Understanding the four critiques of Singapore’s meritocracy

By Brandon Yip Zhen Yuan

29 April, 2019

Though Singapore’s meritocratic educational system has come under criticism of late, I believe we are often unclear on why Singaporeans are unhappy.

Meritocracy is bascially a system that rewards citizens in proportion to what society perceives as their merit.

Here, I shall distill four distinct criticisms of meritocracy and categorise them into two groups: those that criticise meritocracy from within the meritocratic framework and those from without.

Knowing the differences between these criticisms can hopefully help Singapore society to better discuss how our understanding of the meaning of meritocracy can evolve.

Meritocracy is under siege. Here are three ways Singapore can overcome its limitations

By Ong Ye Kung

29 July, 2019

While meritocracy is under siege and faith in it is weakening across the globe, it has not failed and will remain a key principle for recognising individuals, said Education Minister Ong Ye Kung at the 2019 Raffles Institution (RI) Founder’s Day on Saturday (July 27). Below is an excerpt of his speech, in which Mr Ong also offered three suggestions on how Singapore can overcome the limitations of meritocracy.

Commentary: Career Mobility is the new Career Stability

Long gone is the notion that the ideal CV has a narrow, vertical progression, says Forest Wolf’s Crystal Lim-Lange.

By Crystal Lim-Lange

29 Apr 2019


SINGAPORE: You’ve probably heard the rule that one year to a human equals seven years for a dog.

These days, career coaches joke that one year in a single role for a millennial is the equivalent of seven years for a Gen X-er.

Frequent career transitions used to be a sign of failure but today, being career mobile and having a diverse array of experiences is not only common, but is rapidly becoming aspirational.

Long gone is the notion of the career ladder, where the ideal CV looks like a narrow, vertical progression. Today’s gold-standard CV looks like a career matrix, with horizontal and vertical moves signifying depth and breadth of experience, skills and exposure to different cultures.

Employers have gone from being cynical about hiring job-hoppers to becoming accustomed to seeing diverse CVs from top talent who are in frequent demand.

I recall being asked “Why didn’t you stay for longer?” in job interviews 10 years ago. Today I hear many employers asking candidates “Why did you stay in one role for so long and not stretch yourself?”. It smacks of complacency.

Sports is not a guide to life, and this is why Tiger Woods ain't a role model

By Janan Ganesh

New York Times

The author says that sport is a meritocracy, but in real life, it is entirely possible for a person to possess talent, work hard and get nowhere.

Tiger Woods shakes hands with Patrick Reed, last year's winner, in a ceremony
after winning the Masters on April 14. 

22 April, 2019


In happy news, a world that used to regard Tiger Woods as a tragicomic case of fallen celebrity, citing his broken marriage and major-less decade, now regards him as an inspirational tale of endurance, citing his broken marriage and major-less decade.

The narrative change occurred on April 14 between 2.28pm and 2.29pm local time in Augusta, Georgia, when the golfer sank a decisive puttat the second attempt. A centimetre wide and he would have had to do without our upward revision of his moral worth.

Woods reclaimed two titles that day. One comes with a green jacket; the other promises the highest decorations of state. One comes with a cheque; the other will earn him millions of dollars in a more roundabout way.

Racial Politics in Malaysia

The Big Read: Voters not swayed by racial politics in Malaysian GE, but how long will that last?

By Kenneth Cheng, EILEEN NG and FARIS MOKHTAR in Kuala Lumpur 

13 May, 2018


KUALA LUMPUR — For years, the issue of race has dominated Malaysian politics, with Malays —particularly those in the rural areas — tending to vote for the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) and its Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which have long positioned themselves as the defender of Malay rights and supremacy.

But this week’s historic polls have turned things on their head.

Up in arms over the escalating cost of living, a burdensome Goods and Services Tax (GST) and an out-of-touch government mired in corruption scandals, the crucial Malay vote bank looked past race to end BN’s six-decade rule of the country.

[It's not that they looked past race that is remarkable. It is that it took them so long to overlook corruption before it was untenable.]

Oprah for POTUS - lessons or caveats for Democracy

[Here's the set up:]


Oprah for president in 2020? Here’s everything you need to know.


