Mr Wong also articulated three corresponding responses: redoubling investments in skills and human capital, bolstering retirement security, and investing in quality jobs to make every profession and pathway viable and rewarding.
These aims are not new, but what struck me, both from the speech and the dialogue that followed, was the opportunity we have to transform society by making work better.
Given the centrality of work to Singapore’s social compact, improvements to the world of work hold the promise of building a happier, healthier and more cohesive society.
Realising this vision, however, will not be straightforward. It will take significant investments in time and finances, mindset shifts as well as partnerships across the whole of society to get us there.
Building a world-class skills, training and job placement ecosystem
The first response – stepping up human capital investment – entails strengthening the skills and training ecosystem, improving adult learning and creating pathways to better jobs. It is easy to train workers, but much harder to translate training into higher productivity, better jobs and improved pay.
Few countries have managed to build a well-oiled, comprehensive system of adult learning and placement. So if Singapore succeeds in this endeavour, it would be a notable accomplishment with significant benefits to our economy and society.
Achieving this will not be an easy task. Beyond the careful curation of training programmes to meet current and future skills demand, there is also the need to match workers to programmes and jobs that best align with their aptitude and inclination.
For those in employment, it may be a challenge to find the time to invest in training amid the demands of work and family. Without the assurance of better pay and prospects, few would commit time and effort to acquire new skills.
Company-led training is therefore critical, but cannot be the sole route of skills upgrading. After all, firms may under-invest in transferable skills that make employees more marketable elsewhere. Worker-initiated training meanwhile can open the door to new jobs and opportunities. For instance, some have taken up graduate diploma or professional certificate courses to equip themselves for a change of career.
Good governance key to helping Singapore reinvent and stay relevant in post-COVID-19 world: Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung
By Tham Yuen-C, Senior Political Correspondent, The Straits Times, 13 Jan 2022
The great task for a city like Singapore in a post-Covid-19 world is to keep reinventing itself to stay relevant and competitive, said Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung, who spoke on the topic of cities at a forum on Thursday (Jan 13).
Within the confines of Singapore's 730 sq km is a city and also a country, and people have no option to choose between a freewheeling urban economic centre and a quiet life in the suburbs, he added.
Running an effective state and getting the politics right are thus key to ensuring that the small island of Singapore can accommodate all the different aspirations of its five million people, he said.
"Rather than endless bickering and stalemates, the political process must be constructive and help bridge divides. The objective of politics must be to help the country find a way forward even if the decisions involve very difficult trade-offs," he added.
"This is especially important to Singapore. For what we lack in resources and strategic mass, we can make up with nimbleness and unity of purpose and action. We may be small, but we can be fast and we do things together."
Like New York City, Singapore is a modern-day metropolis as well as a global economic node that needs to be connected to the world to thrive, he said.
That is why Singapore has to be like a smartphone that runs a good operating system and hosts all the apps essential to life, "so that it is not easy, though not impossible, to switch out of Singapore", he added.
This has required constant reinvention, with Singapore leveraging its geographical location to build a trading hub, then growing strategic industries from manufacturing to biomedical sciences, and now becoming a centre for green finance, he said.
Through the pandemic, Singapore has also positioned itself as a hub for vaccine manufacturing and distribution, and should seize the opportunity to rethink how it can do things better and smarter, he added.
Describing the pandemic as a large "reset button", he said Singapore should build on the changes that Covid-19 has forced upon work, retail, education and healthcare to transform itself.
For instance, even after the health crisis, a combination of working from home and from the office will allow people to better juggle their professional and private lives, and also allow cities to alleviate the peak-hour rush that has dictated the planning and development of transport infrastructure for so long, he suggested.
The minister, who co-chairs the multi-ministry task force on Covid-19 along with Finance Minister Lawrence Wong and Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong, said coping with the pandemic has tested Singapore's mettle as a city.
He added that personal responsibility and civic consciousness have been key in helping the country ride each infection wave.
"We have to trust that people will do the right thing in testing themselves and isolating themselves if they test positive," he said.
"While these have been done out of necessity, I believe it has helped us grow as a people. I hope it is the start of a societal attitude that is more forgiving of imperfections, embracing setbacks and failures, appreciating resilience, ruggedness, enterprise and even being unconventional."
