Reflections Marathon

I'm beginning a reflection marathon on the Government and Politics of Singapore from now until maybe 3pm. This is for the paper at 5.

The challenges of globalization.

First, let us define globalization. Globalization is the phenomenon of increase in integration and interconnectedness of states as well as the notion of a borderless world, a world where people are free to travel, to change citizenship and to study and work wherever they please.
As an implication of the interdependence, there is also the notion of a global village, that is, a world where any business seems to be everyone's business, a heightened responsibility due to heightened awareness of what's going on in the world.

Globalization can also be characterized as a process which is irreversible (as you can imagine how hostile it'll be to open your doors to the world only to suddenly close them).
Having exponential speed of spread, and usually aiding the spread of western, liberal values.

So here are some challenges of globalization for the Singaporean government.
1. Its irreversibility means that the foreign talent policy, once implemented, cannot be revoked without significant international backlash.

How is this a challenge? Well we know from 2011 elections that the influx of foreigners into Singapore has been a huge source of discontentment with the government. Birthrates and other reasons aside, the irreversibility of globalization means that the government will be criticized as hostile to foreigners rather than lauded as benign to its locals should it attempt a drastic revision to its immigration policies. The government is caught in a pinch, unable to satisfy both the international and the local community at the same time.

2. Exponential speed of spread means things are just going to get worse.
Not only is the government unable to significantly reduce, its attempt to portray Singapore as a global city inevitably compels it to loosen the immigration policy.
The influx of foreigners also means that national identity building becomes a more tedious task. Which has a number of consequences. Firstly, it decreases the sense of ownership locals have over the country. In a recent forum in NTU, a student remarked to PM Lee that he doesn't know who he is defending the country for anymore.
Next, this decrease in sense of ownership or stake-holdership means that more locals are ready to leave the country for better prospects elsewhere, resulting in the issue of brain drain, which increases the need for more foreign talent which.. yeah. you got it.

3. Exponential increase in oppositional pressure.
The spread of liberal values (think same-sex relations, liberal democracy which includes freedom of speech etc etc) means that the government subjects itself to greater objection and pressures to reform the conservative and illiberal policies of Singapore. This sandwiches the government between the heartlander (which presumably favours the more conservative values and more stable policies which maintain the status quo) and the globalist. (who yaks about being liberal and having political freedom). Considering that a good 40% default to vote PAP and a good 25% default to the opposition, this loss of the middle 35% swing votes may spell significant trouble for PAP.

5. Economic Displeasure.
Singapore is the nation with the largest concentration of millionaires in the world. As such, the actual household income for the average local family is very much lower than the GDP per capita of the country. This can be explained in 2 ways. First, although MNCs and TNCs set up shop in Singapore, they prefer to transfer workers from their existing homebases rather than co-opting Singaporeans. Hence, Singaporeans are benefitting less from globalization than expected.
Next, with the transition to knowledge-based economy, characterized by high use of technology means that many Singaporeans need to undergo retraining or become aliented. The skills mismatch means that many are unable to get the really well-paying jobs.

This is a huge problem because PAP's raison de etre has always been the materialistic fulfilment of the locals. However, with globalization, although the nation does well, many locals do not. Thus for those who are left out of the delicious globalization pie, PAP has lost its reason for existence.

4. Family problems.
Opening up the country means playing by the international rules and acquiring the lingua franca, that is English. This places inter-generation tension in the family because of different language use, resulting in lack of communication. That's not all. The digital divide, or disparity in technological competency can also be a huge source of tension.

The language problem: the Singapore government will be under competing pressures regarding its language policies in education. There will be a group asking it to do away the MT policies because it is often seen as disadvantaging the students in their acquisition of English, being an unnecessary subject which injects additional workload into the already hectic school life.
On the other, there will be conservatives who would hold the government responsible for maintaining the Asian-ness of Singapore through retaining the MT policy (because PAP said that the MTs are transmitters of cultural values, and so they can do nothing but blame themselves for this conundrum).

This is hardly conclusive, but nonetheless, time to move onto a separate topic.