Some food for thought from somebody on the outside perhaps?

Tom Davenport The Next Big Thing

Singapore: A Model of Judgment for the United States?
3:01 PM Friday August 21, 2009

We often talk about judgment with regard to individuals, but organizations
and countries can have good and bad judgment as well. I was recently in
Singapore for a SAS customer event. Every time I visit, it has struck me as
a country with good judgment. Singapore just celebrated its forth-fourth
birthday as an independent country, and it deserves to congratulate itself
(although it rarely engages in self-congratulation — another aspect of good
judgment). In fact, I’d argue that in many ways Singapore is a great
example for the United States. Why? Here are a few reasons:
1. Singapore is a hardworking, disciplined country. It decides what it
needs to do, and then does it. Every year for National Day, for example,
the government publishes a list of challenges it needs to overcome. This
year’s list included such bracing issues as “How to maintain high economic
growth and improve living standard?” and “How to stamp out new diseases and
keep health-care costs down?” There is also the lighter, but sociologically
problematic challenge of “How to get younger Singaporeans to marry and have
children?” The list of challenges is enormously appealing in its clarity
and directness.

2. Singapore is obsessed with education — not just for children, but
throughout life. Another of its declared challenges is, “How to design
job-training programmes and wage supplement schemes for low-income older
workers?” The country tops the ranks of educational achievement regularly.
While it was once justifiably criticized for emphasizing rote learning, it
has introduced programs that encourage creativity.

3. Singapore is a highly capitalist society, but its government plays a
strong guiding role. Some of the country’s smartest citizens go into
government. The government creates industrial policy and actively
facilitates growth and capability-building in those areas. It did a
masterful job emphasizing IT and building up that industry, and now it’s
actively pushing biotech and services. For example, in services the
government wanted to build on organizations with great service like
Singapore Airlines and Raffles Hotel. So it encouraged Singapore Management
University (a private university that was established by the government) to
start an Institute for Service Excellence, and stimulated the development
of a Singapore Customer Satisfaction Index that would be applied to all
service industries.

4. Like the US, Singapore is a highly diverse society, with lots of
citizens with Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Arab backgrounds. Yet they all
seem to get along pretty well, and the country’s culture is greatly
enriched by the diversity. Public housing is ethnically and religiously
integrated. Other countries could probably use a version of its
“Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act,” which prohibits religious
rabble-rousing.

5. Singapore invests heavily in infrastructure — housing, roads, IT,
airport (only one, but Changi is a very impressive facility). 83% of its
citizens live in public housing, but it’s clean and well-maintained. The
country is rolling out a new high-bandwidth fiber optic network. Buses and
subways are clean and run on time.

6. Singapore’s economy is doing pretty well. It does anticipate a decline
in GDP of about 5% this year, but there are signs of a strong recovery. Its
stock market is booming. Its banks didn’t go crazy with subprime lending or
bizarre derivatives. One economist told me that the Asian financial crisis
of 1997 was worse than the current recession for Singapore.

Okay, it’s not a Utopian society. The government is a bit authoritarian for
my tastes, but not as much as in the Lee Kuan Yew (its first prime minister
from 1959 to 1990) days. The prohibitions against spitting and selling
chewing gum are a little much — though I really like the clean streets.
Yes, you may be caned if you misbehave, but it might be better than locking
up the world’s highest proportion of citizens in jails. I feel that
Singapore destroyed much of its interesting architecture in the headlong
rush to modernize. And it seems to me that too many of its citizens are
obsessed with luxury brands and conspicuous consumption. These are
relatively minor concerns, however, compared to the country’s strengths.
And many of the seemingly autocratic regulations might be justified by the
ethnic diversity and high population density of the country.

Singapore is tiny compared to the United States (and most other countries,
for that matter), but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a model. Barack Obama
keeps saying that we need to buckle down and work hard to build an economy
based on real production, not hollow financial chicanery. We need a little
more social order, and a little less individualism. Singapore has already
pulled off both objectives, and continues to provide a good example of good
judgment for the United States and the rest of the world.