As a small city-state, Singapore is also like the imperial city of Chang An, now known as Xi'an, in China, said Mr Ong, where the government must defend the city and maintain law and order to run an effective state.
To this end, Singapore's founding generation has build up a good government with "an executive branch that is effective and can get things done, a non-politicised civil service, and a judicial system that upholds the rule of law without fear or favour", he said.
There are also democratic institutions such as the Parliament, formed through free and fair elections, he added.
Affairs of the state cannot run away from politics, which can both put the fate of the country in the hands of the people and keep powers in check when done right, but polarise the population and destabilise societies when allowed to go wrong, said Mr Ong.
Getting this right is especially crucial for Singapore, which needs unity of purpose to thrive as a small, open country, he noted.
That is why a strong state is necessary to grapple with inequality, protectionism and climate change, the starkest political issues faced by societies today, he added.
Policies need to be consistent in the long term to make an impact, instead of being reoriented with frequent changes of governments. At the same time, there must be discourse to hear and consider diverse views, and proper checks and balances, he said.
"The success of Singapore state depends on our ability to achieve both aims," he added.
Like the ancient city of Jericho, one of the oldest human settlements that was born when hunter-gatherers gathered to cultivate crops in an area with the right conditions, Singapore is also the result of people coming together to forge a common fate and destiny, said Mr Ong.
As "members of a close-knit tribe", there was "a recognition that by working together and making sacrifices for one another, we have a better shot at a brighter future", he added.
But unlike the inhabitants of Jericho who are a natural tribe of similar origins, Singaporeans are far more diverse. This makes Singapore far more complex than any ancient city, said Mr Ong, noting that a sense of nationhood is not a given and needs to be forged through a long-term and subconscious process of nation-building.
"In Singapore, we are working on what it means to be Singaporean, day by day," he said, citing examples of students singing the national anthem daily at school assemblies, different communities living side by side in Housing Board estates and young men serving national service together.
"These are all acts of nation-building. Many of these come through deliberate policies and programmes implemented by the state."
Referring to Singapore's bicentennial year in 2019, Mr Ong said people here had voted "self-determination" as what best describes the country's DNA during a public voting exercise.
"Cities don't need it; many states don't even think about it; but a young nation like us dreams of and cherishes self-determination," he added.
He said there was a growing consciousness about what it means to be Singapore - as a key node of the globalised world that connects the East and the West and creates vast opportunities for its people; a country with institutions of state that will ensure justice and fairness to all, uphold meritocracy and bridge divides; and as a nation that gives every community a place under the sun, where people give and take rather than push their own agenda at the expense of others.
"With all of these, we will determine our own future and be a city, state and nation that continues to thrive for many years to come," he added.
Pandemic calls for 3 major resets in society: Education Minister Lawrence Wong
Singapore should aim to emerge fairer, greener and more united
By Linette Lai, Political Correspondent, The Straits Times, 26 Jan 2021
The Covid-19 pandemic has set the stage for Singapore to undertake three major "resets" which could help it emerge from the crisis a fairer, greener and more united country.
This entails combating inequality and ensuring social mobility, said Education Minister Lawrence Wong yesterday. It also means building a greener economy that is more environmentally sustainable, and fostering a renewed sense of solidarity, he added.
Singaporeans will have to be prepared to live in an acutely changed world, he said.
To do so, he spelt out three "resets". Singapore has to first reset its social compact by tackling inequality and keeping society fluid and mobile. All over the world, the pandemic has widened the gulf between the haves and the have-nots, he said.
In Singapore, the Government has always aimed to reduce inequality and ensure a meritocratic system, Mr Wong added. To that end, a balance has been struck between free markets and state intervention, with policies tilted towards the lower income.
When the pandemic hit, the country drew on its reserves to save jobs and help those who were hardest hit to tide over.
These temporary measures will taper down this year as the economy improves. However, the pandemic has created added impetus to strengthen the social support system.
"There will be a permanent shift towards further strengthening of our social safety nets, to protect the disadvantaged and vulnerable, and we will have to work out how this will be sustainable over the longer term," said Mr Wong, who is also Second Minister for Finance.