By Elahe Izadi

January 8 2018

It all got brought back up again, at first, because of a joke.

Golden Globes host Seth Meyers stood before Oprah Winfrey, who was set to receive the Cecil B. DeMille award Sunday night and was sitting in the very front of the room. As Meyers opened the awards show, he mentioned his 2011 White House correspondents’ dinner gig, the one where he joked about Donald Trump not being qualified for president.

“Some have said that night convinced him to run. So, if that’s true, I just want to say: Oprah, you will never be president! You do not have what it takes. And Hanks! Where’s Hanks? You will never be vice president. You are too mean and unrelatable. Now we just wait and see.”

Why is everyone mean and stupid — and getting worse?

ROBERT ARMSTRONG

MARCH 28, 2017

The most pressing question of our age is not what will happen when the computers outsmart us. Nor is it the future of globalisation, or how to stop climate change.

It is much more fundamental than these: Why is everyone so mean and stupid, and why is it getting worse?

Red-handed: China province admits faking economic data

January 18, 2017

BEIJING — A Chinese official has admitted his province falsified its economic data for years, state media said on Wednesday (Jan 18), as the country prepares to release its national growth estimates for 2016.

The announcement by the governor of the northeastern province of Liaoning partially confirms long-held suspicions among overseas investors that the world’s second largest economy has been cooking the books.

China’s GDP figures are a closely watched measure of economic growth in the country, which affect business and financial decisions around the globe.

Reality check needed for S’poreans with unrealistic expectations

TAN ERN SER
AUGUST 12, 2016

Class is back.

Between the end of World War II and the late 1960s, leftist politics flourished, particularly among labour unionists, and high school and university students. Inspired by Marx and Mao, the language of class resonated here, especially its association with colonialism and exploitation, and jostled among competing visions of the future in the emerging independent polity of Singapore.

Gradually, as the People’s Action Party (PAP) government triumphed over leftist political parties as well as trade union and student organisations, the language of class took a backseat, though it never completely disappeared.

In its place was the language of meritocracy and equal opportunity. This was based on the PAP’s “democratic socialist” vision of Singapore, one that carried the promise of freedom from poverty and the prospect of social mobility in a vibrant, but not unbridled, capitalist economy for its people, many of whom were migrants who left China or India in search of a better life.

As is familiar history by now, a strong PAP government has delivered on its promise to provide jobs, healthcare, housing and education over its long, unbroken tenure. Singapore enjoyed sterling economic growth in the 1970s and early 1980s, home ownership grew and education expanded.

John Roberts Criticized Supreme Court Confirmation Process, Before There Was a Vacancy

By ADAM LIPTAK 

MARCH 21, 2016


WASHINGTON — Last month, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. delivered some blunt remarks about the Supreme Court confirmation process. The Senate should ensure that nominees are qualified, he said, and leave politics out of it.

The chief justice spoke 10 days before Justice Antonin Scalia died, and he could not have known how timely and telling his comments would turn out to be. They now amount to a stern, if abstract, rebuke to the Republican senators who refuse to hold hearings on President Obama’s nominee, Judge Merrick B. Garland.

Some people are hoping that the chief justice will speak out again, and more directly, addressing the actual nomination of an actual nominee.

It was not long ago that qualified nominees coasted onto the court, Chief Justice Roberts said last month, in a speech at New England Law, a private law school in Boston. In 1986, Justice Scalia was confirmed by a vote of 98 to 0. In 1993, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was confirmed by a vote of 96 to 3.

These days, Chief Justice Roberts said, “the process is not functioning very well.”

S’pore and M’sia - 50 years on

Singapore's Independence sprung from our Separation from Malaysia. It is therefore inevitable that a comparison between the two, separate countries, be made. It is like a twin study. Separated, one cannot help but scrutinise the fate and fortune of either and see where we have diverged, and where we remain the same.

Are the similarities strong and deep and the differences shallow? Or vice versa?

Are we moved to say, "there but for the grace of god/gods/fate, goeth I"?

Or does success breeds certainty in predestination?

One wonders.

