Major changes ahead with PM's bold vision
AUG 23, 2004Major changes ahead with PM's bold vision
Sacred cows on five-day week, education, women's medical benefits slaughtered
By Chua Mui Hoong
PRIME Minister Lee Hsien Loong last night painted a vision of a Singapore brimming with promise and opportunity, and pledged a major overhaul of policies to get Singaporeans moving to that future.
He declared that 'fresh, bold' changes would have to be made to the way Singapore traditionally does things.
'It's a new generation and it's got to take Singapore another step forward, another level higher. To do that, we need a fresh and bold approach. We've been successful, wildly successful, otherwise we wouldn't be sitting here today.
'But we can't stand still because the world is changing, our people are changing and so must Singapore and so must the way we govern Singapore.'
The call for change was no mere rhetoric. Mr Lee chose his first National Day Rally address to announce concrete policy changes.
In education - 'the most important gift to the young' and long an unceasing worry of Singapore parents - nearly 3,000 more teachers will be deployed. The syllabus should be cut, to reduce pressure on children. 'We must teach less, so that our children can learn more.'
Changes will also be made to the teaching of Chinese language in schools.
Mr Lee slaughtered several policy sacred cows during his three-hour address at the University Cultural Centre, where he spoke in Malay, then Mandarin and finally English.
One was the notion - long upheld by government ministers - that since the man is the 'head of the household', medical benefits should be extended only to dependants of male, not female, civil servants.
Mr Lee announced this would change and the benefits would be equalised, to applause. As he noted, 'Norms are changing. Ten years ago, we could not imagine a young women's team wanting to climb Mount Everest.'
Also announced: a five-day work week for the civil service to signal the importance of a better work-life balance - representing another policy U-turn for the Government, which drew loud applause.
Another change: multilingual signs will now be put up at MRT stations nationwide, to cater to the many older Singaporeans who cannot read English, he said in Mandarin.
To encourage participation and debate, indoor talks will be exempt from licensing requirements unless they touch on race and religious issues. At free speech venue Speakers' Corner, performances and exhibitions - not just speeches - will now be permitted.
These small but iconic changes underscore the new PM's commitment to translate into action the pledge made during his Aug 12 swearing-in speech, to nurture an 'open, inclusive' Singapore.
It was Mr Goh Chok Tong, Singapore's second PM, who made an open, consultative style a priority of his government, bringing the nation beyond the economic focus that preoccupied its first PM, Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
Last night, PM Lee paid tribute to Mr Goh as some members of the audience gave him a standing ovation, saying Mr Goh had indeed brought Singaporeans closer as a people.
Judging from his maiden rally speech last night, the third PM wants to go beyond economics and social bonding, to build a dynamic Singapore that challenges past thinking and encourages greater diversity. This, he said several times, was essential to engage the young.
So even as the Government relooked long-held assumptions, so too must citizens change their mindsets, he said.
Try the impossible, do things never done before, take risks, urged Mr Lee.
He himself did so last night. He said he was advised not to raise a sensitive subject - whether Singapore should have a casino - in his first rally speech. But he chose to do so, to make the point that issues once considered long-settled will be up for review.
He came with a speech outline but no prepared text, letting the words flow spontaneously. He drew laughter and applause many times from the rapt audience of 2,000, with an anecdote here, an ad-libbed joke there, showing a more engaging, funnier side of himself than Singaporeans had seen in public.
He told many stories that underlined the need for mindset change: of a widowed cook who had the guts to become a reflexologist, the bespectacled single man who rejected a match because she too wore glasses, and the side-splitting story of how regulators took two years to figure out if the Duck - an amphibious vehicle - was a boat or a car.
As expected, Mr Lee also announced incentives to try to raise the fertility rate from its dismal 1.26 last year, including a widely-anticipated increase of paid maternity leave from two to three months - with the Government picking up the tab for the extra month.
Summing up, Mr Lee said Singapore had many things going for it.
It sits smack in the middle of the most dynamic region in the world. Recent painful restructuring measures have put the economy on a sound footing. Investments are flowing in and Singaporeans are well-set to take advantage of them.
Most of all, Singaporeans had a fighting spirit, the determination to succeed.
As he told table-tennis player Li Jiawei, who lost her bid for an Olympic bronze medal an hour before Mr Lee began his speech, she had tried her best and done well, and Singaporeans were proud of her. Agreeing with him, Mr Lee's audience applauded.
He ended thus: 'We may be small but we have high hopes and big dreams. And so long as we are a little red dot in the middle of South-east Asia, let people know that we are a people who will keep on trying and never say die. And with this spirit, the future is ours to make.'
MOVES TO BOOST FAMILY LIFEENCOURAGING COUPLES TO HAVE BABIES
12 weeks' maternity leave (up from eight weeks) for up to fourth child; Govt to reimburse employers
Those with children under 12 pay a lower maid levy
Centre-based infant-care subsidy of $400 a month
Two days' childcare leave a year for mums and dads with children under seven
Baby Bonus extended to first and fourth babies (now for second and third only)
More generous tax benefits
WHAT CIVIL SERVANTS WILL GET EQUAL BENEFITS
Equal medical benefits for men and women civil servants
FIVE-DAY WEEK
Civil servants to have five-day work week, including schools and army camps
(Details will be released this week.)
Copyright @ 2004 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.
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