Singapore
Nation Building
A Singaporean’s views on obstacles that stand in the way. By siew91, newsintercom
Jul 12, 2006

When MM Lee met Singaporeans working in Qatar this Jan, he reportedly said “If more Singaporeans worked abroad and their children forgot their roots, there will be no Singapore node to send them out .... They dissolve and disappear and there is no Singapore...”

“They become citizens of the world. What does that mean? Lost!” MM Lee appeared to be concerned over Singaporeans forgetting their roots. But then his policies have not encouraged roots building.

Singapore government has never actively encouraged local entrepreneurship, which would enable Singaporeans to have a stake in the country.

Instead, it favours foreign and state enterprises. All the state resources - labour, land, infrastructures and amenities, have been directed to promote these enterprises.

Recently, though the government has been promoting entrepreneurship, its efforts on this front cannot be compared with what it is doing to develop Singapore into some life sciences hub.

In the capital and talent intensive field of life sciences, Singapore government reportedly imported foreign talents (sometimes by paying them above-world-market rates) and provided capital subsidies to foreign firms to produce medical breakthroughs.

Dr. Linda Lim, a Singapore professor of strategy at the University of Michigan, said that it was not clear where Singapore benefitted since the jobs, profits and goods were produced overwhelmingly by and for foreigners.

She added that Singapore may be seen as a steward of the interests of non-Singaporeans.

The government’s foreign talents policy also doesn’t contribute towards nation building.

Many local talents feel discriminated against by their own government and have migrated abroad or intend to migrate.

On the other hand, the top foreign talents Singapore government tries to woo to settle here are doing so only to use Singapore as a stepping stone to the west.

Over the past five years, the middle and lower income Singaporeans are finding it difficult to identify with a nation where the government not only does nothing to prevent their income from dwindling but keep increasing their cost of living.

The government’s tight control of the society too, is an obstacle to nationhood.

Intolerant of criticism and paranoid of opposition, the government has pre-empted many political opponents and private initiatives in civic activities.

The government should take heed of Dr. Lim’s advice, “A nation cannot exist in a political vacuum and the empowerment of stakeholders is necessary to engender the sense of ownership that can elicit the best performance from citizens as well as foreign talents.”

http://www.newsintercom.org/index.php?itemid=460