Lesson Learned

Some values we learn follow us forever, and I'm glad that I had teachers in my life who taught me more than the stuff in textbooks. They are life lessons that I have lived by, and in a very significant manner, altered my perception of the way things work.

In Primary school, I learned that "The government must do what is right for its people, and not what is popular."

In Secondary school, I learned that "A person who thinks he already knows will never learn anything new," and "There are 3 groups of people - the fast, the moderate, and the slow. It does not matter which group we belong to, because the ultimate aim is to get us to the destination when the time comes."

In JC, a question well discussed was "Is the majority always right?". There were arguments on how, although the majority is not always right, it is still a credible indicator of what might be right in the event that all other indicators fail. After all, we are a democratic society. Of course, then, in greyer areas such as homosexuality and education of the Arts, who is to say what is right and what is wrong?

By now you would have figured that I am probably going to talk about the Population White Paper. There has been fierce debate in the parliament, and I must say some politicians argue for the sake of arguing, but I think most of us (yes, the majority) has come to the conclusion that 6.9m people in Singapore is too damn much.

In my honest opinion (for what it's worth), I strongly believe that Singapore needs to slow down, and review where we are now, before we can move on to make game-changing plans and national decisions. Never mind that we didn't have enough foresight to see this. Never mind that we are ferociously debating on what is good and what is not. This is not a time for finger-pointing, not a time to steal the limelight. This is a time for focus, and a time for heavy deliberation. Because as far as I am grateful for all the unpopular but "right" decisions the government has made, such as the ERP system and the CPF, I cannot agree on the need to expand our population for the sake of economic development. It's high time the government trusts its people - the people who voted for them to represent them. Because sometimes what is popular is also right.

The main cause for concern is indubitably overcrowding and foreign competition. For all we know, we are very jaded of the apologies of SMRT, which we have learned in previous years, was a reliable and efficient mode of transport for the masses. It still is, I must admit, but it has made too many blunders in recent times for people to forget what it used to be. We also blame the foreigners in our land for overcrowding. It seems like, to a Singaporean, foreigners are nothing but MRT-hogging, job-stealing, rich-enough-to-spoil-the-economy people out to ruin Singapore and its prosperity. I cannot fathom how myopic these views are. Have we all become provincials?

Times are always hard. It is always the tough people who think more, do more, complain and whine least who survive the longest. Singaporeans need to think about how housing and COE prices are being jacked up. It's a free market, mind you. The prices are determined by demand and supply. As far as I know, it is we who decide that we are willing to fork out that exorbitant 90k for a new car.

Having said that, I do think that our priority is to slow down and review our national decisions, gather feedback, reorganise, and then move on with greater ferocity, efficiency and vigour. It is not a time for tenacity. Your people are shouting but their words are falling on deaf ears. If we wanted economic progress so badly, we would have said so. But we don't; and as the voice and leaders of the people, you need to acknowledge that that's okay, and not be obdurate.

Given a choice, everyone would want to live comfortably. We have no natural resources to speak of, yet we are so high up the GDP per capita rankings. We recognise the government's efforts to put us all the way up there, to fight for high standards of living for Singaporeans, but when will we stop being so competitive? We are the poor kid who had a humble beginning, but worked his way to success through endless toiling, until one day, he is as wealthy as the naturally endowed kid like Qatar, who had tons of inherited wealth. We have become obsessed (pardon me for the strong word) with our wealth and success, never contented, never enough. We want more, more for ourselves, more for our kids, and even more for their kids. But I know, just like the old MRT trains that need a hiatus for complete check-up, Singapore needs a breather for its overworked engines.

As we proceed to greater developments, we need to understand that increasing our population (and reclaiming more land to accommodate people; oh, the blasphemy) is never the solution. We have moved on from labour-intensive to a specialised, skilled workforce. What we need to focus on is training our people to be more efficient, more proficient, and definitely more indispensable. If meritocracy is what we promote, then rightly it should be our push factor. We tell our children at school that they can go at their own pace, but the next thing we do is throw them out into society and expect them to produce results. Some of us can handle it, and some of us can't. "It does not matter which group we belong to, because the ultimate aim is to get us to the destination when the time comes."

It's time to practice what we preach. We advocate self-paced learning, and self-paced progress in our schools. Are we too power-hungry to live by our own mantra? I hope not, because as far as I know, our teachers are doing a pretty darn great job at educating our generation, who will in turn shape Singapore's future.

Yea, and all these coming from a 20 year old kid who hasn't even seen the world yet. Call me naive, call me simplistic, but I firmly believe that regardless how slow we go, we will get there someday.