He stressed as well the importance of uplifting children from birth, stressing that meritocracy "must not ossify into a hereditary system, where the condition of your birth determines the outcome of your life".
Schools with a higher proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds would get more help and resources, including some of the most committed teachers and principals, to help all students achieve their potential, he said, noting that he has made it a point to visit these schools since joining the ministry.
On the topic of sustainability, the minister pointed out that Singapore is already one of the greenest cities in the world. It is also the only one to completely freeze the growth of its vehicle population, and one of the few to have closed its water loop.
"But we must go further and build on what we have done to achieve cleaner growth and greener mindsets," he said.
Mr Wong, who co-chairs the multi-ministry task force tackling the crisis, noted that the pandemic has also intensified divisions in many countries. While easy access to information has been a boon, it has also meant people now can access raw, instant, unfiltered information, including falsehoods and conspiracy theories.
"So the irony is despite the overwhelming ease of access of information, we are living in a 'golden age of ignorance', he said, warning that as more extreme views take hold, forging a consensus and governing is made more difficult.
Concluding, Mr Wong said: "I am confident that we will prevail and emerge stronger from this crucible. And I do not say this lightly. I speak from my own conviction of seeing the best of Singaporeans over the past year, in the face of adversity and very tough conditions."
Covid-19, like an X-ray beamed into societies all over the world, has exposed many fractures. It has also widened them, as the pandemic and economic crisis hit those already disadvantaged the hardest.
Governments with the capacity and finances have been able to soften these unequal blows. However, as we now rebuild, we must do more than recover from this crisis. We must tackle the longer-term, more embedded challenges that will outlast Covid-19.
Many advanced nations have seen decades-long stagnation in standards of living for the majority. What's equally troubling has been the loss of relative social mobility: where you end up in life relative to others depends on where you start, and especially on how poor or well-off your parents are. As a result, faith in meritocracy, or in how people can advance in life through education and better jobs, is also on the wane.
These trends have weakened the sense of togetherness in many societies. Where there was once a strong sense of "we", there is now "them versus us". In some places, "them versus us" is not only about the rich or highly educated versus the rest. It also taps into racial or religious antipathies, which then have a life of their own. We have to recognise these changes happening around the world, and prevent them from taking root in Singapore.
We must do the utmost to make ours an uplifting society - one that uplifts everyone through opportunities in life, one that uplifts the poor and vulnerable, and one that uplifts the spirit.
Keeping society fluid
It requires a strong sense of collective mission, and continuous refreshing of strategies. But we should keep two issues foremost in mind. First, to achieve relative social mobility, with people being able to move up in life and exchange places with others, we must also have absolute mobility, where everyone can see things getting better. We must have that escalator that takes everyone up. It helps everyone accept that no one's place on the escalator is fixed, and others may catch up from below or move ahead of them. It also supports a sense of solidarity, because people can see that life is not a zero-sum game, and are willing to have more done to help those in greater need. As many societies are seeing, once that escalator is broken, everything begins to fray, and people turn resentful.
Second, to tackle inequality on any lasting basis, we must address unequal opportunities, above all, and not just unequal outcomes. Surveys around the world show that most people accept some inequality of outcomes, if it reflects differences in effort, ability or entrepreneurial contributions. But the inequality of opportunities is a different matter. It is the bad cholesterol in the system. We have to be especially concerned about unequal opportunities early in life, as they have a way of ingraining advantages and disadvantages that last through life.
However, we do need to temper unequal outcomes as well - and in particular, avoid people getting trapped in a permanent underclass. When parents have weak and unpredictable incomes, their children tend to have a less secure upbringing, and can easily fall behind and lower their own aspirations. In other words, outcomes in one generation shape opportunities for the next.
