Handling change has always been a part of the Singaporean DNA

By Devadas Krishnadas, Published TODAY, 4 Feb 2014

Due to population changes, Singapore society has experienced a high frequency of change over the past decade. It has had to cope with becoming more crowded, more diverse and more competitive.

The unease over the 2013 White Paper on population was a measure of the deep anxiety that Singaporeans feel about their present and their future. These concerns — together with public issues including urban flooding, corruption cases involving public servants and rules over social media — have provoked anger, disappointment and self-doubt among the citizenry.

Where do these concerns leave us as we get closer to our 50th year of independence? How can we determine what the strategic issues are, amid a myriad tactical considerations?

There are two strategic questions that challenge Singaporeans today and that will continue to occupy our hearts and minds for some time. The answers to these questions — which I deal with in a two-part essay — will not only inform the direction of future policy but also the nature of future polity.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE SINGAPOREAN?

The first question is: Who are we?

During the furore over the White Paper, the term “Singaporean Core” arose and statistics were presented to show how that “core” was being “diluted”. The numbers certainly look alarming. By 2030, only one in two in the population would have been born in Singapore. At face value, it is understandable why this would cause some to despair that the country is becoming unrecognisable.

However, the simple truth is that Singapore has been unrecognisable to each generation as it hands over to the next.

Let us take the last 80 years. The Great Depression in the 1930s destroyed jobs and damaged much of the local economy, causing many to move up and down the Malayan Peninsula to look for work or to return to their homelands.

The World War II of the early 1940s saw the occupation of our country. Tens of thousands lost their lives. Despair was known to many and deprivation to all. After 1945, we had to reconstitute not only the economy but also, in many cases, families, lives, careers and hopes.

In the 1950s, we confronted terrorism and civil unrest which disrupted the island from within. In the 1960s, we were released from colonisation, joined the Malayan Federation and then were thrust into independence. This not only broke a 150-year historical thread of association with Great Britain, but also broke us off from a far-longer identification with the Malaysian peninsular.

In the 1970s and 80s, we underwent rapid industrialisation and urbanisation. The country was physically refashioned. In the 1990s, we felt strong enough to welcome thousands from Hong Kong who were anxious about reunification. It could be said that this was the first modern population augmentation phase.

And just as we became confident with what we had achieved, we were hit by the Asian Financial Crisis.

THE TEST-TUBE REALITY

So, when have we stood still? When have we not been transforming?

Even if, technically, we were forming a “core” because of the circumstance of a shared history among those born and bred here, we were always becoming different as people with each generation. Thus, it is a myth that “Singaporean-ness” is under threat from change.

In fact, change is Singaporean and the real threat is, as it has always been, the danger of staying still in the face of new challenges and circumstances.

We need to adjust our mindsets and decide how we wish to view change. We can feel bad about it and become conflicted and disgruntled — or we can view it positively and embrace it, even with its inevitable friction and discomfort.

In other words, what we think and how we decide to feel about change is more determinative than the fact of change itself. We are, and will always be, a test-tube country where we have to be practical to survive and take risks with social, economic and political experiments to thrive in every age.

SURVIVORS AND STRIVERS

The answer to the question of what it means to be Singaporean must, I think, be two-fold.

The first is that Singaporeans must be survivors. We do not look at the odds against us and give up. We did not do so in 1965, nor is there reason for us to do so now.

We are healthier, smarter, wealthier and more secure than we have ever been. We can and should face our challenges, internal and external, head on and work through them on a best-effort basis. We cannot fail to succeed if we do not give up on ourselves.

And the surest way to give up is to give in to internal dissension, indulge in mutual distrust, revel in xenophobia and take perverse pride in cynicism. It is each Singaporean’s responsibility not to take this path but to opt for the harder road of optimism, trust-building, welcoming of new entrants and relentless effort to improve themselves and their fellow citizens.

The second point is that Singaporeans must be strivers. We must be willing to continually remake ourselves. We adapt to changes and face the future with optimism and grit to overcome challenges and achieve our goals.

When Darwin produced the axiom “survival of the fittest”, he was not referring to raw strength but to the capacity to adapt to changing circumstances. Adaptation is not easy, but it is made much harder when we take the counsel of our fears and when we reduce our behaviour to the lowest common denominator.

If we are not survivors and strivers, then, in time, we will be overwhelmed by our problems and differences. But if we are survivors and strivers, then we will always be bigger than them.

Devadas Krishnadas is Managing Director of Future-Moves, a strategic risk consultancy. This commentary is adapted from a chapter in his new book, Sensing Singapore: Reflections in a Time of Change.

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