Trends - people
Shaping the new generation
Youths fast maturing under baptism of fire; it augurs well for Singapore's future. By Seah Chiang Nee
Sept 16, 2003

THE process of remaking Singapore may be going faster, but nowhere can it match the speed that rising unemployment is changing young Singaporeans.

The republic's well-educated third generation, or 3-G, is undergoing a baptism of fire that some people believe may augur well for the future.

Pampered by affluence and easy jobs, raised by maids and private tuition, many of them now find themselves confronted by a harsh new reality of having to fight for jobs like their peers elsewhere.

Look at the newspapers, especially the classified sections, and you'll see just how much life has changed for these unemployed tertiary-trained youths.

Many have taken to the simple but purest form of entrepreneurship by buying and selling.

The popular products are used hand-phones, laptops and computer-related parts, digital cameras, watches, comic books, pawnshop tickets - just about anything with a value.

Dealers in second-hand mobile phone and PC parts are flourishing, providing a useful service to bargain hunters. They sell goods from ring-tones and screensavers to used peripherals like PDAs, flat-screen monitors and hard disks at a fraction of the costs.
Many of them operate with just a name and a contact number.

Other Singaporeans teach - or learn - a fast course in reflexology to do house calls or open up computer clinics.

Some take up courses in systematic domestic-help work, car wash, photography workshops, haircutting, mostly to start their own one-man business that used to be done by foreign workers.

And, of course, there has been a sudden interest in cooking skills - just in case.

The flurry is not a response to the government's promotion of entrepreneurship but a need for survival.

The rapid decline of opportunities has sharply raised the number of jobless graduates, forcing thousands to abandon the traditional career-building paths.

In the past, all Singaporeans had to do was to study hard, get a professional degree and leave the rest to the government. Today they can no longer depend on the government for jobs; they have to rely on themselves to make their own living.

However, not everyone is capable of doing this. Some still rely on their parents.
Recently, I asked a friend what his daughter was doing three years after graduating. He replied: "She's helping me in my business."

The son of a former neighbour who returned seven months ago from Australia with a master's degree in mass communication is still jobless despite the mother's advice to "get any job at any pay."

Meanwhile, they survive on parental allowance.

Stories of people with initiative are given prominence in the local press: degree-holders compelled to take up jobs below their qualifications, like a PhD doing temp work as an estate inspector.

The New Paper reported the plight of Joyce Low, 22, who graduated in business and commerce (majoring in international business) with top honours in Australia's Monash University.

She had distinctions in seven subjects and higher distinctions in six others, receiving the Golden Key Honours Society award.

After returning, she spent months of abortive search for work, including being turned down twice for work as a receptionist. Three sales representative jobs that she did not take up were for door-to-door salespersons.

"When I was in Australia, I hardly went out and spent most of the time studying," Joyce said. She had expected to earn S$3,000 a month by the age of 30 and planned to buy a condo and a car.

"Now I'll probably have to work much longer, maybe 10 years, and work twice as hard to achieve those dreams," she told the newspaper.

But amid the pain arise new hopes. It is forcing a growing number of unemployed youths to move into various enterprises.

Not all will succeed but the experience will be invaluable to mould the 3-G into a more self-reliant lot.

During his National Day speech, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong praised the spirit of the US-trained female graduate who became a hawker selling chestnuts.

Recently, three IT graduates succeeded in building their fruits and vegetables business (started in 1999 after the dot.com bubble burst) into a flourishing S$3mil venture.

Then there was the case of Victor Hoo, the coffin maker. The 34-year-old has an honours degree in Economics from the University of London and a Diploma in Computer Science from a local polytechnic.

This new spirit is shaping a stronger generation. But the present is no bed of roses.
In an address to university students, Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong asked whether Singapore's success would outlive its founders.

"Or will Singapore melt away in the sea of globalisation, and revert to being a sleepy town or a fishing village?"

His was the latest in a string of statements from senior members of the ruling People's Action Party that suggest the younger generation risks having little in the way of a backbone.

The debate started last year when PM Goh chastised 20-somethings. "They grew up with a silver spoon in their mouth, a maid at their beck and call, and a car to bring them around."

Lee, who is due to take over as prime minister within the next two years, said the country was at a turning point. Young people in neighbouring states had more drive, he warned.

"All around us, there are many for whom life has not been so comfortable. But this has given them a tremendous fire in the belly and eagerness to learn," he said.

"Singaporeans have to compete against them, and had better prepare themselves for the race."

Going by present trends, the third generation will emerge from Singapore's current transition a more self-reliant, capable lot. This has long-term repercussions for Singapore's politics.

For starters, the society's critical stance against people who leave Singapore to work abroad will change. Goh threw a challenge to Singaporeans to declare if they were "stayers or quitters."

Unable to find work at home, more Singaporeans will look for jobs abroad, especially in China, India and other booming countries.

As the government's ability to provide meaningful jobs declines, young Singaporeans are likely to become politically more assertive.
(This article was first published in Sunday Star on Sept 14, 2003).