4G leaders to offer Singaporeans more say in shaping policy: Heng Swee Keat Plans are also afoot to give more help to lower-income citizens, says DPM
By Lim Yan Liang, The Straits Times, 21 Jan 2020
Amid challenges such as inequality and economic disruption, the fourth-generation leadership is determined to build a future of progress and prosperity for Singaporeans, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said yesterday. Mr Heng, who is expected to take over as Singapore's next leader in the coming years, also painted a vision of how he and his colleagues intend to lead the country. Their approach hinges on going beyond working for Singaporeans to working with them in designing policies and implementing them. He also hinted that plans are afoot to give more help to lower-income Singaporeans. "We are now studying how we can better help lower-and lower-middle-income Singaporeans, including current and future seniors, to meet their retirement needs in a sustainable way," said Mr Heng, who is also Finance Minister. More help will also be given to workers - like those in their 40s and 50s - to upskill, with the Government putting in place the next phase of SkillsFuture, he added. "I will provide more details in the coming Budget." Speaking at the Institute of Policy Studies' annual Singapore Perspectives conference, Mr Heng invited "all Singaporeans to work with us, and with each other" to tackle the challenges facing the nation. Just as the founding leaders fostered a sense of nationhood through policies such as home ownership that gave the people a stake in Singapore, Mr Heng said the Singapore Together movement launched last year "will be our new cornerstone of nation building". For instance, new platforms have already engaged Singaporeans on ways to improve work-life harmony and encourage household recycling, said Mr Heng. Singaporeans are also being involved in the development of Singapore's landscape such as the Somerset Belt, the Geylang Serai cultural precinct as well as parks. "What we see forming is a new model of partnership between the Government and Singaporeans in owning, shaping and acting on our future," he told an audience of students, academics and policymakers. "In this process, government agencies are learning to develop and deliver policy solutions in a more collaborative manner." This collaborative approach is Singapore's way forward in a world marked by differences and uncertainty, he said. He noted that many countries have seen their political consensus fracture over the past decade, brought about by changes such as technological disruption, growing inequality and ageing populations. Singapore is not immune to these divisive forces, and there were hints of this in some of the public discourse around foreigners, he added. Amid these disruptive forces, a strong sense of unity is key to keeping Singapore successful, the same way the founding political leaders beat the long odds facing the Republic in the early days, said Mr Heng. "Our improbable success was made possible by exceptional governance - capable leaders, working together with a united people." People had a stake in the country and there was trust between them and the Government. "This approach must remain core to the Government's mission, especially as we grapple with longer-term issues facing us," he said. But in a society increasingly flooded by information and misinformation, it is critical to find ways to deepen understanding and relationships among people, he noted. "We must reject extremist views that will fray our social fabric, and be discerning about falsehoods and irresponsible promises that cannot be fulfilled." That is why giving Singaporeans a bigger role in shaping policy would help them appreciate the trade-offs involved and distinguish truth from falsehoods, he said. Singaporeans have also shown they want to let their actions speak for themselves: Total volunteer hours have nearly trebled in the past 10 years, from 45 million hours in 2008 to 122 million hours in 2018, he noted. At the same time, the Government will continue to exercise leadership in areas such as security and defence, and in planning for the long term, said Mr Heng. "I am confident that our partnership efforts to date will set the foundations for the work of a generation," he said.
Research shows immigration boosts growth
By Vikram Khanna, Associate Editor, The Straits Times, 31 Jan 2018
Earlier this month, Monetary Authority of Singapore managing director Ravi Menon made an insightful presentation on the links between three critical issues facing Singapore: ageing, immigration and productivity. Speaking at the Institute of Policy Studies' Singapore Perspectives conference, he noted that Singapore's working age population - residents aged 15-64 - will start to decline from 2020. Since economic growth is the sum of the growth of the labour force and productivity, if Singapore freezes immigration and is not able to increase fertility beyond the replacement rate, productivity will be the only source of growth. So if productivity grows at 1.5 per cent - the average of the last seven years -the economy will also grow at 1.5 per cent. That would be a problem; it would seriously limit increases in wages and improvements in living standards. If we don't want immigration, we can, in theory, mitigate the problem by raising the total fertility rate and the labour force participation rate - the percentage of workers in the workforce. But even if we succeed in raising the fertility rate from the current level of 1.2 (children per woman, on average) to the replacement rate of 2.1 over the next 15 years - a challenging target - it won't have much of an impact on the growth of the workforce or gross domestic product (GDP) until 2040 because, as Mr Menon noted, "it will take time for the extra babies born in the next 15 years to start entering the labour force". The key to raising the labour force participation rate is to encourage more women to work. World Bank data shows that while Singapore's overall labour force participation rate, at 68 per cent, is higher than the average for high-income countries (60 per cent), there is a 17 percentage point gap between the participation rates of men (77 per cent) and women (60 per cent). In most other high-income countries, the gap ranges from 9 to 12 percentage points. If Singapore can narrow the gap to 11 percentage points by 2035, it will help, but not by much. The labour force would expand by only 2 per cent by 2035. Given these constraints to expanding our workforce, Mr Menon pointed out that Singapore must "allow a certain rate of net immigration". It must also be flexible in its immigration policies, responding to economic cycles, changing circumstances and opportunities. He concluded that Singapore needs to reframe the question on foreign workers. "It is not about how many foreign workers industry wants or society can afford to have," he said, "but what number and kind of foreign workers we need to maximise the job and wage opportunities for Singaporeans. Foreign workers must be a complement to the local workforce." Many of the issues raised by Mr Menon are worth exploring further. Here are some interesting findings from economic research.
