http://www.todayonline.com/articles/139803.asp
Voices // Friday, September 1, 2006
Tang Li
The article, "They're here to help us" (Aug 21) made me realise that in spite of being a nation built by people who faced intense competition, Singapore has become a nation where a businessman can become a hero when he succeeds in appealing to the Government to end "destructive competition".
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This made me wonder if Singaporeans have an innate fear of competition and what could be done to change things. In a way, the Government is responsible for inadvertently cultivating this competition-phobia. Thanks to its obsession with honesty, efficiency and effectiveness, the Government has created a culture of comfort. Life in Singapore has been good — not only have we enjoyed first-world living standards, we have been conditioned to believe that success has a formula.
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Perhaps it's only natural for Singaporeans to be threatened by competition. We have been brought up to view competition as something that reduces one's chances in life. Whatever the Government says about foreign talent at school or in the workforce, we view such talent with suspicion because they are a threat to limited opportunities.
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As much as I sympathise with this position, this attitude towards competition is unhealthy. As we have often been reminded, Singapore is a "dot" in a globalising world. Singapore companies and Singaporeans need to expand beyond our borders — the world without the protections offered by the Government — in order to survive. The Government has been fairly quick to understand that local companies need to develop corporate cultures that can make the most of competition. SingTel, for example, lost its domestic monopoly, had to improve its operations and look for opportunities overseas, and is now a stronger company than it was before.
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However, while globalisation has forced Singapore companies to accept and grow with competition, Singaporeans are still frightened by the idea. For example, when Crown Prince Sultan of Saudi Arabia visited Singapore in April, he signed an agreement to allow 500 Saudi students to be educated here.
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Instead of welcoming this vote of confidence in our education system from a country that had always sent its best and brightest to the West, some Singaporeans wrote to the newspapers worrying that there would be 500 fewer places for Singaporeans.
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This is worrying and we need to change this attitude.
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We need to start at the ground level and schools need to be encouraged to create a culture that accepts competition. Perhaps there should be a sort of school prize that is awarded to the child who makes the biggest comeback from a setback, and another one for the child who creates an opportunity for himself or herself when he or she fails to meet a goal.
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If we're talking about relaxing the bankruptcy laws to encourage greater risk-taking among entrepreneurs, surely we can do something similar for school children.
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National Education lessons should look at the life of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, who faced political competition from the likes of Mr David Marshall and the Plen. To survive them, he needed to offer the people better policies and had to work harder at selling them.
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When Singapore was forced out of Malaysia in 1965, Singapore faced competition but had to innovate and create relevance to survive and thrive. Whatever we do, we need to create a culture that welcomes healthy competition and the benefits it brings — such as greater opportunities for people to hone their talents and for greater innovation. Thanks to compeition from other freelance writers to get their articles published, I've had to discover other avenues of writing such as advertising copy and brochures. I've also had to become a better writer.
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Without competition, my life would be comfortable but I would be the poorer from it. I believe the same applies to rest of the nation.
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The contributor is a
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freelance writer. Tang Li
Copyright: MediaCorp Press Ltd (C) 2006
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