Gifted Education Programme (GEP): Separating myths from truths

Commentary

JUL 20, 2015,

It's not another rat race, and there is less segregration from mainstream pupils today

Dennis Chan
Deputy Money Editor

Every once in a while, I would read in the newspapers about calls to do away with the Gifted Education Programme (GEP).

Rarely have I read articles that defend the scheme.

I suppose this has something to do with the fact that, each year, only 1 to 1.5 per cent, or 500 to 550 pupils, in a cohort of about 50,000 are admitted to the GEP.

For the vast majority of parents, GEP does not figure at all on their radar. It didn't in my case.

Honestly, I had never heard of the GEP until five years ago, when the older of my two daughters, then in Primary 3, was shortlisted for a final selection test.

By the grace of God, Yanrong cleared the test and was one of 564 pupils selected for the 2011 intake.

As she had benefited from the programme, it is only right that I lend a voice in support of it. But instead of regurgitating the raison d'etre of the GEP, I would like to rebut some common criticisms.

Chinese Democracy Isn't Inevitable

Can a political system be democratically legitimate without being democratic?
DANIEL A. BELL

MAY 29, 2015


The flaws in China’s political system are obvious. The government doesn’t even make a pretense of holding national elections and punishes those who openly call for multiparty rule. The press is heavily censored and the Internet is blocked. Top leaders are unconstrained by the rule of law. Even more worrisome, repression has been ramped up since Xi Jinping took power in 2012, suggesting that the regime is increasingly worried about its legitimacy.

Some China experts—most recently David Shambaugh of George Washington University—interpret these ominous signs as evidence that the Chinese political system is on the verge of collapse. But such an outcome is highly unlikely in the near future. The Communist Party is firmly in power, its top leader is popular, and no political alternative currently claims widespread support. And what would happen if the Party’s power did indeed crumble? The most likely result, in my view, would be rule by a populist strongman backed by elements of the country’s security and military forces. The new ruler might seek to buttress his legitimacy by launching military adventures abroad. President Xi would look tame by comparison.

Does democracy lead to good governance?

July 17

After gaining independence from Britain in 1947, India was something of a poster child for the virtues of democracy — in stark contrast with China, which became a Communist dictatorship in 1949.

Until the 1970s, it was widely argued that, while both countries suffered from extreme poverty, underdevelopment and disease, India’s model was superior because its people were free to choose their own rulers.

With China’s economic boom, however, the counterargument — that a repressive political system is more conducive to development — has gained currency. But while China’s recent performance has been spectacular, India’s model may well stand up better in the long run.

Is there an ideological cleavage in S’pore?

[Note the date of this article. It is from over a year ago.]

BY INVITATION

Singaporeans still support free trade and investment, meritocracy and free enterprise, but want to see a greater emphasis on fairness in society

Mar 29, 2014

Tommy Koh

Ambassador-At-Large at Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs

FOR a very long time, Singaporeans appear to have had a shared belief in the following values and principles:

• Free trade and investment
• Market economy
• Globalisation
• Foreign talent
• Meritocracy

Several recent events, however, have prompted thoughtful Singaporeans to wonder whether that consensus is breaking down.

Speaking in London on Thursday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong hinted at the problem.

Unlike many other global cities, he noted, Singapore has no hinterland. This made getting the balance "between national identity and cosmopolitan openness, between free market competition and social solidarity" especially important.

Are the stresses and strains associated with the drive to be a global city producing a potentially destabilising ideological cleavage?

Singapore wants kids to skip university: good luck with that

NEW YORK — Singaporean Carmen Kok regrets that she never made it to university. She’s not letting her daughter make the same mistake, even if she has to send her abroad to get a place.

“You can’t rise up in Singapore without a degree,” said Ms Kok, 47, who plans to spend three times what she makes in a year as a hairdresser to send her daughter to college in South Korea. “She may be able to get a job if she doesn’t go to university, but she can get a higher salary if she goes.”

Singapore’s Tiger mums are becoming a headache for Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is trying to persuade the population that they don’t need to go to university to have a good career. After a clampdown on immigration and a slowdown in the economy, he needs fewer graduates and more workers to fill the shipyards, factory floors and hotel desks that keep the country going.