Heng Swee Keat: More can be done to meet needs of older Singaporeans Younger leaders looking at issue; minister hints at Budget measures to support seniors
By Yasmine Yahya, Senior Political Correspondent, The Straits Times, 23 Jan 2018
A group of younger leaders have banded together to mull over what Singapore "needs to do differently in the coming years" as its population ages, underscoring how the issue has become one of the most urgent challenges for the Government. Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat yesterday also hinted that measures to better support seniors will be a focus at the upcoming Budget on Feb 19, saying: "Please be patient, wait for the Budget, and we will talk about this." At the Singapore Perspectives conference organised by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), Mr Heng said a group of leaders including Health Minister Gan Kim Yong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu, Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee and Speaker Tan Chuan-Jin are pondering the challenges the aged in Singapore face. They "are very concerned and are working together on this", he added. It is not starting from scratch, he said, noting that the Government had established, in 2007, a Ministerial Committee on Ageing, which is now chaired by Mr Gan. Mr Heng did not give further details of the group. Older Singaporeans, he noted, face a slew of diverse worries. Based on feedback garnered by pioneer generation ambassadors, the senior citizens are concerned about matters from healthcare needs to loneliness to finance - all currently addressed by different agencies and ministries. "What it shows very clearly is there is a gap at the front line, in terms of how well we are delivering that service to the seniors who need it," said Mr Heng. And so, going forward, "we will have to think about looking at the issues in a more cross-disciplinary way, across agencies and ministries", he added, saying the Government has to find ways for them to work better together. "Practically every ministry will have to deal with this demographic transition."
Singapore today has around 500,000 people aged 65 and above. This is expected to almost double to around 900,000 by 2030. At the conference, which was focused on ageing, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, who oversees the National Population and Talent Division, said more can be done to support seniors, such as redesigning jobs to help them continue to work and helping them to take part in the gig economy. One concern about Singapore's ageing population is the toll it could take on the economy. An IPS study said it will cause a drag of 1.5 percentage points on per capita gross domestic product growth annually until 2060, assuming zero immigration and a stagnant fertility rate. Monetary Authority of Singapore managing director Ravi Menon yesterday said that the economy can remain dynamic - provided that certain steps are taken. For instance, he noted, Singapore's childcare workers earn just 38 per cent of the national median wage. Those in Australia pull in earnings at 91 per cent of the national median. This shows the scope that Singapore has to "professionalise" such rank-and-file jobs, which would help the economy remain competitive as the workforce ages. The Republic should also be increasingly concerned about the skills of the foreign workers that it takes in, rather than just the numbers, he added. "In fact, more skilled foreign workers will mean that we will need less of them," said Mr Menon, adding that as Singapore pursues innovation, it will need to attract highly skilled intellectual capital that it may not already have.
Divided over intergenerational support IPS study shows differing attitudes of respondents towards funding social spending
By Yasmine Yahya, Assistant Business Editor, The Straits Times, 19 Jan 2018 Are you willing to pay more taxes to fund higher social spending for the elderly? Or should the national reserves be tapped instead? If that seems a difficult conundrum to you, you are not alone - a new survey by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) has found that Singaporeans are divided on the issue. Two in five respondents - or about 40 per cent - said they were not comfortable with higher taxes and would rather tap reserves. A slightly lower proportion - about 34 per cent - indicated the opposite. The remainder were neutral. In particular, those aged 45 to 64 - sometimes called the "sandwiched generation" as they have to support both young and old - were most likely to frown on higher taxes.
