So I've been thinking about something serious...

[EnglishClock]

Please take this seriously

I know that many of you are anxious about our economic situation.

It is not just adult Singaporeans. Our young also seem to be worried. In May this year, The Straits Times reported on a dialogue session with junior college, polytechnic and university students. More than three-quarters of the students expressed pessimism about Singapore's future.

They were concerned how Singapore would fare against giant economies like China and Russia, and whether one day, Indonesia and Malaysia would overtake us. They wondered how many Singaporeans would run off to other countries to enjoy cheaper cars and bigger houses.

I too, worry about these things.

However, unlike the students, I am not pessimistic. The benign global climate of the early 90s may have turned less hospitable. But the future is what we make of it.

Our elders faced an even more dire situation in 1965 when we separated from Malaysia. Ask your parents about life in Singapore then. It was worrying and tough, and I say it from personal experience. I lived in a house without electricity or modern sanitation, until my family moved into a 3-room HDB flat. But our elders fought their way up, and built the life we now have.

Today, it is the turn of our young to be tested. This baptism of fire will temper your generation. From your performance in National Service and the workplace, and the way you take to sports, I am confident that you have what it takes to secure your place under the sun.

Remember, we now have more human resources. We have a better educated people, all working in the English language, with higher professional, management and organisational expertise, and technological skills. We also have more material assets, world-class infrastructure, and stronger foreign reserves. This means you have more to lose. But it also means you have more to fight with, and win.

If you do not doubt yourselves, you will prove those worried students wrong. You will overcome the challenges that come your way.

Growing Economic Competition

A key challenge will be to meet the growing economic competition. With globalisation, more players have entered the economic arena.

For instance, China has already joined the WTO. Russia will join soon.

Many former Soviet allies in Central and Eastern Europe have also joined the WTO. They have many skilled workers and engineers. Their wages are low, about a third of Singapore's. They are able to produce and sell their products at a fraction of our cost. In time, the quality of their products will also rival ours.

So you see, the highway to the market is getting congested. In the 90s, there were few cars on this highway. Singapore could speed along in our modest 1600cc car. Now, there are many vehicles on the highway - trucks, cars, vans, motorcycles, Volvos, Mercedes Benz, Toyotas, Hyundais. Even if you drive a Ferrari, you cannot zoom around anymore. Everyone is fighting for space. They should have introduced ERP!

The Regional Challenge

Nearer home, our neighbours are building up their airports and seaports, our traditional speciality. Malaysia, for example, has announced that it wants to be a transportation hub.

A foreign diplomat who knows the Malaysian leaders advised me that Malaysia was intent on poaching such business from Singapore. A Johor businessman told our High Commission in KL that Malaysia would build up Johor to compete head-on with Singapore. Money, he said, was no object.

PSA lost shipping line Maersk to Malaysia's Port of Tanjung Pelepas two years ago, because Pelepas made Maersk an offer it could not refuse. This year, PSA lost Evergreen. Evergreen was offered non-port incentives, in addition to very low container handling rates.

Lim Swee Say saw a silver lining in the loss of these two shipping lines to Pelepas. He said that grassroots leaders finally understood the meaning of competition.

We welcome competition.

And we will compete. We will create new strategies. We cannot be locked in old thinking, and continue frozen in the model of yester-year. However successful this old model was, in the changed world, it will not bring us to greater heights.

PSA understands this. It is not taking the loss of the two shipping lines lying down. It is fighting back. And it has the resources, skills and experience to develop new ways to anchor and attract shipping lines to Singapore. It will do whatever is needed to maintain its position as the premier transhipment hub of our region.

PSA will succeed. It has already achieved some results. Korean shipping line Hanjin has opted to stay in Singapore, although Pelepas made a determined bid for it. In the first half of this year, PSA's throughput grew by 9 percent, as compared to a decline of 9 percent last year. For a port the size of PSA, and one facing keen competition, this is a good performance.

Moreover, PSA's investments in the existing 37 berths are sunk costs. And the Government has set aside land for 20 additional berths at Pasir Panjang, for whoever can best run the berths, be it PSA, Jurong Port, other port operators or shipping lines. We are open to all options that will enhance the competitiveness of shipping lines hubbing in Singapore.

