Singapore Government Press Release
Media Relations Division, Ministry of Information, Communications and
the Arts,
MITA Building, 140 Hill Street, 2nd Storey, Singapore 179369
Tel: 6837-9666
Speech by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at
The NUS Society Lecture
19 Mar 2005, NUS Cultural Centre, 8pm
THE SINGAPORE ELITE
Mr Lai Kim Seng, President of NUSS
Members of the NUSS Management Committee
Professor James Boss, Chairperson of the NUSS Lecture
Honourable guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Introduction
1.
I am happy to be here today to address this diverse
audience. The NUS Society has turned 50
years old. Amongst you are members whose
graduations span over a few decades. You are products of our tertiary education system,
which has over the years nurtured many of our most able people. The NUS alumni
have gone on to illustrious careers, and made numerous contributions to Singapore.
I have therefore decided to title today’s talk “The Singapore Elite”.
2.
What is an “elite”?
The dictionary defines it as “A group of people considered to be the
best in a particular society or category, especially because of their power,
talent or wealth.” I shall be talking about the elite in a
society or a country, meaning the core group of people who occupy key positions
of power and influence, and set the direction for the whole society and country.
3.
Who belongs to the elite, how this group relates to
the wider society, and what role it sees for itself all differ across
countries. It depends on the culture,
history and social structure. I will give
you examples of three countries – Britain, China and the US, to provide the
broader perspective, before discussing how the elite has emerged and evolved in
Singapore. I will explain why the elite
is crucial to our country’s future, and how we can keep it an open and
inclusive group that is committed to Singapore.
The Elite In
Different Countries
Britain
4.
I will start with Britain. For a long time, Britain was a class based
society. The elite came from the upper classes.
They belonged to wealthy, often land owning families. Many attended public schools such as Harrow
or Eton. The ablest went on to Oxford or Cambridge. This group governed the
country, provided officers for the armed forces, and during the British Empire ran
the far flung colonies.
5.
The British elite had a strong sense of its
mission. They felt that they were born to rule. They had strong networks of mutual
support, and took care of one another.
The old school or college tie meant a great deal. So did belonging to
the same club or serving in the same regiment.
6.
But it was an exclusive group. It was not easy for
an able person from the working classes to rise to the top. Even when someone
from a poor background did well in his business or career, he was often not
accepted into the elite, because he would still speak with a lower class
accent, lack the school connections, and be a misfit in upper class social
circles.
7.
After World War II, things started to change. After the enormous hardships and sacrifices of
the war, Britain went for the welfare state and egalitarianism. Socialist governments tried to break down the
class system, and elitism and elites were frowned upon. Comprehensive schools were
introduced to take students from all social classes. State schools were disallowed
to admit students by academic merit, and had to take in students of all
abilities. In 1963, Harold Wilson (just before he became Prime Minister) made a
famous pitch against the old class-based system. Speaking at the Labour Party
Conference, he said:
“For the
commanding heights of the British industry to be controlled today by men whose
only claim is their aristocratic connection or power of inherited wealth is as
irrelevant to the 20th century as would be the continued purchase of
commissions in the army by lordly amateurs.”
8.
But class distinctions proved tough to eradicate. Even
in the 1980’s, one of the appeals of Conservative Prime Ministers Margaret
Thatcher and John Major to middle class voters was their humble backgrounds – Margaret
Thatcher was a grocer’s daughter, while John Major was a poor Brixton boy made
good. Today, British society has become more
open, under the pressure of globalisation and international competition, but class
differences still exist. As Tony Blair
said in an interview a few years ago:
“The class war is
over, but that is not to say that there still aren’t class divisions.”
China
9.
In China, when the Communists took power in 1949, they
set out to create a classless society. But it was not a realistic ideal. Distinctions
existed between cadres even during the severest periods under Mao Zedong – in
power, in privileges, in subtle differences in their Mao jackets.
10.
At first the elite was the revolutionary group,
especially those who had been on the Long March. In Marxist jargon, the Communist Party was the
vanguard of the working classes. Most of them were not well educated – they
were revolutionaries, not scholars. But they shared a strong sense of common mission
and idealism – to rebuild the country and (paraphrasing Mao) to make China
stand up again.
11.
Later, during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960’s,
all notions of elitism came under attack. Professionals and intellectuals were
persecuted. It was better to be red than expert. This led to total chaos and set China back for
many years.
12.
Today, China is being transformed before our eyes,
not by revolution, but through economic growth. Its government is still
Communist, but the economy is market-driven.