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/davenport/2009/08/singapore_a_model_of_judgment.html

Tom Davenport holds the President’s Chair in Information Technology and
Management at Babson College, where he also leads the Process Management
and Working Knowledge Research Centers. His books and articles on business
process reengineering, knowledge management, attention management,
knowledge worker productivity, and analytical competition helped to
establish each of those business ideas. His website is tomdavenport.com

Matilda Ang is a K2 student from our PCF Toa Payoh East Branch. She was selected to represent our Branch for the ‘Discover the Joy of Reading’ competition, jointly organised by National Library Board together with PCF and PAP Women’s Wing.

In the semi-final at District Level, her language ability, creativity and poise placed her in the 1st position and secured her a place in the finals at the National Level.

Getting into the finals meant more practices and activities conducted during English lessons. All efforts and hard work, both from school and home, paid off when Matilda emerged as champion of the National Level ‘Discover the Joy of Reading Competition 2009’ for kindergartens.

Her storytelling skills, showmanship and confidence displayed during the finals were witnessed by one and all. The school shares her joy in winning the competition.

When asked about her feelings and plans after coming in 1st, an elated Matilda replied, “I’m very happy and the trophy is very big.”

Congratulations, Matilda! You have done us proud!

This is an amazing phenomenon, but at the same time, one that means there is a constant battle for mindshare, a constant struggle for the attention of readers amidst a myriad of agendas.

Today, TPE.sg joins this fray. For those wondering, TPE, in a testament to how much we Singaporeans love acronyms, stands for Toa Payoh East. It is written and maintained by the members of the Youth PAP serving this constituency, and is our own space for discourse.

Our focus will be on the exploration of life in the heartlands, with our own estate at the core of our content. It will be a chronicle of our experiences, of our opinions. Our own MP, Mrs Josephine Teo, will also weigh in from time to time. The “slogan” of our blog is “A view from within and without”. 

My story with TPE begins in 2006, after I had graduated from University in London. It was boomtown back then, markets were on the rise, jobs were aplenty, and the flavour of the week then locally, was a growing inequality gap and the elderly in Singapore. When Singaporeans latch on to an issue, what ensues is an intense period of discourse followed by a lull, then a transition to the next big issue.

Amongst the constituents of this heated discourse were my family members, friends and others in my circle. Add this to the stuff being reported on mainstream media, and the internet, and you had a real melting pot of opinions.

Being fiercely opinionated myself, I weighed in on some of these debates myself, and left feeling like there was a real gap in my personal knowledge bank. If I was going to be honest with myself, my interactions with Singaporeans, the true heartlanders was limited to a smattering of acquaintances here and there. I wanted to be on the frontlines, to truly understand what I was so passionately arguing about.

And so I resolved to get myself actively involved in the community, and it was TPE, a small but uniquely Singaporean constituency that adopted me.

The MP of TPE is Mrs Josephine Teo, a kind and caring MP, who immediately struck me with her sincerity to help her residents, and almost at once I felt at home. Despite being a distinguished person in her own right, as an MP should, she is always accessible to myself and indeed, anybody she speaks to. 

I don’t know how many people know of MPS or Meet the Peoples Session.

Every constituency conducts a weekly MPS, to allow the MP to talk to his/her residents, to address their concerns, and to be the bridge between the people and the government at large. This is just one of our initiatives, but a core one. 

A dozen or so stalwart volunteers including my own YP are the support team, interviewing residents, establishing the facts of the case, and writing it up so the MP can digest the information, and add her own input.

Whilst I cannot remember the individuals I helped in my first MPS session, I do remember the feeling I got leaving it. I felt fulfilled, feeling as though I had made a difference in a stranger’s life, somebody I had no direct or indirect links with. I drove home along the PIE with the windows down that night, feeling “shuang”.

To say that my entire experience serving TPE under the YP has been smooth so far, would neither be believable or true. There have been times the feeling has not been as positive as my first night, but on the balance of things, it has been a life changing experience, and one I want to share.

I will write this blog sincerely, and those who follow it, can expect to read about the feelings, opinions, and perspectives of my young but dedicated team of volunteers. I will leave it to them to introduce themselves formally, do leave a comment, leave a message on our chatbox, or follow us on twitter.

p.s. We’ll try to update this blog at least once a week, so do check in for updates!