The Management of Globalization in Singapore: Twentieth Century ...

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Marystella Amaldas., Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (Japan)increase the relevance of local workers by re-tooling andtraining them. In addressing the widening gap betweenskilled and unskilled workers, a Ministerial Committee onlow wage workers announced in January 2006 the WorkfareApproach to support the low wage workers in the labourmarket. The Workfare framework is based on four principles:continued economic growth and job creation for Singapore;efforts to help low wage workers must reinforce Singapore’sstrong work ethic; increasing opportunities for upwardmobility should be the main means to help low wageworkers; and, focus on raising the skills and know-how ofthe next generation to create hope for their own future. Toachieve these outcomes, a $1 billion Workfare package wasapproved by the government. The key component of theWorkfare bonus is for the employed or self-employed localworker to have at least six months of continues employmentand earn an average monthly income of $1,500 or less(Shandre, 2009: 236).As the Singapore economy moves into higher valueaddedgoods due to globalization, the widening income gapamongst its population becomes the key political challenge.The rate of accumulation of human capital througheducation and training needs to keep pace with the risingdemand for more skilled workers as the economy moves onto a higher value-added industrial structure. This willincrease the wages of skilled workers relative to low skilledworkers and increase the income inequality and vulnerabilityof local workers to the global trends. This suggests thateducation alone would be inadequate to manage incomeinequality in the future. Singapore may need more socialwelfare schemes to balance economic growth and thewidening economic gap. (Bilveer Singh, 2008: 313-330)6. ConclusionIncreasingly the challenge for the modern Singaporemetropolis is one of coping with the task of never endingbuilding. As Singapore has learnt, there is no completiondate for building the Intelligent Island. Even as one part isbeing built, another part becomes obsolete, or worse still,what one is building becomes obsolete even beforecompletion. This is the nature of information and997
The Management of Globalization in Singapore: Twentieth Century Lessons for theEarly Decades of the New Centurycommunication technologies. The most famous of thecomputer-related laws, Moore's law, which stated thatcomputing power doubles every eighteen months, is itselfbecoming outdated. Thus, the Intelligent Island may neverbe completed but it seems likely to flourish even in anunfinished state.Singapore has an excellent track record of being ableto survive and thrive despite its constraints as a smallcountry that lacks natural resources. The key performanceindicator of good governance is not efficiency but rather theability to weather a sudden turn of events. Singapore hasproven capable of this kind of resilience. It is a state thatweathered crises such as the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98 and epidemics such as SARS.Summarily, as Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said inan interview with the International Herald Tribune, despitegood times, Singapore's survival is not guaranteed. Unlike anageing population and the issue of longevity that can bedealt with through adjustments in Central Provident Fundschemes, there are more tricky imperfections that requiregreater attention. Being governed like a corporation that cangauge its success by its wealth is insufficient because thethreat of radicalism cannot be countered throughaccumulation of wealth. The danger from extremistideologies can be managed by strengthening social resilienceto augment hard security.Clearly the founding of Singapore and its formation asa modern nation-state were inextricably connected to globalprocesses such as colonialism, migration, the emergence ofthe postcolonial interstate system and capitalism (Gupta,1997). The forces of global capitalism have largelycontributed to the reshaping of the Singapore city-state incomplex and contradictory ways. In response, the PAPgovernment has employed a range of strategies. Some ofthese strategies implemented in the last decade of thetwentieth century were highlighted in this paper as havingproduced effects in the first decade of this century.Speaking at the National Day Rally 2005 -commemorating the nation’s fourth decade of independence -Singapore’s newest and third Prime Minister, challengedSingaporeans yet again to think about its future.998
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