Was looking at the short video featuring Ray Dalio’s views on Lee Kuan Yew and a bit of history about Singapore. And he interestingly pointed towards the notion of good citizenship that contributed to the manner he built up Singapore in the early days. The fact that Singapore’s people responded to the policies and mixture of sticks and carrot in those days to eventually fulfil Lee Kuan Yew’s vision should not be overlooked.
Of course, to be able to develop one great vision of Singapore as an oasis in the region is powerful; to act in concert and rally the crowd matters. But there was a population of motivated, hardworking individuals who were so used to just doing their own things to survive. Now they had to sign up to a dream about the country. There was little to lose by way of wealth other than the fact this is something completely new for them in their lives. They moved from ghettos and kampongs into high-rise public housing. They changed their way of life completely. And they formed our defence force, they helped to form the core labour in the facilities that the MNCs invested into.
As a country, we determined to invest into human capital in the deepest form. Not just mass education but really changing the way of life, how societal affairs were conducted. Those were deep changes not to be taken for granted. But now that we’ve the fruits of those changes to enjoy, do we not recognise that the new era we ushered in requires a new kind of good citizenship we need to arise to be?