Mr Lee, who graduated from Cambridge University in England with top honours, is leading a campaign that includes speeches and roadshows to persuade more youths to join the workforce under a system modelled on Germany’s apprenticeship system. The “earn and learn” program would place graduates from technical schools into jobs, while giving them the chance to continue part-time education.

INTERNATIONAL TREND

Mr Lee is the latest Asian leader with an A-starred education system to try to put the brakes on, as universities turn out more and more graduates who aren’t matched to the jobs available. A few years ago, South Korea said it may close some higher-education institutes amid what then-President Lee Myung Bak called “reckless university enrolment”.

“There is a clear international trend in the developed world to make vocational education a true choice for more young people,” said Professor Pasi Sahlberg, a visiting professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Yet, many still see it as a “secondary choice”, especially in Asia, where parents tend to believe that “higher education would be the only key to prosperity and success”.

Six out of 10 Singaporeans between 25 and 29 years old completed tertiary education, the highest proportion in the world and just ahead of South Korea, according to the latest World Bank figures from 2010.

‘WORK HARD’

In a televised address last August, Singapore’s Mr Lee celebrated two employees at Keppel Corporation, the world’s biggest builder of offshore oil rigs, who had risen through the ranks without a graduate diploma.

“They may not have degrees, but they are working hard and trying to improve themselves,” Mr Lee said. “So long as you work hard, you can always hope for a brighter future here in Singapore.”

The Straits Times has run profiles of Singaporeans who achieved career success after eschewing or postponing college. An October survey by the paper showed readers equally divided over whether it is possible to succeed in the country without a degree.
“The success of this campaign is crucial for Singapore going forward, as it reshapes its labour market,” said Mr Vishnu Varathan, a Singapore-based economist at Mizuho Bank. “It’s a hard sell for Singaporeans who see college as the route to a good salary.”

Lifetime earnings for a typical US bachelor’s degree holder is twice that of someone with a high-school diploma, according to a study by the Brookings Institution’s Hamilton Project released in September. In Singapore, the median starting salary for graduates with a four-year electrical engineering degree was S$3,135 in 2013, compared with S$1,750 for those who studied the same subject at a technical institute, according to data from the Ministry of Manpower.

PROBLEM SOLVING

The South-east Asian nation’s education system is regularly ranked among the best in the world. Students aged 15 from Singapore and South Korea topped those in 44 countries in problem solving, according to a report last year by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development.

South Korea is now encouraging companies to hire young people and is pushing for a job-sharing wage system to reduce youth unemployment.

Singapore already has a system that sorts children into different subject-based bands at school after testing starting at age 10. They’re later placed into junior colleges or technical institutes based on exams at 16 or 17. Those going to junior college have a higher chance of entry into a local university.

Under Singapore’s earn-and-learn program, technical school leavers would receive on-the-job training while they study for an industry qualification, according to the government’s budget for this fiscal year. Each Singaporean who is placed in the program will receive a S$5,000 bonus. A pilot plan next year will place some graduates from the technical institutes in apprenticeships in sectors including aerospace, logistics and information technology.

“We can’t become a Germany, but what we can do is adapt some of the very strong points for certain sectors and certain types of skills,” Mr S Iswaran, second minister for trade, said in an interview on Feb 24.

GERMAN MODEL

Germany’s Dual Vocational Training System allows school-leavers at 18 to apply to a private company for a contract that mixes on-the-job learning with a broader education at a publicly funded vocational school.

Persuading Singaporeans to go down the same route will be an uphill task after decades of extolling the importance of education. Singapore households spent S$1.1 billion on tutors outside school in the year ended September 2013, according to the most-recent survey by the statistics department.

Every member of the cabinet has a degree, and the civil service continues to offer students full scholarships to top colleges overseas as a form of recruitment.

Two of Mr Lee’s sons went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, while his deputies Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Mr Teo Chee Hean have sons who went to Cambridge University in England and Brown University in Rhode Island on government scholarships.

Singapore subsidises the bulk of tuition fees at local universities for its citizens, making the cost about S$7,950 a year for an arts and social sciences degree at the National University of Singapore. That compares with about S$60,000 a year at Harvard University without financial aid for a full-time student.

