OTGV #11 - Social Paradox
Broadcast Date: 22/04/2002
Two alternate visions Singapore glisten in the future.
First, an economically successful and viable Singapore and second, a Singapore that's renown for its grace and civil society.
Are the two mutually antagonistic?
Hi, welcome to On the Grapevine with me Chong Ching Liang as I examine this potential paradox.
It is an ever decreasing world where countries play a furious game of musical chairs of attracting top talent.
Singaporean political leaders are cognizant of this and is trying to inch ahead in the game.
Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Education Tharman Shanmugaratnam
"We should continue to shift the emphasis of our tax policies from redistribution to growth. We have to move away from an egalitarian approach. We should give greater incentive for anyone with the ability, guts and energy to succeed to go as far as he can. That way we can succeed as a country, generate more growth and more jobs."
No one would argue with his logic in this harsh world. .
However, after Singapore dangles materialistic incentives to fuel its economic development,
will it be able to create the other Singaporean society, a veritable renaissance city that is kinder and more inclined to non-materialistic desires?
Maybe there is no paradox for me to ponder over.
National University of Singapore's Professor in Philosophy Saranindranth Tagore, doesn’t believe so.
"From a philosophical level, I can say that the way you have set up the paradox, perhaps there is no paradox there. One could make the case that a healthy society will have the material benefits that are necessary for one to be able to lead a flourishing life and at the same time use the material wealth for a higher purpose such as pursuit of the arts, pursuit of philosophy if you will, pursuit of scientific research. I don't see a necessary contradiction between the material basis that is needed for human flourishing on the one hand and the pursuit of higher human ideals."
But the coming new world will see greater social dislocation and income divide.
This means that even the arts will be polarised and this must be mediated to prevent rifts in society.
Associate Professor in English Literature, Kirpal Singh of the Singapore Management University.
"Precisely because of this great economic divide it is very easy for an artist to be irresponsible from one point of view and therefore ignite a lot of passion amongst the so-called have nots or in our Singaporean context, the Heartlanders to view the Cosmopolitans a little more suspicisiously. Therefore whenever this kind of things like mistrust and suspicions exist. There will not be the graciousness that we want."
Can we hope for a Singapore of the future where the government just occupies a sedentary role?
What about an active citizenry to provide self help to its own disenfranchised?
For Dr Kirpal Singh who's also one of our great poets and social observers says that day isn't achievable yet.
"In Singapore for me the answer is very simple. Just as the government spend enormous resources producing a workforce that work very effectively for various Macs, so I think the government also have a social responsibility of making sure things like the arts and other needs are satisfied in the first place. I think for the government to abdicate and say no, now's the time for self-help, might be copping out. This may not be the time that the government be advised to opt out, particularly with things that are going to involve our people in way that's going to help them comfortably accept the great divide and the great traumatic changes that coming our way."
As the cliché goes, it will be a brave new world.
It is a world that will be wreaked with divides before it can become whole again.
As Singapore evolves, the gap between "the haves" and "the haves-nots" will increase.
A widening income gap, though, won't be unique to Singapore.
It maybe but a stage in development.
The poet Kirpal Singh muses.
"Someone once described it that the future is going to six billion people on the ground hunting while 100 million are jet setting in the sky. Now I think that is not an unrealistic speculation. The person who said that to me, a very famous science fiction writer who projects this, I think he is particularly going to be right maybe in a hundred years. I think this is going to be very very critical. I think what we need to do is to self-help ourselves and educating ourselves to be able to cope with these things. And if we cannot have the luxuries that the 100 million might have in the future, we need to have other kinds of luxuries."
What sort of luxuries?
What will be the salve to soothe an economically-divided Singapore when that day comes?
For the poet, the balm is the arts, Associate Professor Kirpal Singh.
"Luxuries of the spirit which the art provides. Luxury in the passion and the feeling. With good relations which can also be fostered by the arts. So yes, there is going to be an increasing paradox. It is going to be painful, it is going to be difficult, but I think the off side can be cushioned by good sensitive education."
But the future isn't cast in stone.
It remains to be seen on whether "the haves" will assume the social leadership that is needed for a more gracious Singapore --
Where the few who are strong take care of the myriad weak.
This is Chong Ching Liang for Newsradio 938.
Related Websites:
Newsradio938
http://newsradio.mediacorpradio.com/
Two alternate visions Singapore glisten in the future.
