Transcription
Senior Minister, thank you very much for making the time and welcome to NUS. Very happy to be back. Thank you, T. And may I also say welcome to the 328 students who are not from NUS and come from all over Singapore. I think a lot of you may not know, and in fact, quite a lot of NUS students may not know, that part of NUS was actually not NUS. It was a country club just across the road. Um, you were, some of you may have been in primary school or kindergarten at the time, but in 2013, the country club became what we know today as University Town. And the guest of honor who officially declared that opened was then Prime Minister Lee. So, we are so happy to welcome you back again, sir.
If I may start with that and think about Singapore and the competing needs of a small country, land use of course being one. How much do you think, sir, that being a small country has defined us as Singapore, and what other elements do you think are present?
I think, uh, being small is a very deep part of our psyche. If we weren't small, people wouldn't call us a little red dot. But when they did call us a little red dot, we took pride in that. And it's a, a key part of what makes us a Singaporean because some of what makes us a Singaporean is what we make of ourselves, right? Is very important. What, how successful we can be, what our ideals are. We believe in multi-racialism, meritocracy. Uh, we believe in the national pledge, and we also have a certain spirit of Singaporeans, and the way we look at the world, the way we interact with one another. These are things which are within our control. Some things we can't change. For example, geography. We are tiny. But what is even more important is that surrounding us are countries which are not tiny at all, and therefore we become a little red dot, and that's never going to change. I think our history, uh, that's happened, you can add to it, but it will not change. I mean, we've existed since 14th century, the Mas Singapura, Raffles came, made this a colony, British, British, uh, possession, a British colony. We went through Malaysia, we became independent, and that journey is what made Singapore what it is like today. That history can't change. Then you have our demography, multi-racial, Chinese majority, Malays, Indians, Eurasians, and others. And I think that's very deep in our psyche too, which has made us also what we are. So I think all these add together, and if you ask a Singaporean what it means to be one, all these will be somewhere in his mind. If you ask a foreigner what he thinks of when he sees a Singaporean or recognizes one, he will think of some of these things. That's why the little red dot was a name not given by us to ourselves, but by a certain foreign president who said that little red dot, look at that huge sea of green in Southeast Asia, that's Singapore, it's just this little place. We are proud of that. Thank you very much.
Can, can I ask you a little bit about the shared history and what Singaporeans think of ourselves? That's a little bit about society. The first was about country, and the second about the sort of society that we are. As you say, the little red dot is a name conferred to us, not meant to as a complimentary term, but one that we have made something to be proud about. Yes. And that requires all of us to think of a certain, to think of ourselves a certain way.
Well, you have to have a certain confidence. If somebody says you're a little red dot, I'll say, yes, I'm little. I shall show you I can shine. And you have to take pride in it and feel that this is my place. I belong here. I have ownership of this place, and we'll make something out of it. And I think that makes Singapore tick and makes Singapore what it is. If we didn't feel like that, then this would be just be another one island out of, maybe I don't know, 20,000 islands all over Southeast Asia, and there are any number of them. But this place is on the map.
So do you mean, so there was like in 1999 when Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong at the time had talked about the Singapore tribe, and he thought that if to be a strong sort of sense of identity, we needed to identify ourselves as a tribe. But he thought that, um, to make a real tribe, it'll be built only when we have gone through fire together. And I recall him, remembering that time, it was 1999. He said the younger generation of Singaporeans have had no experience of hardship, let alone racial riots and external threats. Their lives have been mainly plain sailing. So their bonds to Singapore and the sense of service to the country is not as strong as the older generation. So at the time, you felt maybe the Singapore tribe wasn't quite as formed yet. But since 1999, we've had quite a lot, quite a lot of excitement, right? So four years after that, it was SARS, right? And then thereafter, many things, subprime crisis, we had the longest drought in 150 years, and most recently, of course, COVID. So we have, maybe not the same degree as the first generation of Singaporeans, but we will say, I mean, the last 25 years, I, I think every generation will have your own crisis. Don't worry, it will come. I don't wish it upon you, but it will come whether you like it or not. And since 1965, when we became independent, which in itself was an existential crisis, which we went through and survived, uh, we've had quite a few ups and downs, and we've gone through them together, and generally speaking, reasonably well. And as this historical memory builds, and the shared experience of having lived through it and endured it and come through is ingrained in our collective psyche, I think that sense of, uh, Singaporeanness, of a shared national identity, gradually strengthens. And in 1999, until now, as you said, we've had SARS, we've had the, um, global financial crisis '07-'08, we've had COVID. Now we've got superpower rivalry. We've got the US with President Trump and his administration taking a completely different approach to the world, which means very drastic implications in the long term for a small country like Singapore, which is completely dependent on globalization and international trade for making a living.
