Singaporeans can do better to question the status quo instead of following by the book.

That is the gist of a video that was released by a Singaporean CEO on his Facebook page questioning the complain culture that seems to permeate Singapore these days.

Raj Singh, founder and CEO of occupational safety and health service company Simply Safety, posted his confessional-style video Friday (Dec 14) which was shared a day later by Facebook page All Singapore Stuff.

In the video, Raj — who carries off a certain no-bullshit vibe that a similar-looking Gary Vaynerchuk has in his videos — encourages Singaporeans to question current norms in a culture that follows rules and guidelines set out by law.

“Singaporeans are daft and I say this with love, not of anger or hate… we’ve been beaten into a sense of “you have to follow the law,”” said Raj.

He added: “You have to break free from this mentality… I’m not asking you to break the law but you have to look around and do stuff.”

Although Raj emphasises that he wants Singaporeans to be law-abiding, he believes his countrymen “won’t take the initiative” in pursuing alternative paths unless an authority gives the OK.

“That leads to a society — you, your kids, the society in general — that will be like wooden blocks,” said Raj. “Your servant mentality comes out of it… and that’s sad.”

It is not very clear exactly what Raj is referring to but it seems to be a general rant targeted towards oft-heard stereotypes of Singapore’s law-abiding culture that allegedly fails to push the boundaries and is “stifling” to its citizens.

Raj brings up the example of some drivers making illegal U-turns, which sounds a little weird when he advocates for Singaporeans not to break the law, but he reasons this by pointing out how some people who do this reportedly have “no choice”.

He then brings up Singapore’s culture of complaining and criticizes the name-and-shame culture made by citizens who “take things too personally”.

“You feel restricted, and then you want to complain… that’s not the way,” he said. “Don’t name names, that’s what gets (the Singaporeans) in legal suits.”

This is not the first time Raj has been posting such confessional videos: he takes to his Facebook in similar videos with captions like “adults are so strange” and “does education make you dumb”.

It comes as no surprise then that he is also a professional speaker, but this time, let us ponder on how we are moving forward as a country from his words.

This article, Singaporeans are “daft” and need to challenge the status quo: CEO of occupational safety company rants on Facebook, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company. For more Coconuts stories, you can download our app, sign up for our newsletters, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.