The survey also found that 41 per cent believed each generation should take care of itself, without needing to be supported by other generations.
An almost equal proportion - about 38 per cent - disagreed.
This issue of "intergenerational solidarity" - which the survey delves into - is particularly important today as Singapore grapples with how to fund social spending for an ageing population, said IPS in its report. "There is a tension between self-reliance and a sense of community. The results actually show that we can't decide whether we should take care of ourselves or if we should care for other generations," said IPS senior research fellow Christopher Gee - one of the study's authors - at a briefing yesterday.
That tension is reflected in responses to other survey questions. About 41 per cent of respondents disagreed that older generations should set aside assets as an inheritance for the young, compared to 30.4 per cent who agreed.
Those aged 50 to 64 were much more likely to disagree that assets should be set aside for inheritance, with about half or more of respondents in those age groups doing so.
The survey of 2,000 citizens and permanent residents aged 21 and above was carried out through phone interviews last November and December.
The study's other authors are research assistant Yvonne Arivalagan and post-doctoral fellow Chao Fengqing.
Mr Gee noted that the sandwiched generation are now experiencing the highest tax burden and may be feeling the greatest uncertainty about financing their own post-retirement living expenses.
"They are feeling these twin pressures and may need something to help them have that intra-and intergenerational solidarity," he said.
A one-party system may give Singapore its best shot at success, because it is a small country that needs to stay nimble, said Education Minister (Higher Education and Skills) Ong Ye Kung yesterday at the Institute of Policy Studies' annual Singapore Perspectives conference. But Banyan Tree executive chairman Ho Kwon Ping, who spoke on the same topic, warned that one-party systems face the danger of its political elites becoming slow to change, resulting in a culture of entitlement and corruption. He added that the most desirable scenario for Singapore would be a system of robust internal competition within the People's Action Party (PAP). Likewise, Mr Ong stressed that the PAP must stay open-minded and grounded in reality, and have integrity beyond reproach. Both men were on a panel discussing whether rule by a single political party is best for Singapore. The panel also addressed the possibility of Singapore having a two- or multi-party system. In his speech, Mr Ong made the case that single-party rule is the best way for a small country like Singapore to succeed. He said the party need not be the PAP, but whichever party is the most capable. For a multi-party system to form, said Mr Ong, there must first be at least two sufficiently different paths for Singapore to take, and political views distinct enough for different parties to uphold. But Singapore is not big enough to have geographically separate towns which evolve drastically different views on national issues, he said. Another reason he cited is that Singapore needs to stay nimble and move fast in a changing global environment. Mr Ong questioned whether it could do so with a multi-party system.
IPS Singapore Perspectives Conference 2016: Governance Policies and leaders must keep up with the times Political parties must evolve so that country can thrive and survive, says Chan Chun Sing
By Charissa Yong, The Straits Times, 19 Jan 2016
What keeps Singapore leaders awake at night is not whether the People's Action Party (PAP) rules forever but whether Singapore will last forever, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Chan Chun Sing said yesterday. And at the heart of ensuring the country thrives and survives is good governance, he said. This, in turn, requires Singapore's leaders to know when to change policies, and themselves, to keep up with the times. Mr Chan, who is also the labour chief, made the point at a think-tank discussion on how to maintain good governance in an increasingly diverse society. Panel moderator Warren Fernandez, The Straits Times editor, had asked Mr Chan to define good politics in the light of President Tony Tan Keng Yam's address last Friday. President Tan had said the Government will study ways to improve the political system. Mr Chan, in his reply, said good governance is crucial if Singapore is to defy the odds of history as small states tend to be short-lived. "Our concern is not whether the People's Action Party will rule forever. Our larger concern is whether Singapore will last forever.
"Political parties are there to lead, but political parties must evolve in order to make sure the higher goal of sustaining the country is achieved," he said.
