A long journey. A better tomorrow.
Mr. Speaker, Sir.
Thank you for allowing me to join this debate on the President’s Address.
The Address reaffirms the Government’s commitment to create a better life for all Singaporeans.
This vision is inclusive. It is not easy to achieve. But achieve it we must.
Jobs
A key enabler for a good life for Singaporeans is the availability of good jobs. Jobs that pay well and jobs have safe, balanced working conditions we can be proud of.
How do we get these jobs for Singaporeans? By attracting and supporting companies that create such jobs, and making sure that Singaporeans can do the jobs and have good access to them.
This in turn means that we must ensure that the conditions for investment and growth stay positive, and that we are bold in investing in our infrastructure, our workforce capability, our competitiveness and our inclusiveness.
It also means that we must be resolute in ferreting out practices that are sub-standard and that hamper our progress economically and socially, and restructure them away.
Boldness and Foresight
Singapore has come this far not by blindly or meekly mimicking others. We have done so by being crystal clear about our own strengths and limitations, and by playing to our strengths and positioning ourselves to be useful to others.
In the immediate post war decades, when many countries were still pursuing import-substitution, and when we have lost our hinterland, we chose the path of export-led growth. There were risks to doing so. We had no particular natural attractiveness to external investments. Yet we were bold and dared to be different from the rest of the world. Not out of bravado or delusion, but out of necessity and a searing desire to survive and make a better future.
We were also thoroughly practical. Good intention and rousing rhetoric do not produce food on the table. We must create the basic conditions. These included:
The result was fast expansion of the economy, rising household incomes and sustained improvement in the standard of living for the majority. With more resources, the Government was able to re-invest further to gear up our infrastructure and programmes for the next phase of development, and to care and share more with Singaporeans, especially with the lower income citizens. Economic expansion was never for its own sake, but growth was a means to a better life for Singaporeans.
This outcome for Singaporeans is very different from that experienced by citizens of many other small island nations in the post-war decades. It is not an outcome that was universal or pre-ordained.
Changing times
Over time, things changed.
At the same time, the People became better educated, better travelled. Expectations for quality jobs – in pay and working conditions – and for social infrastructure – housing, transport, recreation rose.
Desire for “Explicit Fairness”
There was also a growing yearning across different arenas for what might be called “explicit fairness”, characterised by level-playing fields, transparency, accountability and decency.
Just as the saying goes: “Justice must not only be done, but be seen to be done”, so too Singaporeans’ demand for policies, programmes and politics to be conceived and conducted with both sense and sensibility.
Investment for a New Future
We must therefore strive together for a bold investment into our collective future, building upon our strengths in logical thinking and yet doing it in new ways to embrace the new social and emotional desires of Singaporeans.
I remind us to strike that balance, and be grounded in the reality of our vulnerabilities because our future must not be constructed on a misunderstanding or a neglect of fact. It must be one that allows us to know and yet find smart ways to transcend our limitations. And so there must be a healthy tension between our not confusing a lizard with a crocodile, and yet not short-changing ourselves by behaving like a worm when we are a caterpillar with the destiny of a butterfly.
In recent days, there have been calls for a global movement to “Occupy Wall Street” or its equivalent in cities throughout the world in reaction to the woes caused by the financial markets and their decision-makers. I recall sometime back that the people in a South American country took to the streets beating pots and pans to protest against the high unemployment they are suffering from as a result of economic weakness and mismanagement. We certainly see on our TV screens the riots and damage that the austerity measures in some EU countries have sparked. These outpourings of human anger and frustration result from failure of governments and society to adapt to changing times, of exchanging long-term good for short-term pleasure, and of living beyond their means.
Hence, we must remind ourselves that “refusing to change” and “mimicking others blindly” are both dangerous and potentially fatal mindsets.
Instead, we must consider carefully how we can improve, adapt and power ahead.
Times does not permit me to delve deeply into too many areas. I would like to pinpoint 3 areas for discussion.
Tripartism
Tripartism has brought industrial peace and economic progress to Singapore, and we have benefited. It is not automatic.
The tripartite partners understood the basic truth that if investors, whether local or foreign, have to worry constantly whether their businesses in Singapore would be disrupted or their factories burnt down, they would go elsewhere. They go, the jobs go.
We also knew that if workers of any segment feel that they have been pushed into a corner with little fairness and no prospect, then it is a time bomb that must eventually explode.
Our tripartism is therefore constructed upon a clear-eyed understanding of the realities and the need to find a mechanism and an enduring set of trustworthy relations to achieve stable, win-win outcomes over an extended period.
Tripartism has served us well. In good times, it has given us the platform to agree on productivity and competitiveness improvement and gain-sharing. In bad times, it has granted us the responsiveness and agility to act quickly and decisively to minimise the pain for workers and companies.
What we have achieved in real outcomes is admired by many in the international community. For example, many countries knew of our Jobs Credit and SPUR programmes. They knew the logic of these arrangements and they also knew that their countrymen and companies would have benefited if similar actions were taken in their case. But the fact was that they could not get their social partners to come together to work for the collective good. Nor did they have the resources to do so because their countries were mired in debt.
