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S’pore must keep striving to stay ahead of the curve

Singapore is well known as the Little Red Dot. But it was not too long ago that former Indonesian President B J Habibie first disparaged us as a red dot compared with the vast green of Indonesia on the map.

Singapore is well known as the Little Red Dot. But it was not too long ago that former Indonesian President B J Habibie first disparaged us as a red dot compared with the vast green of Indonesia on the map.

As with all things, we took this in our stride and converted it from a negative to a positive, a disadvantage to an advantage and an adversity to an opportunity.

That was how our founding leaders under Mr Lee Kuan Yew transformed Singapore from a Third World backwater with no natural resources into a First World city state, a garden city and now a city in a garden.

This can-do, never say die spirit our people have displayed is what has brought us here today. Many books, commentaries and documentaries about our Little Red Dot have been written and produced.

At the 2015 National Day Rally, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong exhorted Singaporeans to not only be a Little Red Dot, but strive to be a “shining red dot”.

Some Singaporeans, however, feel that we have arrived and can now smell the roses and take it easy. This would be a mistake.

To slow down or stagnate is to degenerate, especially in the face of global competition, and we may never see the light again.

We should always stay ahead of the curve and the competition to be useful and relevant to the rest of the world. That is our survival mantra.

There is a Chinese saying: Small nations do not have foreign policy nor dictate foreign relations. But Singapore has proven the pundits wrong by punching above our weight in international relations.

We do this by winning friends with our sincerity, steadfastness, transparency, integrity and helpfulness. Our success in overcoming challenges based on meritocracy and incorruptibility is renowned, which many countries want to emulate.

The Singapore brand exudes our soft power. That is why we must not get slack, but rather continue to excel in all fields — airport, seaport, airline, education, healthcare, financial centre, et cetera — and strive to be the best in class.

Singapore’s success was built upon robust systems and institutions embracing the right values. Alas, the MRT system is not one of them.

It was one of the best in the world in the beginning, but changed course and principles along the way to maximise shareholder profits at the expense of maintenance and services.

We are paying the price today. It will take a few more years to get back on track after having gone astray.

Let us not forget the lessons of history and the challenges our founding leaders had to overcome to create modern Singapore.

We should uphold and build on their legacy and aspirations.

In this way, we can still be assured of a bright, shining red dot come SG100.

Majulah Singapura.

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