This focus on improving Singapore lies at the core of the Government's approach to accommodating the growing diversity of voices in politics here, he said. The discussion was among four held yesterday at the Institute of Policy Studies' annual Singapore Perspectives conference, which examines the public policy challenges facing the country. About 900 academics, public servants and students attended the conference.
This is excerpted from a speech delivered by the director of the Institute of Policy Studies at the Singapore Perspectives conference yesterday, which had the theme 'We'. By Janadas Devan, Published The Straits Times, 19 Jan 2016
"We" - it is the first word in the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States : "We the People…" It is also the first word in our National Pledge: "We, the citizens of Singapore…"
It is an example of what in modern rhetorical theory has come to be known as a "catachresis" - a linguistic imposition that brings into existence that which it posits. The "we" in "we the people" is the application of a pronoun "used by a speaker to refer to himself or herself and one or more other people considered together", as the Oxford English Dictionary defines "we", to a much larger grouping of people largely unacquainted with each other - in the US, China or Singapore - thus bringing into existence the "imagined community" that we collectively posit by referring to ourselves as "we". When it was applied by the framers of the United States Constitution to the "people" of the 13 colonies, they in effect claimed for the people the sovereignty that had hitherto reposed in the king - with the royal "we" thus replaced by the popular "we". The first time we heard "we" used to describe us was in the famous press conference that the founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew gave on the occasion of Singapore's Separation from Malaysia. We all remember the tears he shed that day when he said he would always look back on our leaving Malaysia as "a moment of anguish". What most of us forget - till we were reminded of it at last year's National Day Parade - was that he had ended the press conference on an altogether different note, with these stirring words: "We are going to have a multiracial nation in Singapore. We will set the example. This is not a Malay nation; this is not a Chinese nation; this is not an Indian nation. Everybody will have his place, equal; language, culture, religion... And finally, let us, really Singaporeans - I cannot call myself a Malaysian now - we unite, regardless of race, language, religion, culture." "I cannot call myself a Malaysian now" - that transition from one "imagined community", Malaysian, to another, Singaporean, was fraught with tension.
It is too embarrassing 50 years later to recall the pathos of "I cannot call myself a Malaysian now". We cannot understand why that transition from Malaysian to Singaporean should have been difficult.
IPS SINGAPORE PERSPECTIVES 2015 'Singapore must be a success to remain relevant' By Charissa Yong, The Straits Times, 27 Jan 2015
SINGAPORE'S ability to remain relevant depends on the country being an extraordinary success, said veteran diplomat Bilahari Kausikan at a forum yesterday.
The reason, he added, is that Singapore is small and in Southeast Asia - two fundamental vulnerabilities the country must always remember.
In his paper on the sovereignty of small states, he said the bedrock of relevance is success and "success must be defined first of all in economic terms".
Although this goes against the view in some circles that individuals have other worthier goals in life beyond economics, Mr Kausikan said the country as a whole does not have the luxury of taking such a path.
"A world of sovereign states is in fact a rat race, and often a vicious one, in which the weak go to the wall. There can be no opting out for a sovereign state," said the Ambassador-at-Large and policy adviser of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the one-day forum organised by the Institute of Policy Studies.
The forum, with about 900 participants who include academics and officials, discussed the choices Singapore made in becoming an independent city-state and surviving as one.
Mr Kausikan, who was speaking during a panel discussion, said if Singapore was not successful, it risked being outclassed by its larger neighbours who have natural resources that it lacked.
"A small state cannot be just ordinarily successful. If we were no different from our neighbourhood, why should anyone want to deal with us rather than our larger neighbours who, moreover, are well endowed with natural resources?
"To be relevant, we have to be extraordinary," he added.
What is more, Singapore differs from the rest of South-east Asia in terms of its fundamental political principles and ethnic composition, he said.
It is a multiracial meritocracy. Also, it is "a Chinese-majority country, with neighbours whose own Chinese populations are a less than fully welcome minority, and whose attitudes towards their own Chinese populations are too often projected upon us", he noted.
"A Chinese-majority multiracial meritocracy that has been extraordinarily successful compared to its neighbours is often taken as an implicit criticism of differently organised systems," he said.
