Barun Roy: Singapore's 'mistakes'

Recent elections saw housing, medicare complaints but the real issue is retaining talent

It could have been Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, former chief minister of West Bengal, speaking at one of his election rallies in Kolkata. But it was Lee Hsien Loong, prime minister of Singapore, also speaking at an election rally in the island republic early this month. The similarity was brow-raising and unexpected.

At a People’s Action Party (PAP) rally ahead of Singapore’s recently-concluded general elections, Lee apologised – mark the word – for his government’s “mistakes” and said they would try to do better next time. “Admitting our mistake is the first step towards correcting it,” he said. Then, in the typical Buddhadeb style and almost echoing the substance of the chief minister’s recent election speeches, Lee added: “We’re sorry we didn’t get it exactly right, but I hope you’ll understand and bear with us because we’re trying our best to fix the problems.”

Well, Singaporeans have borne with him and returned PAP to power once again, continuing a governing tradition that has remained unbroken since the country gained its independence in 1965. But what are the problems that have provoked him to offer an uncharacteristic apology to his people and made another PAP leader, 42-year-old Tan Chuan-Jin, to openly say “If PAP doesn’t address public frustration and angst, it will lose its moral authority to lead”?

A shortfall in public housing was a constant grievance heard throughout the election campaign. Inadequacy of public transport – can you believe it? – was another. People also thought the government lagged in meeting the rising expectations of Singaporeans. Expensive health care was another major issue. But the burning question seemed to be the increasing number of foreigners in the population, which has created pressures on housing costs and vacancies in schools. Foreigners now make up for 36 per cent of Singapore’s population of 5.1 million, up from about 20 per cent a decade ago, and nearly 90,000 of them are said to have become citizens between 2006 and last year.

But all these are manifestations of deeper problems that confront Singapore and worry its leaders. Some they can’t do much about, like Singapore’s finite land area, imposing limits on its physical growth. The fertility rate can only be marginally manipulated and not be let loose. Besides, being open to the world, the economy is highly vulnerable, while the rise of China and India makes the competition tougher. And fear is always there of being outdone by others, of the economy slowing, of adverse effects on people’s lifestyles.

What can Singapore do about it? In a recent speech at the Singapore Polytechnic, opening a dialogue on the nation’s future, senior minister (and former Prime Minister) Goh Chok Tong gave an idea. He spoke of strategies the government intends to follow to keep the course clear for an economy that expects to be one of the top 10 richest in the world by 2020, when per capita GDP is likely to rise to $55,000 from $43,900 now.

Singapore, Goh said, must continue to build up what’s been one of its undisputed strengths: its skilled and educated manpower, the pillar of its service-oriented economic growth. By 2030, he expects the bulk of Singapore’s workforce, being continuously trained and re-trained, to have at least a polytechnic diploma, further enhancing its position of advantage as the global economic centre of gravity shifts to Asia.

As Goh sees it, the combined GDP of China and India is likely to constitute one-third of the total global GDP by 2050, throwing up huge demands for skills and services. Foreign investors will be pouncing on these opportunities and Singapore wants to be their natural Asian base. An aggressive campaign for FDI, therefore, will remain a major imperative for the island nation.

This being so, Singapore can’t escape remaining open to inviting international talent, another strategy that Goh emphasised. Singapore’s own pool of talent isn’t big enough to fulfil the economy’s expanding needs and must be supplemented, though judiciously, by foreigners, particularly in new areas of cutting-edge technologies, to stay ahead. Saying that international talent provided Singapore a critical advantage, Goh quite frankly observed in his Singapore Polytechnic speech: “Global companies will invest in Singapore only if they are confident they can get here the talent they need.”

Another thing high in Singapore’s agenda is to maintain high standards of leadership in politics, civil service and armed forces. A fourth generation of leadership is being groomed to re-instil faith in people’s mind that brand Singapore won’t be losing any of its characteristic dynamism and innovativeness.

Goh believes the economy will have to be constantly restructured to stay on the crest of its capacity. At the same time, the country must maintain its traditional values of justice and fairness, meritocracy, equal opportunity, integrity, multi-cultural character and social inclusiveness even if the income gap widens. These have been the pillars on which Singapore’s stability as a nation rests.

rbarun@gmail.com