Narrow-minded to dismiss West over some bad eggs

I find it difficult to agree with Mr Lee Teck Chuan’s comments in the letter “Freedom with responsibility the S’pore way, unlike West” (March 24).

He appears to group Westerners into a single entity and claims that Western society is in a shambles — with “stagnant economies, dysfunctional families, social discord and dilapidated infrastructure” owing to their “fervour to seek freedom” — yet provides no substantiating examples.

Which country is he referring to? The United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Iceland, Sweden or Australia, all of which, according to the World Bank, had higher gross domestic product growth than Singapore in 2015 and are surely not “in a shambles”?

Perhaps he is referring to Canada or Switzerland, but I fail to see how they are filled with dysfunctional families and social discord, or to some of the socio-economic issues in countries like the United States or Greece.

I am unsure as to whether or not it is fair to label these countries as representing the West. In any case, if we were to dismiss the West altogether because of a few rotten eggs, we would be narrow-minded.

Mr Lee claims Singapore is “far from being a labour concentration camp”, surely a rather low standard to set for ourselves. He is also full of praise for Singapore, but perhaps he may be a little too optimistic.

He writes that we have been “brought up to have manners, be considerate, respect public property and abide by the law”, as if Singapore is a utopia of well-mannered, law-abiding individuals, without poverty, social issues and people who need help.

Furthermore, he says that “education is a leveller and accessible to all”, unaware that barriers to opportunities in the workplace and in our educational system still exist.

It is ironic that while he vilifies the so-called West for its alleged sense of superiority, he paints Singapore as an exceptional country, beyond the reach of the West.

He seems to suggest that Singapore has nothing to learn, and the West has nothing to teach. I do not share this sense of exceptionalism, and, I believe, neither do many Singaporeans. An aversion to all external criticism is dangerous.

We are not a utopia but a society with its flaws. We must keep on striving for reform and find ways to better ourselves.

Rather than gloat about how great we are today, why not focus on how to make Singapore better for tomorrow?