Opinion
HAS MALAYSIA STOLEN SINGAPORE’S THUNDER?
Can Singapore respond by re-inventing itself into a truly blind meritocracy?
Malaysia’s new enlightened political leadership will abolish its GST from 1 June 2018. Despite potentially crippling losses and huge debts arising from the 1MDB corruption scandal of its previous Government under Najib, Mahathir the old-new Malaysian leader has stayed calm and has reassured his people that he is confident of recovering most of the lost money and that he will be able to boost his country’s stock market and its economy. He had also worked fast - restoring business confidence, hastening investigations into the wrongdoings of the previous administration, removing the allegedly corrupted leaders of his civil service and releasing the much-wronged Anwar Ibrahim within days of his election victory. One can’t help but stand back in admiration.
Meanwhile in contrast, for its more celebrated neighbour across the Causeway, the star of Singapore seems to be dimming. It looks increasingly jaded and seems to be immersed in a political and social malaise and stagnation. It appears to be doing the opposite - it is increasing its GST from 7 to 9 % some time between 2021-2025. Its politics, politicians, civil service and Government policies have all stayed almost unchanged since the heyday of Lee Kuan Yew. The much anticipated emergence of its 4th generation political leaders seems to be facing a prolonged gestation and the longer this delay goes on, the more people will wonder if there is a lack of political talent in the PAP itself. Usually, a true natural leader will select himself and announce himself through his sheer presence, charisma and moral and intellectual authority. To date, no one’s light is shining through. Worse, there is no evidence of political competition among the party’s stalwarts. Every contender sounds the same and says the same things and they never contradict party policy or each other. None of them has his own political character or personality. All they show is a monotonous conformity. Is this a symptom of the party’s lack of real fresh blood, ideas and vitality? If so, it is particularly worrisome for the future of Singapore. If not, let’s hope this is just part of Singapore’s unique culture.
Its superstar, the late Lee Kuan Yew, modernised Singapore and brought it from the 3rd to the 1st world within one generation. He was able to do so because he dared to change Singapore’s society from its backwater in the 50’s into a modern society in the 90s. But a seeming lack of confidence had caused the country to misinterpret his legacy by trying to preserve his policies as far as it can, in form, in substance and in spirit. That, I think, is the exact opposite of what Lee Kuan Yew’s legacy really is!
He had shown us a pioneering spirit of going where no man would or could, by following his own intuition of “what works”. He showed loyalty to neither doctrine nor principle. If something worked, he carried on; if something doesn’t, he changed course. What brought Singapore success was not an LKY formula, but an innovative spirit to seek the best way of doing something and to always change for the better. He did not stand for doing the same things in the same way over and over again.
The country seems anxious about the uncertainties of its future. Yet it is averse to and fearful of change. Part of the reason for the decline in Singapore’s stature seems to be a lack of political competition and a diminishment of intellectual vigour in Singapore. There is no real contest of ideas in its society and the all-encompassing PAP seems intent on discouraging political participation by its people.
I see no spark in Singapore society except for them to continue on this plateau. Perhaps, the only way for it to jump onto a new rising curve is for the PAP to re-examine its priorities. Should they stop thinking about preserving their own dominance and start thinking about reforming the politics of this country for the national good? Should they counterintuitively work to reduce that dominance by levelling the political playing field and truly liberalising the country’s political system in the hope of harvesting the best political talents wherever they may arise, not for PAP, but for Singapore?
Right now, the Singapore Government has identified as its urgent task the fight against social and economic inequalities in the country. In my opinion, the pre-requisite for fighting such inequalities is to introduce a truly blind meritocracy into its political system - blind to party allegiance or political ideology, blind to race, language and religion, blind to gender, blind to educational credentials, blind to social class, background and connections and blind to past prejudices. A blind meritocracy in the political sphere will promote a culture of blind meritocracy in all other areas of life here.
Only then can we hope to catch up with the political and social maturity of our now glittering neighbour, Malaysia, and re-light our own beacon.
