Budget 2015: Be courageous in rewarding innovation, says Kuik Shiao-Yin

SINGAPORE – The Republic must be “courageous and consistent” in the way it rewards innovation for it to truly flourish in the country, said Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) Kuik Shiao-Yin in an impassioned speech that earned plaudits during the Budget Statement debate in Parliament today (March 4).

It will always feel safer to reward according to familiar old performance indicators, especially since it is risky to reward innovations that take years to bear fruit. “But if we continue rewarding mere performance, we will create exactly what we hate and get exactly what we reward, which is a nation of performers who just know how to play the old game rather than innovators who rewrite the rules to create a new game,” she said.

Innovations can also thrive in situations where there are insufficient resources, and what the Budget may need to jumpstart a culture of innovation is “fruitful freedom that was given wholeheartedly in trust” to people, she added.

Noting that SkillsFuture is a potential game-changer to inject the spirit of innovation, Ms Kuik said it should look beyond allowing Singaporeans to spend credit on safe but limited range of pre-approved courses by approved vendors when there is a “radical world of learning” in multiple platforms, formats, teachers and skills.

“Many of us were already forced to study one way in the education system, give us the freedom to study in our own way outside of it. Trust the people to decide. Take a risk on us,” she added.

Ms Kuik also said making the distinction that this year’s Budget is not a “Robin Hood” one is an important one in the spirit of promoting inclusiveness. “The Robin Hood mentality is based on an exclusionary impulse that believes the rich are evil and unworthy and deserve to be robbed for everyone else’s sake. This sentiment while secretly pleasing to our middle class hearts really just promotes even more disdain among the classes,” she said.

“Collective responsibility is the better impulse because it is inclusionary. It emphasises that we are all not only equally worthy of being cared for but are equally worthy of being fellow contributors to the common good,” she added.

Excerpts from her speech:

On innovation and freedom:

“If we are hedging our bets on innovation as the key to securing Singapore’s future, then we must re-examine and drastically change what we measure and reward at the national level. Schools, for example, are still currently ranked and rewarded most significantly for academic performance over all else. So we should not be surprised if we still produce teachers, parents and youths who prize mastery of exam technique over mastery of life skill… The good news is that for innovation to flourish, it’s not about pouring even more resources the way of schools and organisations - although that is always greatly appreciated. In fact, innovation thrives best in situations where there are insufficient resources. The difference is freedom. What puts people in the space of innovation is the emotion of freedom. Not a destructive freedom that exists because of indifference, but a fruitful freedom that was given wholeheartedly in trust.”

On inclusivity and humility:

“It’s important for us young Singaporeans to lay down our self-righteousness and admit that we all struggle with inconsistency - not just the government. We are all a work in progress in terms of living out our values. Many of us who want inclusivity also find ourselves excluding still. Some of us may speak compassionately about the poor and powerless but are filled with loathing for the rich and powerful. Some of us may fight lovingly for animals, but talk hatefully about new migrants. If we are honest, we should admit that we are all inconsistent. But if we are mature, we would also in the same breath say we are not satisfied with being inconsistent, we will always try to stay open to changing how we view the other and creating a place to welcome them. Inclusivity begins in humility.”

On the Silver Support Scheme and inclusivity:

“To automatically include the needy elderly without needing them to go through the stigma of jumping through bureaucratic hoops signals a new way forward for how we do social support. Automatic inclusion is not something those of us who are privileged think much about. But the truth is the more privileged we are, the more automatically included we are into the system, and thus the more automatically decisions are made for our benefit. For example, the middle class automatically gets their CPF Housing Grant when they purchase their flats. Paperwork is minimal. The working poor on the other hand can only get their Special and Additional CPF Housing Grants when they submit documents to prove they are working enough and poor enough … Automatic inclusion, however, says to a recipient of welfare, “I want to help you and I don’t need you to keep proving to me again and again that you are worth helping. You are in a hard place and I will neither further burden nor shame you.”…I hope we can keep exploring how to make even more social assistance benefits automatically inclusive.”

On the Singapore identity:

“Local music, fashion, graphic design, hawker food, film, brands, memories. These are not petty things to invest in. If we leave the fate of our local culture purely to market forces, we are in grave danger of losing the small stuff that binds, that anchor us to this country when everything in the world beckons us to leave. Singapore needs to invest in her own story and support her story-makers and story-tellers – the writers, the artistes, the creatives, the film-makers, the historians, the entrepreneurs, the musicians, the chefs.”