'Faster legs, stronger hearts, wiser minds': Ong Ye Kung

Mr Ong Ye Kung, Acting Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills), delivered a speech titled "Faster legs, stronger hearts, wiser minds" at the Debate of President's Address in Parliament today (Jan 25). Here is his speech in full:

Madam Speaker

We have done remarkably well as a society and country from SG 01-50. SG51-100 will however be different, in terms of our external circumstances, our domestic situation and also the outlook of Singaporeans. Today the eyes of our people are upon us, the Government. We are jointly committed to the next phase of nation building. Some principles – integrity, meritocracy, openness to the world – should be held steadfastly, while other things must evolve to suit new circumstances. Today I would like to talk about three aspects of governance which may have to evolve.

I say “may”, because the process will never be straightforward, certainly not sudden, and always a gradual and progressive evolution, fraught with tensions. But this process of evolution is absolutely necessary because no city stays successful by standing still. Animals develop sharper claws, longer beaks and harder shells to adapt to their environment. The three aspects of evolution for Singapore I will talk about today are: faster legs, stronger hearts, and wiser minds.

Faster Legs: The Economy

First, faster legs, which means how we make a living. At our birth, Singapore wanted, not foreign aid, but Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). The global economic system was then emerging from the old world of colonialism, where country-to-country relationships were hierarchical and benefits unbalanced, to a new global order based on market forces. Our economic strategy of attracting FDI was conceived in this era of receding colonialism.

But the next 50 years will be different. US, Europe and Japan will continue to be major players with important investments in Singapore. But we are also in the midst of the making of an Asian century.

China is a major part of the equation. We need to look at China’s trajectory beyond today’s stock market sell down and pessimistic talk of soft or hard landing. China’s economic transformation has moved on to address the quality of growth. Low value added activities are no longer the China Dream.

Growth will be slower, but 6-7% growth is huge in absolute terms, especially for a small economy like Singapore.

The major change is that the Chinese economy will be more discerning in allocating capital to more productive uses, it will move up the value added ladder. With greater discipline in allocating capital to production capacity, consumption accounts for a larger proportion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth than investments in 2015. And consumption is not just of goods, but also of services. That is why services are generating more jobs than manufacturing in China today.

China will therefore have a leaner and more able production capacity. ASEAN in fact no longer serves as the major component supplier for China. China now produces those components, assembles them into final products, and ships them globally – including to ASEAN. Because of that, the trade surplus ASEAN experienced with China in 2000’s  has flipped into a big trade deficit now.

India may also feature prominently in our economic fate. By 2050, India is likely to be the largest country in the world by population, and third largest economy globally. It is the fastest growing developing economy.

Outside of Asia, Africa’s demographic momentum will be of tremendous global impact. By 2050, about a quarter of the world’s population will be African. Africa will be a major part of the global equation on growth, climate change and even international migration.

In this new era, our post-colonial strategy of attracting FDI remains relevant but it is not enough. FDI has many more places to go to. We also cannot look at the value chain of China and try to fit ourselves in, as we did when we outsourced more labour intensive manufacturing activities to China.

Today China drives the value chain. We must look at China now as a tremendous business and consumer market, and learn to tap into it.

Many Asian economies are facing headwinds not just because there is slower growth in China, but more because a new division of labour is emerging, and each economy is still finding its footing in the new configuration.

For Singapore, I think we must know the markets around us intimately – traditions, customs, taste, language, habits and psychology. We used to encourage Singaporeans to anchor in Singapore. With a strong anchor planted, it is now necessary to seek our fortunes in the region. The learning curve will be steep. President Tan has warned that “we cannot expect an easy journey ahead”. That is why institutes of higher education are encouraging overseas internships for their students. We must be able to understand, bridge, and operate across different cultures. We must have depth in knowhow and skills, so that wherever we go, our expertise is valued.

Stronger hearts: Our national identity

The next area of evolution – stronger hearts – refers to the resolve to define Singapore and our national identity.

In the beginning, Singapore was regarded as special because we resolved to move ahead together. Fifty years later, one of our greatest achievements arising from that resolve is to have built a national selfconsciousness, an emerging, unique Singapore identity, from a diverse immigrant society with hardly any common ground to stand on.

But this is a process that will take further decades and centuries. If we look around the countries around us – China and India are civilizational; Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Japan, have centuries of history behind them shaping the way they are.

So for the next 50 years, the most important development may well be invisible to the naked eye. With a stronger heart, we will develop a more distinct national identity, and strengthen the Singapore soul. That will be our monument for the next 50 years. But our identity is not derived merely by a legal fiat that pronounced everyone “Singaporean”. There is richness in the identity, drawn from our diverse ancestry and cultural origins.

