first-tier citizens posted on Sunday, June 04, 2006
Despite Singapore Table Tennis Federation's push to train her as a top player by sending her to overseas matches, she has chosen to leave Singapore to search for greener pastures elsewhere.
While she may have her reasons for doing so and I am in no position to judge her patriotism towards Singapore, it is saddening to learn that she could be replaced by a more well-deserving local table tennis player who may not be better in skills but has the heart to play for Singapore.
Singapore has always been under pressure to buy off-the-shelf foreign talent rather than invest time and resources in developing our own talent. In cases such as awarding bond-free PhD scholarships to foreign students, or hiring foreign talent to play for Singapore sports, these have always have sparked debate.
The issue is always 'build or buy?'
One of the six messages in national education for school children includes 'No one owes Singapore a living. We must find our own way to survive and prosper.'
This message is self-contradictory in some ways. If Singapore has to find her own ways to survive, the first survival instinct is to look to her own people for help.
If Singapore has always relied on outside help, it implies that we are no good, that we are always second grade citizens. For national education is to be effective, we have to ask what is it in a nation that creates loyalty in citizens and what alienates them?
Issues such as sending our scholars overseas for studies, providing bond-free scholarships to foreign students, allowing foreigners to take part in the Singapore Idol contest, and talent-hunting foreign students to come to Singapore to study only serve to alienate citizens.
With the reverse migration of students from India and China going back to their homelands, Singapore will face another uphill challenge to attract more talented foreigners.
It has been said that first-tier foreigners go to America and Europe while the second-tier foreigners come to Singapore. Very soon, Singapore can attract only third-tier foreigners because many of the brightest foreigners from India and China will be talent-hunted aggressively.
If this is the case, rather than attracting third-tier foreigners, we may as well do more to nurture our own people because we have the capability to be first-tier citizens as well.
Once Singapore can achieve that, even first-tier foreigners will be strongly motivated to come to Singapore to contribute.
It is easier to take a sapling from the greenhouse to grow it rather than planting from seeds. The fruit-bearing phase is shorter for the sapling than for seeds. However, if the seeds grow successfully into strong healthy fruit trees, other insects will travel from afar to the flowers for pollination, thus enhancing the quality of the next generation of seeds.
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Edmund Lim Wai Hoong
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I find it disheartening that a table tennis star such as Xu Yan would choose to leave Singapore after obtaining her citizenship a few years ago (Xu Yan may play for German club - ST, May 26).
Despite Singapore Table Tennis Federation's push to train her as a top player by sending her to overseas matches, she has chosen to leave Singapore to search for greener pastures elsewhere.
While she may have her reasons for doing so and I am in no position to judge her patriotism towards Singapore, it is saddening to learn that she could be replaced by a more well-deserving local table tennis player who may not be better in skills but has the heart to play for Singapore.
Singapore has always been under pressure to buy off-the-shelf foreign talent rather than invest time and resources in developing our own talent. In cases such as awarding bond-free PhD scholarships to foreign students, or hiring foreign talent to play for Singapore sports, these have always have sparked debate.
The issue is always 'build or buy?'
One of the six messages in national education for school children includes 'No one owes Singapore a living. We must find our own way to survive and prosper.'
This message is self-contradictory in some ways. If Singapore has to find her own ways to survive, the first survival instinct is to look to her own people for help.
If Singapore has always relied on outside help, it implies that we are no good, that we are always second grade citizens. For national education is to be effective, we have to ask what is it in a nation that creates loyalty in citizens and what alienates them?
Issues such as sending our scholars overseas for studies, providing bond-free scholarships to foreign students, allowing foreigners to take part in the Singapore Idol contest, and talent-hunting foreign students to come to Singapore to study only serve to alienate citizens.
With the reverse migration of students from India and China going back to their homelands, Singapore will face another uphill challenge to attract more talented foreigners.
It has been said that first-tier foreigners go to America and Europe while the second-tier foreigners come to Singapore. Very soon, Singapore can attract only third-tier foreigners because many of the brightest foreigners from India and China will be talent-hunted aggressively.
If this is the case, rather than attracting third-tier foreigners, we may as well do more to nurture our own people because we have the capability to be first-tier citizens as well.
Once Singapore can achieve that, even first-tier foreigners will be strongly motivated to come to Singapore to contribute.
It is easier to take a sapling from the greenhouse to grow it rather than planting from seeds. The fruit-bearing phase is shorter for the sapling than for seeds. However, if the seeds grow successfully into strong healthy fruit trees, other insects will travel from afar to the flowers for pollination, thus enhancing the quality of the next generation of seeds.
--
Edmund Lim Wai Hoong
--