I think I can say that the national identity is stronger, but at the same time, it is not the only tribe which we belong to, because we all have different layers to our identity. We are Singaporean. It's very important to us, but we are also Chinese Singaporean, or Malay Singaporean, or Indian Singaporean. We are also Christians, or Muslims, or Buddhists. You may be also have different political views. You may be pro-government. You may be pro-opposition. You may have different sexual orientations, and therefore different circles of friends and different perspectives on the world. So these are all different layers to our identity which are always there. And I think if I'm honest about it, if we are honest about it, we'd say the national identity, as identity as a Singaporean, it's important, but it's not the only one we have. And for many Singaporeans, it is not the most important part of his identity. If you poll them, you will find for many Singaporeans, um, religion is a very important part of the identity, particularly for Muslims, particularly for Christians, who are, and amongst the Christians, particularly amongst the non-Catholics. And there are other elements as well. Race is very important. Language is important, especially for the older generations. Younger ones all speak English. But even so, if the PM does a National Day Rally and doesn't speak in Malay or Chinese, I think everybody will feel a sense of loss. So these are all other aspects, and we must know that because we are one people, but that people, we're not all identical, and you, there are fault lines which you have to guard.
Asam, can I ask you about the challenges to this sort of togetherness, this sense of being one nation? You had at one point identified two opposing forces that challenge this sense of national identity. The first is the force of globalization, and you said we will all like the, the chances that we will all become citizens of the world, and then that will, just dissolved by globalization. So that means you're not really citizen of all countries, or not no one in particular. The second one is if we fought among ourselves and fractured along different lines within Singapore. So today, I mean, you made the speech about 10 years ago. So today, of these two challenges, which one do you see as the greater?
I think both remain risks. Um, it's very hard to say which is the more salient one because it varies with issues. If, uh, external development happens, for example, the war in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas, we feel that differential tugs in Singapore. Uh, we are all upset about it, but the Muslims are much more upset about it than the non-Muslims. It's a reality. It's, it's, it's natural. If something happens in India, um, the Indian Singaporeans, many of them will have a much closer interest in that, uh, than non-Indian Singaporeans. Uh, if something happens in China or in Taiwan, again, there are different pulls, and that's a, that's a pull on the majority community in Singapore. And you're talking about very powerful external forces. China's influence in the world is growing. India is developing, and with Mr. Modi is taking a much higher international profile. Uh, the, the war in the Middle East is going to go on for a very long time in one form or other. So we are going to be pulled in the immediate term, in from time to time, in very different directions. And our job is to resist that and to remember, yes, I am Muslim, or I'm Chinese, or I'm Indian, but I'm also Singaporean, and I do owe something here, and I belong here, and I should look at the world starting from here. That's now.