There is further good news: PSA is among several ports working with the US on its Container Security Initiative (CSI). Containers from CSI ports will enjoy quick, "green lane" clearance through US customs. Given Americaââ,¬â,,¢s grave concern over the smuggling of terrorists and weapons in containers, the CSI will enhance the competitiveness of our transhipment port.

We have always been able to meet the competition from Hong Kong, Kaoshiung and other big and well-managed ports in the region. We will work smarter, and stay in the game.

Rising Dragon

Our bigger challenge is from the rising dragon.

It is not just Singapore which has to adjust to China's entry into the global marketplace. Hong Kong is even more worried. The Washington Post reported in June that five years after the return of Hong Kong to China, the main source of distress in Hong Kong was "not communism, but rather, too much capitalist competition (from China)".

In the 60s and 70s, thousands of Chinese crossed the border in search of a better life in Hong Kong. These days, Hong Kong's businessmen are headed in the opposite direction in search of profits. Even feng shui experts in Hong Kong are rearranging their furniture to improve their luck. They, too, have to ward off competition from China!

[EnglishClock]

Be Committed

The remaking of Singapore goes beyond economics. It is also about making changes to our society, to make Singapore the kind of home that Singaporeans will want to live in. Vivian Balakrishnan heads the Remaking Singapore Committee - the social and political counterpart of the Economic Review Committee. He and his committee have met a broad spectrum of Singaporeans to understand their wishes and aspirations. They will be putting up their recommendations soon.

One of the core issues Vivian's committee is looking into, is how to root Singaporeans to Singapore.

While working on this issue, Vivian told Parliament in April that his son had asked him why we should fight for Singapore if there was a war. This question sparked a national debate. It made Singaporeans look into their hearts, and ask what Singapore meant to them.

One Singaporean wrote to The Straits Times,

"If we expect the citizens to die for their country, there must be something beyond material things that is worth dying for".

He is right. Economic competitiveness alone will not build us an enduring Singapore. It may give us material wealth. But if a major recession comes along, how many Singaporeans will leave for greener pastures?

Lee Huay Leng of Lianhe Zaobao wrote a thoughtful piece on this question in July. She was the Chinese paper's correspondent in Hong Kong for three years, and had just returned to Singapore. In her article, Huay Leng described the changes she saw in Singaporeans. She noted that Singaporeans were now used to living in a comfortable, somewhat surreal world, disconnected from the harsh realities of our regional neighbourhood. She wondered therefore if the current generation of Singaporeans could bear hardship. She noted too, that Singaporeans now measured a government by whether it met their infinite material wants, and that the Government had to deal with voters who were prepared to migrate. If the Government failed to meet the material expectations of Singaporeans, would they stay around?

This is a predicament for Singapore. The more the Government provides for Singaporeans, the higher their expectations of what the Government should do. The more we educate Singaporeans, and the more economic opportunities we create for them, the more internationally mobile they will become. The more they gain from subsidised HDB housing, the more money they have to buy cheaper houses in Australia. Will Singaporeans be rooted to Singapore? Will enough Singaporeans stay here, to ensure our country's long-term survival?

The answer depends on whether they feel deeply for Singapore, and for their family, friends, colleagues, and fellow NSmen in their army units. It depends on whether they see this place as home for themselves and their children, or whether they treat Singapore as a hotel.

If they feel Singapore is home, then they will stay and fight for Singapore. Even if they are overseas, they will return and fight. They will work with passion and conviction for our future. They will make sure that Singapore continues to progress and prosper.

For me, this is home because my family, my friends, my people are here. My memories are here. My hopes are here.

This is home because we built it. Every Singaporean has given a part of himself, big or small, to the country. Singapore is the sum of our dreams, our fears, our sweat. It reflects who we are, and what we want to be.

When we proclaim that we are Singaporeans, we are expressing our belief in the Singapore way of life and in our shared values - a multi-racial and multi-religious society, meritocracy, compassion, justice, equality, hard work, determination, and excellence in whatever we do. We are proud of our achievements, and grateful for the opportunities and the good life that the country has given us.

And every dollar that we donate, every feedback that we give, every idea that we offer, reflects our dreams for a better Singapore.

