Corruption and Singapore's Challenge

I'm so excited about this topic!

The last few lessons in school have been on the issue of Corruption in governance. One interesting fact that our professor pointed out was that SIngapore is such an anomaly in terms of how in spite of political situation gaps that would in most other countries, encourage corruption

Corruption in other nations, such as the US, is kept in check by several factors: the voting electorate, the free press, the NGOs who have a strong voice and the ability the diminish the power of the prevailing party in rule. Interestingly, SIngapore while having a fairly strong governing executive and a "weaker" citizenship (less vocal, more compliant) has managed to stay corruption-free. The government's stand on anti-corruption stems mainly on the basis of survival.

With corruption, Singapore would NOT survive. Especially in the early day of idependence, where this lone island with a hodge podge of immigrants from all over the world, which had no hinterland or natural resources to speak of. the only competitive advantage was HONESTY - providing an environment for people to entrust their capital in. It was a competitive advantage that no one had yet highlighted back in the 1960s, but in studying the nations around, and with the thriftiness of the COnfuscian values, it became our competitive advantage and remains so till this day. Singapore will not survive corruption.

Some of my classmates have asked how we can be sure that the government will remain corrupt free.. my personal response to this is: i don't know. The first batch of leaders : Lee Kuan Yew, Goh Keng Swee and Rajaratnam have successully imparted the value of integrity, prudence, public service to the generation of leaders after them, injected perhaps a tinge of "paranoia" that Singapore needs to have in order to be constantly improving itself and never let its guard down. Hence, the concept that the country will cease to exist if corruption exists prevails. Consider, Singapore has no natural resources to speak of for the govt officials to milk off, unlike other nations, and without its people, there will be no resources. Also, the education and political system in Singapore has enabled the economically productive Singaporeans to also be highly mobile, hence with even the slightest tinge of corruption, my guess is that they will leave Singapore ( even now, SIngaporeans are leaving to find 'greener pastures' overseas), leaving the government nothing to work with.

I trust our current governmet, in fact i'm proud of them. THat is not to say that i agree with all the policies implemented, but i m proud for the level of transparency and checks in balance they place to leave 'not even a hint' of corruption.

Dean Mahbubani related this story in the first year of independence of Singapore: Due to low levels in the treasury in the first year of independence, the civil service had to undergo paycuts across the board. It happened that this one Minister of State was invited by a personal businessman friend to go on a holiday after a year of hard work of building a new nation. This Minister declined, afterall, there really wasn't much savings that he had to go on a holiday. HOwever, his friend insisted just to bless him and his family on a personal basis and so he went in the end. Now, this was NOT a case of bribery or business exchange of favors, it was a genuine case of a friend wanting to help another friend who happened to be a civil servant. Upon touching down on his return, this Minister of State was ARRESTED by the police. Yes - Not even a HINT of corruption. That arrest sent a loud message to the nation and to the civil service, that not even a hint was acceptable, no matter what the original intention was. Even up till now, there continues to be a strict policy on declaring gifts - a tie, pen or whatever, to civil serants to the governement. The civil servants can exercise their right buy the item at cost price if they feel that the gift has sentimental value but yes, it is declared.

He also related another incident where the then Deputy Prime Minister Goh Keng Swee was in another country excused himself early from a social gathering. When asked what for, he replied " I need to go back to the hotel to wash my clothes." The DPM of Singapore hand washing his own clothes! I love his prudency. Now like I said, these were the early forefathers of Singapore that first laid the foundations of nation building and I am truly proud of what they have done.

Now the challenge remains, with a new generation of leaders that have not country war or a time of lack, will they have the same sence of urgency and motivation to run the country corruption-free in public service instead of self-service?

This leadership challenge is BIG and honestly with the morphing state of worldviews especially amongst the youth where every thing is subjective to the person's point of view.. where right and wrong, and morality is subjective to the person, i wonder, will there come a time where it is going to be hard to draw the line between Corruption and Culture? An accepting culture where everything is subjective (esp anchored to the individual making the decision), which happens now in countries where gifting is a norm (u should have heard the gasps from my classmates when the Dean gave another example where he had to purchase back a pen that was given to him as gift) and where gifts and bribery draw a fine line.

We need to raise a generation of new leaders that will have a clear moral stand not based on individual subjectiveness but on something unchangeable. As a nation, we need to be careful that in our meritocratic stance of filtering and choosing leaders based on performance, that we do not miss finding those gems of pristine character that come with the performance. I believe it is possible to have economically, politically and morally intelligent leadership in a nation.

It starts from the classroom and while the government has implemented Civics and MOral Education as part of the core curriculum, I'd like to see the true impact of CME on students now. One incident in my sister related to me about CME class (she's a sec 1 student in a neighborhood school) shocked me.. she told me that her CME teacher had shown them videos of Evan Almighty and High School Muscial 2 a month or a few weeks back for CME class to do a reflection papaer on. Now, i find it very suspicious seeing that Evan Almighty was only recently in the theatres. For them to have the original VCD or DVD out.. it's not really possible. Granted, let's givethe teacher the benefit of a doubt that perhaps the VCD/DVD was legal.. the horror however was, that the teacher offered to burn CDs of the HSM2 for the students - all they had to do was to pass her a CD! Now, there's just NO possible excuse for that. And THIS, in Civics and Moral Education Class. This is a small issue in light of larger corruption issues, but that's where it all starts. It allows students to think that in view your personal situation and personal comfort, it is ok to bend/break the law.

Our challenge now is a leadership challenge, I pray that God will continue to give our current government leaders, societal leaders and those who are committed to make a difference in this nation, the wisdom to raise and nurture a generation of youths that will think of life beyond their own wants and comfort and to give of themselves geuninely for the generations after them.