Towards a fair and just Singapore in a brave new world?
That is the caption-title of an article written by Editor-at-large Han Fook Kwang this morning. He has a point when he wrote that “when you see 70-year-olds having to clean tables and toilets at hawker centres, you do not need a degree in economics to know it is not right.”
Well, a degree in economics can only get you so far. You can measure economic growth with plotted charts and graphs, but you can’t ensure or develop the moral courage to see it through. And what is growth anyway to an economist? GDP? NNI? Or is it about the most optimal allocation of scarce resources and risks based on market prices?
Mind you, there is a difference between telling the people that the economy is growing 4%, with inflation under control and telling them that there will be a fairer distribution of income and gains in society and assuring them that the market has been tweaked in such a way that those who pollute more pay more.
At this point, Fook Kwang reminded us about Tharman’s social compact, that is, not the invisible hand of the market, but the invisible heart for those in our society who are struggling to make ends meet. And that includes the 70-year-old cleaning tables and toilets and that 80-year-old pushing a trolley of cardboards for sale.
Tharman urges us “to go back to a sense of moral purpose in government, having the confidence to convince the population that these are the right thing to do...and go about it with the spirit of an activist.”
But what is the activist’s mindset then? Do our leaders have that mindset? Are they there yet? Let’s pick the mind of a seasoned politician in Singapore to answer that.
ESM Goh was also featured in the papers today. On GE2020, he said: “To be very frank, I was expecting a better performance for the ruling party because of the Covid situation. I do believe that people generally will take flight to safety.”
He added: “I don’t think the party was addressing the aspiration side of what the young wanted, because they started to message on Covid-19 challenges and so on. But the young felt it’s your job, you can handle it; but what about my aspirations?”
When PM Lee unveiled his GE2020 manifesto with this motto of “Our Lives, Our Jobs and Our Future”, riding on the Covid pandemic to call upon Singaporean to choose safety over risks, he has underestimated the people who has always wanted a greater stake in how their future is shaped, rather than just taking cover when the weather turns. It is thus not just about calming the storm, but asking, “Where are you steering the boat to after the storm has calmed?”
For it is one thing to lead to inspire and another to lead with exacting efficiency.
On observing that we have reached an “inflexion point” in the people’s expectations, ESM Goh said: “I think the 4G has not yet shown themselves politically. They are intelligent, very competent, hard-working and good in running ministries. To be fair to them, they have not quite yet shown that political acumen, politician leadership.”
Is that the activist’s mindset that is lacking? That is, a mindset that goes beyond bread and butter issues to what Tharman calls a society with heart, with leaders able to move hearts and give them hope to aspire for greater things for themselves and for their family.
Fook Kwang mentioned that “it is very hard to get everyone to pull together in the same direction when there are too many areas of unequal opportunities and inequality. It is why America is such a divided country.”
While some can retire comfortably, Fook Kwang wrote this about the plight of many in our unequal society: “When a person who has worked for 40 years full-time in affluent Singapore cannot afford to retire and have a decent life thereafter, it should be clear to everyone that his fate has not been fair and just.”
Well, fate by birth and circumstances is one thing, but some fate are fashioned by culture, and others by the hand of leadership. It is a fate that sees the minority governing from the commanding height of affluence with a widening moat of inequality that separates them from the others.
Alas, the recent social spat when someone who possibly earns tens of millions a year taking an indirect swipe at someone who has made a painful public decision to give a portion of his less than $400k a year to charity after an intimate discussion with his wife shows a society that is premised less on a moral purpose of being gracious, open-minded, humble and inclusive and more on a purpose that needs to put others down in order to “score political points”.
Let me end with the hope that Fook Kwang is pinning on in his article. He wrote: “I hope therefore that when the Government speaks of continuity it does not mean more of the same, but will find new ways to steer Singapore successfully in the brave new world.”
I share the same hope with him in this brave new world. It is a world where moral courage means that our leaders are able to inspire a community built on a strong sense of shared belonging that carries the conviction that the only way our society can become strong is when they care for the weak, and the only way it can become rich is when they care for the poor.
It is therefore a brave new world we can all have a stake in because it is one where we move from chasing after self-enriching projects that is socially isolating to a community in the pursuit of the common good for all, where no one feels he/she is left behind.
To me, that is the empowering mindset of an activist. A mind that inspires unity by genuinely identifying with the people through personal sacrifices rather than one that instills fear in the hope that the people will run for cover, for the familiar, for the unchanging status quo.
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