By no means did he say that an individual cannot make it; just that it is necessary to acknowledge that the government and taxpayers’ money pay for the infrastructure and the assurance of political stability necessary for businesses to emerge and grow.
During the 2010 winter break, I went home to my hometown, Johor Bahru, after four years. Johor Bahru is a major city in Malaysia, separated from Singapore by a thin strait. Singapore is also a rich, prosperous, technologically advanced and cosmopolitan first-world island country of no more than five million souls and less than 300 square miles of land. Comparatively, Malaysia, which is blessed with natural resources of tin, copper, rich soil and oil, languished in second place as a second-world country. Singapore also boosts one of the most highly educated populations, with a vibrant research and development sphere and highly regarded universities. My parents are such fervent believers in the power of education that all their children were educated there despite the costs and long transit time. Singapore students routinely take medals in Math and Science Olympiads and ace the British GCE systems. In contrast, Malaysia had been engaging in such a systematic educational regression that the University of Malaya, which once was regarded as the best college in Southeast Asia, is not even ranked in the top 100 today. The National University of Singapore, on the other hand, stands at 31, just four places behind UC Berkeley. My uncle told me that a Singaporean minister, while speaking at a top Malaysian high school, declared that any high-scoring students willing to study at a Singaporean university would be given green cards immediately, with all tuition, room and board paid for along with a monthly stipend. Needless to say, many stepped forward to take the offer.
The recent furor over the way China handled the Tibetan riot only highlighted the wide cultural gap between the Western World and China. From an ethnic Chinese point of view, the Tibetan uprising violated two extremely important rules of social conduct within the Chinese society.
Solutions by The State News