If you look at it in the somewhat longer term, and ask what happens to Singapore, maybe 20, 30 years from now, we're all educated quite well. Many will have gone to university. Already about half of Singaporeans go to university, and probably over the lifetime, more will. I have skills. I can travel, and maybe it's a little bit harder now, but quite a lot of countries will be willing to take me. And what is it which is going to make me feel that I'm Singaporean and I belong here? If I'm Japanese, it's quite clear, right? I mean, the Japanese first, ethnically, they are more homogeneous. Secondly, language-wise, most of them speak mainly Japanese, and it's a, a significant big chunk of islands. You belong there. That, that's who you are. Now, in Singapore, we belong here. We think this is who we are. But at the same time, individual Singaporeans could belong in many other places. What makes you decide you want to be here and this is your home? And it can't just be the char kway teow or the durian. It has to be something deeper. And that takes time to build up.
You know, this, this really, I mean, the question of what makes a Singaporean choose to be Singaporean. Yeah. And as, as you know, um, Mr. Rajaratnam said, being Singaporean is not ancestry, but choice and conviction. Yes. And he meant it in a very specific way, though. Not the choice like, where do you want to be? What do you want to make? Where do you want to make your home? How do you decide what nationality? He meant it so in a specific way to say, the commitment to Singapore, being Singaporean, to him, and he said, being Singaporean means forgetting all else in your commitment to Singapore.
Well, I think forgetting all else is a very tall order. Mr. Raja, Rajaratnam believed in it. He was an idealist. He himself held that uppermost. For, as I explained, for many people, Singapore, being Singaporean, is important, but it, it may not be the most important part of your identity. And we have to accept that that's the way people are. That's the way Singaporeans are. And so you don't necessarily wake up every day and say, "Well, I just, as I say my daily prayers or or or mantra every morning, I don't stand up and, uh, recite the pledge to myself." We're Singaporeans, right? But it's just one aspect of my identity, and I have to decide how important I want that to be. For the gener, for the first generation, for Raja's generation, in the early years, when he said it's con, choice and conviction, what were the choices? Either you decide to stand up and fight for the kind of Singapore which we believed in, which comes back to one united people regardless of race, language or religion, or you choose to, nowadays they will say, tang ping, lie flat, meaning I accept whatever happens to me, and there are other powers, other influences which say, this is the way you should be, and you should do my bidding. I just accept that, and I, I just accept my fate. That's a choice. It's a choice to do nothing, but it's a choice. So for that generation, the choice was stand, fight, build. Now, this generation is the beneficiaries of the stand, fight, and build. What is the choice? It's still one. And the choice is, do I decide to continue this and continue the mission which was really passed to us, which made this place like this, and keep on making it better, or do I say, thank you very much, this is marvelous, you've provided me wings, I'm flying, bye-bye. I, I, I'm off to, it can be San Francisco, it can be Sydney, it can be London, it can be Shanghai, it can be Bengaluru, and, uh, I'll be okay, and I hope you'll be okay too. That's a choice too. So there will be people around the world, and it's a reasonable choice, and we hope that they come back one day. I think quite a good number will. But we also hope that there will be many who will say, you're here. We built this place. I inherited it. I have a duty to hand it on better to the next generation. And the next generation will include not just our children, but also other people who have come to Singapore and made a very conscious choice that they identify with us, they subscribe to our ideals, our values, and they want to make this their home. And that's a very big decision to make. And so I think for this generation too, it has to be choice and conviction. If it just, if you just so happen to be here, and tomorrow the wind blows puff, and you are blown off, well, tomorrow you won't be here, and Singapore won't be here. So there's a certain set of values and core values that we all sort of must ascribe to and feel strongly for. That's why you must have some conviction in how we do things in Singapore, what we are trying to achieve in Singapore, uh, what we can rely upon in each other, and how we can make the country go forward. You have to believe that it is possible for us to work together, that we can solve problems. You can't change the world, but you can't, and find a place, a way for Singapore to find its path forward. And in Singapore, you can do that. And if you are in Singapore and you want to make a difference, you can make a difference. If you are in a big country with 1,000 million people and you want to make a difference, it's much harder.