You will not feel this same sense of belonging anywhere else. You may enjoy a physically comfortable life. But only at home here in Singapore, can you control your destiny. As Jack Neo explained in his recent interview,

"Here, I'm the No. 1 wife. Elsewhere, I'm the concubine."

Unfortunately, not all Singaporeans feel like Jack Neo. I shook my head when I read some of the responses to a poll by Streats. Streats asked Singaporeans if they were prepared to lay down their lives for Singapore if it came to a crunch. One respondent said that he would "run at the drop of a hat". Another said that he would not stay, because "with the global economy, we neednââ,¬â,,¢t be in Singapore to earn money". A third felt "no sense of belonging here."

These people are fair-weather Singaporeans.

I hope they will have a change of heart when they think over their remarks. The English students of Oxford University, in a famous debate just before World War Two, voted that they would not die for King and country. Ironically, a few years later, when the war broke out, many of them did fight bravely against Hitler and the Nazis.

I was disturbed too, by two letters published in Streats in July. The writers are also fair-weather Singaporeans. They said that if life is less stressful elsewhere, for example in Australia, and less costly, why not emigrate? They believed that life would be even tougher for the next generation in Singapore, as shown by the recent decision to increase bus and MRT fares. In Australia, on the other hand, the cost of living was very low - property was cheap, cars were cheap, and parking in most places was free.

Are these two potential emigrants so sure that the cost of living will never go up in Australia? Which other country will they run off to next, when bus fares go up in Australia?

Fair-weather Singaporeans will run away whenever the country runs into stormy weather. I call them "quitters".

Fortunately, "quitters" are in the minority. The majority of Singaporeans are "stayers". "Stayers" are committed to Singapore. Rain or shine, they will be with Singapore. As we say in Hokkien, "pah see buay zao".

"Stayers" include Singaporeans who are overseas, but feel for Singapore. They will come back when needed, because their hearts are here. The Singapore nation is not just those of us living here, but also the thousands of loyal Singaporeans who live around the world.

Let me stress that I am not criticising all Singaporeans who have emigrated. But I take issue with those fair-weather Singaporeans who, having benefited from Singapore, will pack their bags and take flight when our country runs into a little storm.

Our founding fathers did not give up when Singapore had to fight the communists and communalists in the 50s and 60s, when the racial riots erupted in the 60s, when we faced the oil crisis in 1973 or our first recession in 1985. If the founding generation were faint-hearted, and had run off at the first sign of trouble, there would be no independent Singapore today. Their never-say-die, can-do spirit gave us the peace and prosperity we enjoy today.

Has the younger generation of Singaporeans gone soft? Look yourself in the mirror and ask, am I a "stayer" or a "quitter"? Am I a fair-weather Singaporean or an all-weather Singaporean?

I believe the large majority of our youths are "stayers", and have not gone soft. The men do National Service. The women support them. We can see that our NSmen take their duties seriously. When they participate in exercises with other armed forces, or when they volunteer for UN missions, they do the SAF and Singapore proud.

One Singaporean posted on The Straits Times Interactive web-site,

"To love one's country, to fight and die for one's country, is the duty of every citizen. It is an honour as well."

Another Singaporean in Canada said that if war were to break out, he would fly back to fight, simply because he wanted to "fight for my home, my family and friends".

Yet a third Singaporean declared,

"I would die for the people who contribute to this country, like the cleaner who sweeps the road, the people who drive the buses."

I am not asking anyone to die for Singapore. I want them to live for Singapore. If you are a "stayer" and are committed to Singapore, we will more than survive.

In 1965, when we separated from Malaysia, Singapore was not given much of a chance to survive. Unemployment was high, and the future was bleak. We were a tiny island. We had no natural resources. But our parents stayed, worked hard, and built up the country.

Today, no one doubts that Singapore will survive. We are respected internationally. Every Singaporean has a roof over his head. He enjoys quality education and healthcare. Our streets are safe and secure. Our environment is green and beautiful. Our arts, sports, leisure and entertainment scenes are vibrant.

Yes, the future is uncertain. The journey will be tough. But let us press on. We may not be able to change the world. But we can remake Singapore. We will make tomorrow brighter than today. Let no challenge stand in our way.

Good night!

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