First, an economically successful and viable Singapore and second, a Singapore that's renown for its grace and civil society.
Are the two mutually antagonistic?
Hi, welcome to On the Grapevine with me Chong Ching Liang as I examine this potential paradox.
It is an ever decreasing world where countries play a furious game of musical chairs of attracting top talent.
Singaporean political leaders are cognizant of this and is trying to inch ahead in the game.
Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Education Tharman Shanmugaratnam
"We should continue to shift the emphasis of our tax policies from redistribution to growth. We have to move away from an egalitarian approach. We should give greater incentive for anyone with the ability, guts and energy to succeed to go as far as he can. That way we can succeed as a country, generate more growth and more jobs."
No one would argue with his logic in this harsh world. .
However, after Singapore dangles materialistic incentives to fuel its economic development,
will it be able to create the other Singaporean society, a veritable renaissance city that is kinder and more inclined to non-materialistic desires?
Maybe there is no paradox for me to ponder over.
National University of Singapore's Professor in Philosophy Saranindranth Tagore, doesn’t believe so.
"From a philosophical level, I can say that the way you have set up the paradox, perhaps there is no paradox there. One could make the case that a healthy society will have the material benefits that are necessary for one to be able to lead a flourishing life and at the same time use the material wealth for a higher purpose such as pursuit of the arts, pursuit of philosophy if you will, pursuit of scientific research. I don't see a necessary contradiction between the material basis that is needed for human flourishing on the one hand and the pursuit of higher human ideals."
But the coming new world will see greater social dislocation and income divide.
This means that even the arts will be polarised and this must be mediated to prevent rifts in society.
Associate Professor in English Literature, Kirpal Singh of the Singapore Management University.
"Precisely because of this great economic divide it is very easy for an artist to be irresponsible from one point of view and therefore ignite a lot of passion amongst the so-called have nots or in our Singaporean context, the Heartlanders to view the Cosmopolitans a little more suspicisiously. Therefore whenever this kind of things like mistrust and suspicions exist. There will not be the graciousness that we want."
Can we hope for a Singapore of the future where the government just occupies a sedentary role?
What about an active citizenry to provide self help to its own disenfranchised?
For Dr Kirpal Singh who's also one of our great poets and social observers says that day isn't achievable yet.
"In Singapore for me the answer is very simple. Just as the government spend enormous resources producing a workforce that work very effectively for various Macs, so I think the government also have a social responsibility of making sure things like the arts and other needs are satisfied in the first place. I think for the government to abdicate and say no, now's the time for self-help, might be copping out. This may not be the time that the government be advised to opt out, particularly with things that are going to involve our people in way that's going to help them comfortably accept the great divide and the great traumatic changes that coming our way."
As the cliché goes, it will be a brave new world.
It is a world that will be wreaked with divides before it can become whole again.
As Singapore evolves, the gap between "the haves" and "the haves-nots" will increase.
A widening income gap, though, won't be unique to Singapore.
It maybe but a stage in development.
The poet Kirpal Singh muses.
"Someone once described it that the future is going to six billion people on the ground hunting while 100 million are jet setting in the sky. Now I think that is not an unrealistic speculation. The person who said that to me, a very famous science fiction writer who projects this, I think he is particularly going to be right maybe in a hundred years. I think this is going to be very very critical. I think what we need to do is to self-help ourselves and educating ourselves to be able to cope with these things. And if we cannot have the luxuries that the 100 million might have in the future, we need to have other kinds of luxuries."
What sort of luxuries?
What will be the salve to soothe an economically-divided Singapore when that day comes?
For the poet, the balm is the arts, Associate Professor Kirpal Singh.
"Luxuries of the spirit which the art provides. Luxury in the passion and the feeling. With good relations which can also be fostered by the arts. So yes, there is going to be an increasing paradox. It is going to be painful, it is going to be difficult, but I think the off side can be cushioned by good sensitive education."
But the future isn't cast in stone.
It remains to be seen on whether "the haves" will assume the social leadership that is needed for a more gracious Singapore --
Where the few who are strong take care of the myriad weak.
This is Chong Ching Liang for Newsradio 938.
Related Websites:
Newsradio938
http://newsradio.mediacorpradio.com/
posted by CHONG Ching-liang | 11:24 AM
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