|
|
|
...We have significant strengths.
Firstly, we are all at least bilingual. We are educated in English, which is
the international language of business. This gives us a valuable edge over the
Chinese or Vietnamese, who are working hard to learn English.
|
|
At the same time, we also speak
our mother tongues – either Mandarin, Tamil, or Malay. These languages will
anchor our Asian identity, and help us understand and do business in the
region. You may not realise how big an advantage this is, until you are
physically stationed in another country.
|
|
Secondly, our young people are
very well educated. Students and parents often complain about the Singapore
education system, but on the whole it prepares you well to compete with
others.
|
|
International surveys consistently
show that our students are among the most competent in the world, especially
in science and mathematics. Singaporeans who go to top universities abroad
often do brilliantly, emerging at the top of their classes. So our schools
must have done something good for them.
|
|
Thirdly, Singaporeans are not only
talented as individuals, but belong to a meritocratic and efficient system.
|
|
Our system gives you every opportunity to develop
your talents, put them to full use, and work as part of a Singapore team.
Imagine how different your lives would have been, and what limited choices you
would have had, if you had been born and grown up in some other country, say
in Iraq or Nigeria.
|
|
Of course, we must be aware of our
weaknesses too, and I would like to mention three.
|
|
Firstly, young Singaporeans do not
know enough about our own country, or what is going on in the world around us.
I am sure you know who is William Hung or F4, but (as a recent survey showed)
far fewer have heard of Dr Goh Keng Swee, and I suspect not so many are sure
who Pervez Musharraf is, or know that Indonesia is holding elections today.
|
|
Secondly, young Singaporeans have
grown up in a safe, orderly, almost artificial environment. Everything works.
The trains run on time, the lifts in HDB blocks work, the police are helpful
and efficient, and the National Day Parade is a precision show. Children no
longer catch guppies in longkangs, or spiders in the bushes.
|
|
We have worked very hard to create
this order and efficiency, but the side effect is that our people have been
sheltered from the realities of the world, and often do not realise how
unusual and precious Singapore is.
|
|
A twenty-year old Singaporean is much less
toughened and street smart than a twenty-year old Vietnamese or Indian who has
had to fend for himself or herself. We have been so insulated that the first
time we come into contact with the outside world it is something of a shock,
as many of our businessmen operating in China and other countries have found
out.
|
|
Which leads to the third weakness
– because we live in a prosperous, comfortable environment, our young are
not as hungry and eager as their parents were, or as young people in China,
India or Vietnam today are. As Ron Sim said when he accepted the Businessman
of the Year award recently:
|
|
"I am lucky to be born poor
because it fuels the hunger, it fuels the despair, the desire to make things
good and right.
|
|
But don’t get me wrong. If you
were born rich, you are luckier. It might be hard to stir the hunger, but it
is not difficult to create the desire.
|
|
As the saying goes – do also
die, don’t also die, so why not do your best and then die?"
|
|
More.....
|
Singapore Students' Hopes,
Fears & Dreams
