you are now the owner or soon-to-be owner of an Xbox 360. Okay, for those of you now being stared at by everyone around you, I have more bad news. Of the power cords sent out with the 360s, a fraction easily overheats, making the entire system crash. Barely fifteen minutes after the launch of the 360 in America, buyers started reporting a range of error messages (much like Microsoft PCs’ infamous Blue Screen of Death, only black). Microsoft spokeswoman Molly O’Donnell responded that the distress calls represent “a very, very small fraction”, and offered to replace damaged systems. The official stand is that “with any launch of this magnitude, you are bound to see something happening”. All well and good – except that in March this year, Microsoft recalled 14 million Xbox power cords. Coincidence?

Of course, Microsoft’s mini-maybe-disaster is nothing compared to the cases of Apple and the American arm of Sony Electronics. Just days after the Ipod Nano’s launch in September, disgruntled consumers reported that the Nano’s screen scratches “insanely easily”. Despite initially denying, denying, and denying (head of Apple’s Ipod division Jon Rubenstein said that perhaps buyers should not “keep it in a pocket with your keys”), Apple was forced, five days and thousands of complaints later, to admit that “less than one-tenth of one percent” (sound familiar?) was shipped faulty. Even today, there has been no further admission, or apology, despite an ongoing lawsuit brought by consumers from the US, the UK, and Mexico.

As for Sony Electronics, well, where to begin? At least 52 Sony BMG titles have been identified so far as containing the vicious rootkit program, a copy-protection program that unfortunately invites hackers and viruses. But instead of issuing an apology in the first week of November, when the problem was identified, Sony issued two weeks later a software patch that created even worse problems for the computers. Only on 18 November did Sony issue an official apology – an apology that contained a lot of technical jargon, an exchange program, but not the simple word ‘sorry’, or even the phrase ‘we were wrong’.

Of course, it might seem petty to quibble about Microsoft, Apple, or Sony’s face-saving. After all, you might say, no one got physically hurt, or even killed. But think about the soldiers in Iraq who are dying because an American president won’t admit he is wrong. Think about Singapore’s reputation, which has been battered in international papers this year, with some blows not entirely undeserved. Sorry seems to be the hardest word, yes, but sometimes saving face means knowing when to say it.