The elite no longer comprise revolutionaries or ideologues, but are builders
and technocrats, highly-educated and capable people. Many have attended top universities like
Fudan and Qinghua. A growing number have studied in foreign universities. The Communist Party has a comprehensive
system to identify and develop outstanding cadres from all over the country. At
the same time, with more and more Chinese going into the private sector, many
successful entrepreneurs have emerged. The
Communist Party of China, once the party of the workers and peasants, has had
to devise a way to co-opt the new business elites, through the theory of “Three
Represents” propounded by Jiang Zemin.
13.
In a country as big and populous as China, the
elite do not speak with one voice on all matters. Indeed many rivalries and
factions exist. But all are united in their strong desire to restore China’s
glory, and see China take its rightful place in the world as a major power.
14.
While competition to reach the top is intense in
China, not everyone has an equal chance of making it. Education investments are
concentrated in the cities, so those the rural population are severely
disadvantaged – an imbalance that the Chinese Government is now trying to
address. Further, guanxi remains extremely important. In a large country, top people
cannot all know one another. A person still needs patrons, and the right connections
to move up the ranks. Those who have worked with a top leader during his
earlier career will get into a guanxi network. So too those who have worked together in the
same city or province such as Shanghai or Nanjing. Such is the reality of a big
country.
The United States (US)
15.
The US is an immigrant society and a relatively
young country. Americans have a strong faith in social mobility, in people
getting to the top through hard work and ability. Its founding ideals were
democracy, freedom and equality. Thomas
Jefferson wrote about “a natural aristocracy of virtue and talents”, as opposed
to “an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth”. And indeed the US created
a society which was much more socially mobile than the older and more settled
societies of Europe. Colin Powell, son of Jamaican immigrants, rose to become
Secretary of State. Bill Gates and Michael Dell, coming from quite ordinary
backgrounds, built two of the most successful companies of the computer age.
16.
After World War II, educational opportunities
opened up further. The GI Bill paid for the college education of millions of military
veterans. Higher education was no longer a privilege of a well born few. More Americans
from poor backgrounds went to college and rose in society. They showed that
America was indeed a land of opportunity, and attracted many more immigrants,
legal and illegal, to the US.
17.
Successful Americans do not neglect their social
responsibilities. A strong civic consciousness is one of the strengths of
American communities everywhere. People get
together to form all sorts of associations to solve their own problems and
lobby for their special interests. They
become involved in social causes, and do a remarkable amount of volunteer
service. Henry Kissinger still teaches students at a school in a Hispanic neighbourhood
in New York, while Michael Bloomberg quit his high paying CEO job to be the
mayor of New York City.
18.
However, new social trends are making the US a more
stratified society. The brightest students are increasingly concentrated in a
small number of elite universities like Harvard and MIT. In the workforce, the ablest are increasingly
being sought out and rising to the top. Successful people are marrying one
another, and having children who also tend to do well and join the elite.
19.
This is accentuated by the widening income gap
between rich and poor, and by inequalities in the education system. Although
the best US schools and universities are outstanding, poor people are more
likely to attend public schools whose standard is uneven, or inner city schools
with serious problems – poor teaching, low expectations, drugs and violence. As
a result, the down and out get stuck at the bottom, and few of their children
make good.
20.
But the American genius lies in its ability to
expand criteria for the definition of elite and admission into it. Today, sportsmen and sportswomen,
entertainers, designers, film stars and TV hosts enter the top circle. Jennifer Lopez, or J. Lo, now a superstar,
was a Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx.
Overall, the US has one of the most socially mobile societies with an
open and dynamic elite. This is a key reason that America today is the most
powerful country in the world.
Lessons Learnt
21.
From the experiences of these three countries, I
draw three conclusions.
22.
First, every society will have an elite. Even if it
aims to become a classless society where all men are equal, some men will turn
out to be more equal than others. The issue is: what kind of elite will it be? If
they only care about their own narrow interests, then the society will suffer,
and in the longer run so will the elite.
But if they have a sense of mission and social responsibility, and use
their talents and power to promote the interests of the country as a whole,
then the society will prosper.
23.
Second, there is a tendency for the elite in any
society to entrench themselves over time, and to become more closed and
exclusive. The children of successful people tend to do well, and the social
networks and guanxi which make for a
cohesive group at the top also make it harder for outsiders to join. The elite gradually develop their own social
norms, behaviour or codes, which mark themselves off as being different and serve
to exclude outsiders. If the society
finds ways to maintain social mobility and keep open avenues to the top, then its
elite can adapt to the changing needs of the country, and remain in close touch
with the wider society they belong to. If not, the society will stratify;
tensions will develop; and eventually the social order will break down.
24.
Third, the education system is crucial in shaping
the type of elite a society has. If it offers
open access to all, and provides a good education across the board, as well as
peaks of excellence for the most talented students regardless of background,
then people from many different backgrounds can rise to the top. But if it is
unequal, giving privileged access to a few but closing doors to many others who
are equally deserving, it can become a mechanism for entrenching a privileged
group.