Asam, can I ask you a little bit to your previous point about our different identities and to end with this specific point about the choice? So given that we have different identities, I'm not just Singaporean, I'm Chinese, and race and ethnicity are very powerful forces, as you say. Mr. Mr. Rajaratnam's idea of choice is choosing to forget some part of our identity. And he said, forget, he, he didn't mean it in the way of not knowing, he meant subordinating it to the Singaporean identity. So he said, in his lifetime, he had no difficulty forgetting that he was Templeton, that he had, he was Sri Lankan, even though he had been born there. He had no difficulty forgetting that he was Malayan, even though most of his family was still there. He had no difficulty forgetting that he fought the communists or communalists, and he forgets because he does this in the service of being Singaporean. So I wonder whether you think today we are able to do this now, this forgetting of different parts of identity and sort of holding the nationality superior? And whether that will help in the, you know, in the ethnic and other polarizations that may occur.
It's an ideal. Every time we recite the national pledge, especially on National Day, you remind yourself that we should work towards that ideal. But realistically, we also know that race and religion are very, very powerful forces and very, very important to people. I will not ask for a show of hands, but I, if you ask yourself, do you consider which, which element of your identity do you consider the most important? Your nationality, your race, your religion, your country of origin or country of birth, or your language which you speak? Uh, IPS did a survey recently, only about something more than a third put as their most important element of their, of their identity, nationality, Singapore. And the other two-thirds put something else. It's, it's the way people are. And therefore, this is always going to be a tension because actually, we don't want all of us to forget that we are Chinese, or Christians, or Buddhists, or neither. Do we want to forget our mother tongues? We want to keep those parts of our identity. They are important to us. Yes. Uh, they, they, they give us a sense of history. We didn't poof and come into being in 1965. Yes. And not even in 1950, or I don't know if you're very old, maybe 1945. Yes. It, we go back to ancient civilizations, ancient faiths, and they are part of us. And therefore, and in that sense, they, they give us a sense of balance. I, I've been here a long time too. You may be 300 years as a great country, but my civilization is not younger than you. So I want to keep that. I want to keep the links it therefore gives us with the region because the region is mostly, we have Muslim populations in Malaysia and Indonesia, our neighbors. I want to keep the links with China, or Taiwan, or Hong Kong, because we speak their language. We're familiar with their culture. I want to keep the links with South Asia, with India, even with Sri Lanka. And yet, I don't want to be co-opted by the, by them, and be subsumed by them, or by, be, or follow what is happening there, regardless of what it means to Singapore. And that is very, very challenging. So this, what it means to Singapore, really is the glue that holds all of us, events as Singaporeans. So there, there has to be something which, there is something which we hold in common together. We've grown up here. We've, uh, we've, we've grown up, our friends are here, our family is here. Uh, we've made contributions here. We hope to do things here. This place is our home, and this place has its own interests. You are not a Chinese island. You're not an Indian island. You're not a Malay island or a country. You are a Singaporean country. And it's quite fundamental to us. Rajaratnam in 1975, when he first went to China, took great pains to explain to his hosts that Singapore, we are majority Chinese, but please do not misunderstand, we are not a Chinese country. We are a multi-racial country which happens to have a Chinese majority. And therefore, we treat you as a, we want to be your friend, but remember that we are a different country. But his Chinese hosts, they thought it was extremely natural that your, your population is 75% Chinese, you should naturally be thinking like us, and, oh no, seeing the world like us, and taking positions like us. And they are very puzzled when we look like them, we sound like we, we share culture with them, and yet we don't quite have identical interests. And this puzzlement, well, I think maybe has improved a little bit over time, but it really hasn't disappeared because even quite recently, they, some of them would say to us, same language, same culture, same ancestors, why not same view? Very puzzling. And yet, if we don't maintain a same view, very often we can agree, we work together, but sometimes we have to disagree. And you have to understand, well, we have different national interests. And if you don't understand that, then you, you cannot be a Singaporean. You cannot have a Singaporean identity.