This is from Saturday's papers and I have been thinking about it for the past couple of days. The logic of the PM's thesis is simple and compelling but there is a big problem which eventually must appear. What if the success we are enjoying is actually an exhilarating ride to the edge of the falls? Let's say the world is riding along and we are relevant because we are a poster child of that success. Everyone comes to us to learn how to do better.
We would have gone full steam ahead into dotcoms if we could. Ditto in financial services. That would have ended in an epic train wreck. We were lucky and as we had so often.
What about the times when we know we are right and everyone is wrong? Do we go along with the trend? Like Buffett turning his back on dotcoms vs our Phillip Yeo who was over the moon about them. You see survival for us goes way beyond being successful and relevant. It calls for great foresight without which courage is not helpful.
And as a price taker, what choice do we have? Some hard truth eh?
Another hard truth beyond LKY's set is that people must inevitably learn some lessons the hard way. People underestimate America because she is indulging in that all the time including the latest "near miss" debt default. A strong and vibrant democracy means you must have room for people to have the right to fail, learn and pick themselves up. One person one vote eventually you will face an electorate that cannot learn some key lessons except by the hard way. If our leaders insist that failure is not an option, it is as good as commanding that you can't use the toilet when you need to. You just failed. This approach to governance is no smarter than the Euro, flawed from its conception. They are now learning its hard lesson but they will survive. We will not be so lucky. We are ignoring a fatal weakness in our system.
I find what PM says peculiar. Why chase success? And if so, success in what? And what determines you are successful? For instance, we are finding that chasing a high GDP is causing a lot of social problems. That being No 1 in this and that doesn't necessarily mean lives are improved at all.
ReplyDeleteSurely it makes more sense to ''stay relevant'', whatever that means (also not very clear to who - Sporeans or outsiders - though it should be to Sporeans, but doesn't seem to be the case)? Then success would come to you.
There seems to be less and less relevance to real life in what is being promoted and preached by the govt these days.