This is why it is critical we make – and continue to make – great effort in living together, side by side, to understand and appreciate each other and build ever larger common spaces. As MPs, we knocked on the doors of many HDB units. Just within one block, I had stood before homes with Quran verses, crucifixes, statues of Ganesh and joss stick urns affixed above or around the front doors. Nowhere in the world can we find this. I think our HDB flats also deserve UNESCO recognition. This is truly our heritage.

The President has said that “to remain special, we must first resolve to move ahead together.” While we do that, I say – let us not be afraid of the old – things of old are part of history and part of our soul. Even as we continue to develop physically, we must take pride and care to preserve our buildings, our art pieces, historical artefacts, and our beautiful old trees that provide glimpses into our national soul. More young Singaporeans are curious about the paths we have travelled, interested in our history, and proud of it. We should celebrate this because this is a new generation trying to discover their sense of self.

Like the National Gallery and Botanic Gardens, as we preserve them, we also modernise them and take a leap forward. Our national journey is not measured in artificial laps of decades, 50 or hundred years, but a continuous chain and cycle of preservation and renewal, of understanding history and inventing the future.

Decisions: Wiser minds

The third area of evolution is wiser minds: the way we make decisions.

I have vivid memories of conversations in my family when I was a child. Getting demerit points for bad driving or a summons for late utilities payment were major events involving family conferences. Whether to approach the authorities to appeal was also a major decision. Inevitably some auntie of mine would say there was no point in appealing. The oft-cited argument was ‘The Government operate ‘law by law’’. As a kid, I hardly knew any English, but even then I knew that that made no grammatical sense. But gradually I realised it meant that rules were transparent and clear, and no quarter given.

Similarly, throughout the government administrative system, decisions are often made by strict adherence to rules and criteria, or comparing scores and numbers. We allocate school places by PSLE T-scores and aggregate scores, and award tenders by lowest bid if we are buying – or highest bid if we are selling.

At a time where our nation was nascent, certainty of rules and consistency in application were critical. It is an approach that leaves little or no room for personal favours, and hence no scope for corruption.

We must continue to emphasise integrity and stand firm against corruption. But we must also exercise judgement and discretion. This is because the world is now too complex to be reduced to rules. Rules are made for Man, not Man for rules. Abiding by rules is part of standard operating procedure, but so too, must be the exercise of judgement.

Singapore is successful today partly because at the crossroads of our nation’s history, our founding fathers made the right and important judgement calls. In time to come, robots and computers can replace almost every human function, except judgement.

There is also the risk that we excessively view ourselves in numerical terms – whether it is scores or rankings. This is our society and culture today.

What we need is a clear focus on what truly matters – the worth of an individual, the standing of institutions, people and country, which can only be captured in part by numbers.

Indeed, we are already seeing greater exercise of judgement today. Social assistance schemes are means-tested with criteria, but on the ground lots of qualitative assessment and judgment are taking place. Who is to say a person earning $2,500 but supporting two handicapped parents is less deserving of help than someone living alone earning $1,500?

Similar, in many public tenders now, the consideration is no longer just price, but how compelling and attractive the proposals are. The contest is less like basketball, more like gymnastics. Such contests can only be decided only by judgement.

Judgement is most needed when it concerns people. I have spoken of a need for a broader definition of merit. All the qualities, attributes, interests, achievements and moral grounding of a person cannot be expressed in one metric.

Judgement and discretion can cause some discomfort – because when things are not ‘law by law’, when there is no comfort in numbers, there is fear that the system is not transparent and therefore unfair. But relying on one number to make decisions when life is so complex cannot be fair, cannot be just. A well-calibrated, greater exercise of judgement must permeate throughout our system over time.

Exercising human judgment does not mean we simply use our gut, or to bend rules willy-nilly. Good judgement is exercised through training, years of experience, and assumption of responsibility. This is far more difficult – but far superior – than simply sticking to rules and numbers. Our human resource system must recognise people who can exercise judgement, who know when it is time for man to make rules. This involves courage, heart, purity of intentions and a very human touch.

Conclusion

Madam Speaker, if we see the world as a living habitat and Singapore as a living and dynamic creature, then we have to consider nation building in evolutionary terms. Sometimes what we need are not billion dollar schemes, but new survival traits to adapt to a more complex and competitive world.

The President has said that ours should be “a society where the bonds of kinship run deep and people look out for one another.” Today and in this House, we must answer the President’s call, to continue to improve ourselves, to develop faster legs, stronger hearts, wiser minds, and to renew our resolve towards our joint destinies. Thank you.