The Elite In
Singapore
25.
These realities have influenced the way we manage
and shape the elite in Singapore.
26.
After the War, when Singapore was still a British
Colony, this was an immigrant society. At
the top were the British expatriates who ruled the colony, and the English
educated locals who worked with the colonial government and accepted the British
as masters. They were the social elite
of that time, but they did not take part in the defining events of Singapore
history – the anti-colonial struggle for self government and independence, the
life and death struggle with the Communists and pro-communists
to win the support of the masses, and later the fight
against the communalists in peninsular Malaya
that ended in separation from Malaysia and the birth of independent Singapore.
27.
The people who led these struggles were students
who had studied in Britain and decided that they would stand to fight to
determine the country’s future, union leaders who had risen from the ranks,
journalists and teachers caught up in the cause. Many were from poor backgrounds and not
well-educated, but they were the natural leaders who emerged in those
revolutionary times to shape events and write history. After independence, this
group held key positions in government and the political leadership.
28.
This was a very small and close-knit group. As the Minister Mentor has said, all of them could
fit into one Jumbo jet. They had gone through fire together. They now had a new
mission – to transform Singapore, and build a new nation from scratch.
29.
As time
passed and the country developed, a new generation of leaders emerged. They are the products of the Singapore
system – good schools, full and equal opportunities for all, and a meritocratic
system which developed and made the most of our talent. Many graduated from the local universities,
while others studied abroad on government scholarships. Some are the second generation
of the elite, but many more come from humble backgrounds. They form a broader and more diverse group,
and a thicker layer of talent. We have
key people not only at the top of the government, but also in the civil
service, in the SAF and police, in the private sector and the professions. It
will take several Airbus A380s to fit all of them in, rather than just one
jumbo jet.
30.
This new generation are not revolutionaries or
rabble rousers trying to demolish an unjust system and replace it with
something totally different. Like the
elite in today’s China, they are technocrats and builders, striving to improve
and strengthen a working system, though they also contain some mobilisers who
can rally the population to tackle difficult problems.
31.
The formative experiences of this present elite are
not the birth struggles of the nation, but its transformation in one generation
from third world to first, often as reflected in their own lives. This has
caused many of them to commit themselves to carry on the work of the first
generation, and to contribute back to the society which helped them to succeed. They have established a strong network among
themselves, as did the first generation. They did national service together,
studied in the same universities, or worked side by side in the same
departments. Their personal ties go back a long way. For example, the key
ministers in Cabinet have worked together for two or sometimes three decades.
Three were in a same platoon in Officer Cadet School. And the personal links
are not just within Government, but extend to the private sector and throughout
the Singapore system. Such a team Singapore knows one another, knows each
one’s strengths and weaknesses, and knows whose judgment to trust.
An Elite That
Benefits Society
32.
Singapore’s future depends on our renewing and
enlarging this elite group, and ensuring that the group continues to see itself
as being responsible for the whole society. To achieve this, we have to keep
the group open and inclusive, and maintain a sense of shared purpose among them.
Let me elaborate.
Open and Inclusive
33.
First, we must keep the elite open and inclusive. We must be able to continually renew this
group, to bring in a consistent flow of younger talent, contributing new ideas
and vigour to solving new problems. This
is also important for demonstrating to all that if you work hard and do well you
will make it to the top, which is the whole basis for Singapore’s success. An open and inclusive elite is thus a
reflection of our system of meritocracy, as well as an essential part of it.
34.
To make this a reality, we need a high quality education
system, which maintains high standards across the board. All our schools must
be good schools, and not just a few outstanding institutions. This our
education system is achieving. From neighbourhood schools to the top
institutions, our schools are well equipped, have dedicated principals and
teachers, and offer a good education to their pupils. At the tertiary level, not
only do our universities rank high internationally, but our polytechnics and
ITEs prepare their students well for jobs in the knowledge economy.
35.
In addition, we must make a special effort to spot
and develop talent from poorer families, through scholarships and bursaries,
and through special attention by teachers and mentors, so that they will take
full advantage of the educational opportunities available, and be able to rise
to the top. We declare repeatedly that no student should ever be deterred from
pursuing his education for lack of means, and we mean it.
36.
With an efficient education system, a large part of
our elite will have gone through our schools and universities and done well in
their studies. If this were not so, something must be wrong. But there will
always be some who do not fit the mould for an academic education but have
other valuable talents and life skills. Some of our most successful entrepreneurs
and creative talent like Ron Sim, Elim Chew, George Quek, and Jack Neo never
went to university. Our doors must always be open to those who have taken alternative
routes to success. This is not just to
be fair to them, but more importantly because they add something valuable – to
our collective perspective on the world and approach to problems.