As a result, while we came through the storm with relatively lower retrenchment figures and a low unemployment rate, many OECD countries are stuck with unemployment ranging from 5% to 10%, and youth unemployment from 25% to 40%.
This is but one of many examples of how Singapore’s tripartism has quietly but surely given us a competitive advantage and a refuge through the decades.
Yet, there are those who doubt the authenticity of our Tripartism. They say that it is too quietly done. They do not know what is going on. So they want to see more of what is really happening.
I recently spoke to a group of senior civil servants on this subject. I said perhaps the traditional approach of our tripartism was like a 3-in-1 coffee mix. It is good coffee, pre-mixed for fast and convenient use.
But I observe that in today’s context, many people buy expensive coffee making machines. You stick a capsule of beans into the machine and you hear the grinding sound as the machine works on the beans and then dispenses the coffee. And you tell yourself, “Ah, this coffee is fresh and good.”
So I think there is a need for Tripartism to also adapt to this changing mindset and expectation. It is fine for the social partners to share more of how each one thinks and what feedback its respective constituencies are giving.
But let us be clear that the quality of the coffee lies not in how much “grind” you hear, but in the quality of the bean and the mix. Never let our Tripartism go the way of that in many other countries – bogged down by players’ incessant bickering, posturing while the common people suffer and see their jobs evaporate. Mistaking one for the other is to mistake heat for light, form for substance, and rhetoric for solution.
Social Capital – Wellness Programme
I spoke earlier of the boldness and insight of going into export-led growth, unafraid of going against the trend of the world at that point because we knew ourselves well and also knew where we needed to head toward.
That was certainly not the only example. Changi Airport. Jurong Island. MRT system. 3G SAF. These are strategic decisions that do not come just by looking at existing data and options, and doing number crunching. These game-changing decisions don’t just optimise for more efficiency. They don’t even just innovate on what already exists. They create a new reality. They require insight, foresight and gumption – in short, strong leadership - to pursue.
We must continue to have the courage to invest ahead in infrastructure, capability and capacity to address the emerging needs of society proactively.
This will help Singapore find ways to “punch above our weight” and avoid drifting willy-nilly into the league of the “no different from others” nations, or worse still into the company of countries that are constantly fire-fighting to fix problems with decreasing success.
A key investment that Singapore must make is into our aging population. Today, there are about 300,000 Singaporeans aged above 65. By 2030, the number will rise to about 900,000.
Knowing this, we must create a Singapore that embraces advancing years with a positive attitude, so that Singaporeans live long, live well and with peace of mind. For that to happen, we have to alter stereotypes and restructure society and its institutions to reflect the new realities of this ageing population. We must create the conditions and opportunities for our seniors to be healthy, happy and active.
The Wellness Programme is the strategic investment to convert this good intention and kind thought into real outcomes.
Wellness is not only about physical health and sickness. Equally importantly, it is about having good friends and neighbours. It is about relationships that care. It is about opportunities for volunteerism. It is about bringing out the best in us for ourselves and for each other, especially among the seniors.
A recent People’s Association study on the Wellness Programme showed that 36% of respondents got to know more than 10 neighbours and some 40% made more than 10 new friends in the community.
Done right, the Wellness Programme will produce a level of goodwill, initiative and mutual support for and among the seniors that we have never before reached. It would not only help our seniors live and feel better, but would also indirectly do the same for their children.
42 out of the 87 constituencies have this programme, and 100,000 seniors are regularly participating in and benefiting from its activities. The plan, subject to resources, is to add another 20 constituencies in 2012.
KPIs and right outcomes
Finally, we must also fine-tune our performance indicators to track the meaningful and avoid being blindsided.
As an example, one of the values that Singaporeans hold dear and strongly is that of decency of treatment. Recently, a newspaper article highlighted the plight of some workers of industrial accidents being given 2 days of medical leave which appeared manifestly inadequate for their condition. Under current regulations, companies do not need to report industrial accidents if the injuries do not call for more than 2 days of medical leave. This is probably to avoid swarming the system with very minor incidents.
However, as there are penalties for companies with high reported rates of industrial accidents, we must be careful to check and police the issuance of medical leave so that a holistic picture emerges for the country, for each industry and company. This will put to rest any suspicion that there might be gaming on the part of companies, leading to unfair treatment of injured workers. Alternatively, it will reveal where such gaming of the system may have occurred, and action can be taken against the company and their doctors.
Conclusion
Mr. Speaker, Sir.
Yesterday, I attended a ceremony commemorating the 101st anniversary of the founding of the Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital. At the ceremony, we watched a video that chronicled the good work of the hospital for the community this past century.
The last scene of the video contained a saying in Chinese, which, when translated into English, means “No matter how long the journey, we must never forget why we started on it in the first place.”
Sir, Singapore must always be about our People. It must always be about creating that better life and tomorrow for our People. That was why we started on this journey in the first place. This is also why we will press on.
Thank you.
