Ever since Covid-19 stopped being such a big worry,
the Singapore government has been busy trying to return things to how they were
before the pandemic hit and as anyone who has had to que up for lunch in the
Central Business District can attest to, things are coming back with a vengeance.
One of the things that is coming back with a vengeance
is the government’s belief that all of Singapore’s issues can be dealt with as
long as the world’s rich and famous come to Singapore. The government, is as
every news channel is reporting, in a war for global talent and at the time of
writing, Singapore is working on introducing a new five-year visa for anyone
earning $21,0000 to $30,000 a month. More can be found in the following report
from Nikkei Asia:
https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Singapore-offers-new-elite-visa-as-global-talent-hunt-heats-up
In fairness to the Singapore government, the economy always
needs funds flowing into the country and the modern economy does require
certain skills, which may not necessarily be available locally. Hence, it remains
important to be open to global capital and global talent.
However, one has to ask if the government has taken
this to an extreme. If you read enough reports from the local press, you’re
bound to get the impression that there are no Singaporeans capable of creating jobs
or merely surviving in the modern economy. The message that is being drummed in
is that Singapore needs people from elsewhere to make Singapore function. If the
government’s line on this is correct, one can only surmise that Singapore is
actually wasting the “human resources” which is proudly proclaims as its only
resource and the drive for “foreign talent” is nothing more than a cover for
the fact that local talent has not been developed for the modern world.
Why should this matter? Let’s start with the key lesson
that Covid taught us. People from elsewhere, particularly those with a lot of
money or high demand skills can run off whenever they don’t feel comfortable. One
only has to think of the number of Western expats who were indignant about our curbs
on their freedom to kill themselves with Covid and fled imprisonment in condominium
land for Covid infested homelands.
Yet, despite the exodus of expats, things had to
continue and the only people left to keep things running. If I take the analogy
from the Bistrot, its clear that whilst it’s the people from elsewhere who
provide cream (the people who buy expensive wines and so on), the bread and butter
is inevitably from the locals.
So, as much as the government is not wrong to insist
on attracting foreign talent and investment, it cannot be at the expense of developing
local talent and making sure that Singaporeans with the talent can thrive within
the Singapore system.
Unfortunately, the track record of the government in
nurturing local talent would suggest otherwise. Take Joseph Schooling as an
example. When he trained in the American eco-system, he was gold medal winner.
Then, he came back and was turned into a local icon and has faltered. Same with
Sim Woo Hong of Creative Technologies who was a pioneer of innovative
technologies outside of Singapore but wasn’t able to produce much once he
became a “government appointed hero.” Both Mr. Schooling and Mr. Sim are only the
most prominent example of “talents” being wasted by Singapore. A Singapore
Business Review article stated that six in ten were willing to leave Singapore
for better opportunities:
https://sbr.com.sg/hr-education/in-focus/six-in-ten-employees-willing-leave-singapore-better-job
So, the questions need to be asked – why can’t we
develop talents in the local eco-system and why do the talents that succeed, disappoint
the moment they have to operate in the Singapore system.
Perhaps the best answer might be to look at the story
of how Lamborghini came about. The story that everyone knows is part where Ferruccio
Lamborghini had the motivation to build a bigger and better sports car because
he was insulted by Enzo Ferrari. What is less well known is the fact that Mr. Lamborghini
was able to build his first car in the space of four months because the team
that made Ferraris were driven away by the interference of Mrs. Ferrari and her
management style. Mr. Ferrari valued Mrs. Ferrari more than the guys who
created the value and so they joined Mr. Lamborghini. The story can be found
at:
https://www.granturismoevents.com/story-the-epic-story-behind-the-ferrari-and-lamborghini-rivalry/
Copyright Motor1.com – They’ll join the guy who lets them build this…..
Are we seeing something similar in Singapore where the
people who have bright sparks are always put down because they didn’t go to the
right school or they were the wrong colour or didn’t belong to the same family?
Let’s think about this. When we question why certain
people have to hold more than one high level job, we’re inevitably told that this
is because Singapore lacks the talent and therefore the talents, we do have are
inevitably needed to do more than one job.
Its hard to believe that this is the case in nation
that is highly educated and, in a place, where that has one of the fastest
broadband speeds in the world, thus making information from around the world
easily available. So, could it be a case like Ferrari in 1963, where the boss’s
wife, whose main qualification was being the boss’s wife, were more valued than
the bright sparts doing the work? If this is the case, isn’t it time we
restructured things to make sure that local talents have a chance to shine in
their homeland?
No comments
Post a Comment