37.
To keep the doors open, we must also guard against
the tendency for social barriers to grow, which over time make the elite more
closed and exclusive. This is why we must
consciously minimise the social distance between those at the top and the general
population. People who have risen from poor homes should feel proud of their
backgrounds and of what they have achieved, and not be embarrassed that they
started out poor. We also discourage ostentation in lifestyles, dress or social
norms, which will make others less affluent feel out of place. The political leaders set the tone. We dress down; we do not wear expensive
designer suits; and we have meals in hawker centres. We must maintain this informal tone, in order
to keep this an egalitarian society.
Shared Purpose
38.
Second, our elite must have a sense of shared
purpose, of a responsibility to contribute to Singapore and make it better. Ultimately,
a person should win standing and honour in our society more by making a
difference to the wider community, than through personal success and material
achievements.
39.
Although we are no longer building a nation from
scratch, we have something unique and precious in Singapore, which we must
keep on developing and improving. And that depends on the contributions of
every Singaporean, especially the most successful ones. By serving together,
they strengthen the emotional bonds, trust and camaraderie which held previous
generations of elite together through all their travails and struggles.
40.
Getting successful Singaporeans to continue to
dedicate themselves to serve the community depends first on their having a
sense of obligation, realising that their success would not have been possible
without Singapore’s system of good education, equal opportunities and
meritocracy. Having benefited from the system, they have a moral obligation to
give back to society.
41.
It also
depends on their patriotism. Singaporeans who love our country, love the land
we grew up in, and take pride in what we have achieved together, are the heart
and soul of the country. Such citizens will naturally also care for the people
and the community, and want to achieve even more for Singapore. In countries with longer histories, people
are naturally patriotic. Singapore’s history as a nation is short, but we have
much to be proud of. With the passing of
years, as we experience crises and triumphs together, we will build our
collective memories and strengthen the spirit of patriotism among us.
42.
A sense of obligation and patriotism are not things
that we can dictate or implement. What
we can do is to open up avenues for Singaporeans to step forward, contribute
and make a difference. So we encourage
Singaporeans to take charge of community matters, and to take part in the
national debate on important issues. During the tsunami disaster, we saw how
active and effective the non-Government organisations could be, raising funds,
organising relief, and sending volunteers to do the hard work in the disaster
areas.
43.
The universities can be an important avenue for
Singaporeans to contribute to the community too. The US universities are a particularly
successful model. They have a strong
alumni body, and many successful alumni devote large amounts of resources,
time, energy and expertise to help their schools raise funds, manage endowments,
interview candidates, and make key decisions. They do this out of gratitude to
the schools for helping to make them what they are, and for the satisfaction
for seeing future generations of students following their footsteps.
44.
We have not yet developed such a strong tradition
in Singapore, but are now starting to do so.
This is one key reason why we are giving the universities more autonomy
and flexibility. We hope to engender a greater sense of ownership amongst
stakeholders like the council members, management, faculty, students and alumni,
so that everyone will chip in their effort to develop first class universities. This will be good for the universities, and
will also strengthen the community spirit and civic society in Singapore.
Conclusion
45.
In recent months I have been speaking about making
Singapore a land of opportunity. This is
both an economic and a social vision.
Economically, globalisation and a booming Asia have enabled a small
island like Singapore to tap into the markets around the world, offering us
tremendous opportunities and bringing growth and prosperity to our people,
which in turn has enabled more Singaporeans to improve their lives. Socially,
we are building a nation where each citizen has a part to play, and everyone,
rich or poor, can live with dignity and fulfilment. We are making Singapore a vibrant and
cosmopolitan hub, strengthening our cohesion and sense of identity, and
broadening the paths to success.
46.
Realising this vision depends on the effort of all
Singaporeans. But the elite bear a
heavier responsibility, keeping the group open and inclusive, and sharing a
common mission to serve society. The founder
generation accomplished this. They toiled
for the country, transformed it, and at the same time identified, inducted and
developed younger talent to form a new leadership group comprising some of the
ablest members of our society.
47.
But renewal does not end. We are continuing to groom
a new group, as able as previous generations, but more diverse. Many will come up through the universities,
but others will climb up using different ladders, and succeeding in different
ways. We do not recognise just a single peak of power or achievement, but a
mountain range with many peaks – in government, in the public sector, in
business, in the professions, in community work, in arts and sports. We are
building a broad elite. In turn, their key responsibility is to continue to uphold
the values of openness and inclusiveness, and dedication to community and
nation. By upholding these as the
enduring traits of our society, and embedding them into our social DNA, Singapore
will adapt and flourish in an ever-changing world.