He added that this reality is here to stay: "The intensity of such attitudes waxes and wanes... but these complexities are never going to go away, and we ignore or deny them only at peril of compromising our sovereignty.
"Being extraordinary does not make us loved, but it is the price we must pay for survival and autonomy."
By Rachel Chang, Assistant Political Editor, The Straits Times, 27 Jan 2015
TO THE many Singaporeans who have asked if the $8 billion Pioneer Generation Package (PGP) will be expanded in future to benefit more seniors, Social and Family Development Minister Chan Chun Sing's reply is: "Frankly, we hope that we can."
But any introduction of a "PGP 2" will depend on how the next generation answers two questions, he said yesterday at a dialogue during the Institute of Policy Studies' annual Singapore Perspectives conference.
Mr Chan described these as: "Will we have the means? Will society have the same values (as now) to want to honour those who contributed?"
More importantly, the package - which eases the medical costs of the first generation of Singaporeans - cannot be a political promise, added Mr Chan.
Singapore must avoid a situation where subsidies and policies "turn into an auction in the elections", he said in reply to a question posed to him and Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean.
"We have seen this happen all over the world. To get elected, somebody will stand up and say, 'I promise more,'" said Mr Chan.
The only way to guard against this is to have an enlightened electorate that asks tough questions of political parties making such election promises, he added.
At this, Mr Teo quipped that, at 60 years old, he is among those who just missed the cut-off for the PGP. Looking to Mr Chan, who is 45, he joked: "You know what to do if you want my vote."
MediShield Life, the proposed universal health-care plan that is another major reinforcement of Singapore's social safety nets, was also brought up.
National University of Singapore professor Paul Tambyah welcomed the scheme but noted that an ailing senior would need his children to use their Medisave accounts to pay the deductibles. This could wipe out the children's Medisave savings, and become a problem that snowballs as each generation has fewer children.
Mr Teo replied that all countries have such inter-generational transfers, except some are "anonymous" in that younger people are taxed to pay for the health-care costs of the older generation.
"When you do it within the family, I think that's a much more natural and organic way," he said. "We should not, by socialising (costs) too much, remove that inter-generational responsibility within families."
Singapore and KL discussed possibility of forming confederation
By Charissa Yong, The Straits Times, 27 Jan 2015
BEFORE separating in 1965, Singapore and Malaysia had discussed the possibility of forming a confederation instead. The proposed arrangement would have given Singapore the powers it previously possessed in its years of self-government from 1959 to 1963.
Its defence and external relations, however, would be under the charge of Kuala Lumpur.
He cited as sources the memoirs of former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, as well as recorded interviews given by the late former Cabinet ministers E.W. Barker and Goh Keng Swee, two of the leaders who steered Singapore in its early days.
Exactly 50 years ago as of yesterday, Singapore's Cabinet had debated a proposal paper by Mr Lee that Singapore be in a confederation with Malaysia.
Mr Lee had spoken about it privately with Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman one month earlier in December 1964, the tail end of a tense year in which Singapore and Kuala Lumpur had clashed repeatedly, and race riots in Singapore had killed 36 people and injured 560.
But the confederation proposal did not take off.
Singapore and Kuala Lumpur could not agree on the terms of the confederation, and the British "got wind of the talks and scuttled everything", said Mr Janadas.
Had the British not stepped in, there is "a reasonable chance" that Singapore and Kuala Lumpur may have agreed to form a confederation, he said.
The reason: there was a group within the Singapore leadership that believed the island should be part of Malaysia, while Malaysia's leaders were uncomfortable with the alternative of an independent Singapore, said Mr Janadas.
In hindsight, he said, "it is probably fortunate the confederation idea collapsed".
It would have given Singapore a "one country, two systems" decades before Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping proposed it for Hong Kong in the 1980s, he noted.
The confederation arrangement would have been "between two peoples who had perhaps less in common than Hong Kongers have with mainland Chinese today - despite which, see what difficulty the Special Administrative Region has had", said Mr Janadas.
"Why do I recall this history? To remind ourselves there was nothing inevitable about our founding," he told an audience of 1,000 people, mainly from the public sector, schools and civil society.
For this reason, Singapore's existence as a sovereign state should not be taken for granted, he added.