Many Singaporeans who don’t get into a local college go abroad. Four in 10 graduates in the resident labour force last year got their degrees overseas.

“The government shouldn’t tell people not to go to university unless they can promise the same job opportunities as graduates,” said Mr Kenneth Chen, 26, whose parents spent more than S$170,000 on a sports science degree in Brisbane, Australia, after he graduated with a biotechnology diploma in Singapore. “But obviously that’s not going to happen.”

BLOOMBERG

S'pore and KL at odds over Malay rights

Apr 26, 2015

This week in 1965 | A look back at the events that shaped Singapore 50 years ago
By Ho Ai Li


APRIL 27

Singapore and Kuala Lumpur sharpened their differences over the issue of Malay rights, as news about an impending move to set up an opposition alliance ruffled the feathers of central government leaders.

More proof that the richer you are, the healthier you'll be

APRIL 13

NEW YORK — No matter how much you earn, people who earn more than you are likelier to be healthier and live longer. That's the takeaway from a new report by researchers at the Urban Institute and Virginia Commonwealth University examining the complex links between health, wealth, and income.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that poverty is often associated with poor health. Less obvious: Health and income improve together all the way up the economic pyramid. The wealthiest have fewer illnesses than the upper-middle class, who are in better shape than the lower-middle class, and so on.

The Urban report analysed a dozen health problems for which the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) has recorded prevalence by family income. In every case, the rich are better off. With just a few exceptions, there's a steady improvement in health as you climb the income scale.

Life expectancy and self-reported overall health also decline with income. And while minorities in the US have poorer health, much of the difference is accounted for by disparities in income among racial and ethnic groups.

Here's another way to think about it: 6.4 million people in the US have suffered strokes, a prevalence rate of 2.7 per cent of non-institutionalised adults. Among those who earn six figures, the rate is 1.6 per cent. If everyone had strokes at the same rate that the richest Americans do, we'd have 2.6 million fewer stroke patients in the country. Multiply such differences across a range of health conditions — diabetes, heart disease, lung disease — and the magnitude of health disparities becomes clear.

How health and money are related is complex. For both rich and poor, the two attributes likely reinforce one another. “Health and income affect each other in both directions: not only does higher income facilitate better health, but poor health and disabilities can make it harder for someone to succeed in school or to secure and retain a high-paying job,” the Urban authors write.

Living in poverty often means less access to nutritious food or neighbourhoods safe for outdoor exercise. Low-income people are more likely to smoke or be obese. White-collar jobs are less physically demanding, and people who have them can afford to take a day off for a doctors' visit or to get a gym membership. They're also probably not working the night shift, which is linked to cancer and other health problems.

The entanglement between health and income means that stagnant real wages and increasing inequality affect the country's physical and mental health as well. From the Urban report: “It is important to remember that economic and social policies are health policies in that they affect life expectancy, disease rates, and health care costs for all Americans.”

BLOOMBERG

14 per cent of those who start off at the bottom end up at the top: Tharman

MAR 5, 2015

BY THAM YUEN-C

SINGAPORE - More than one in 10 young Singaporeans who start off in life in the lowest 20 per cent income group, end up in the top 20 per cent of the population later in life.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam revealed these figures in Parliament on Thursday to highlight the state of social mobility here, saying that society is more fluid in Singapore than in other developed countries.

Wrapping up the Budget debate, he listed the ways in which the Government has been taking steps to ensure such movement, saying social mobility "has to be part of our Singapore identity".

"It's a challenge all over the world. In fact, social mobility is the defining challenge in every advanced country today," he said. "We're fortunate that Singapore has so far done relatively well. It is actually still a more fluid society than most."

In Singapore, 14 per cent of those in their mid-20s to early 30s, and who started out in families in the lowest 20 per cent income group, moved into the top 20 per cent income group themselves, said Mr Tharman.

Scholarship, Meritocracy, Equality - 3 letters and an article.

SingTel launches scholarship for polytechnic students

BY LAURA PHILOMIN

JANUARY 7

SINGAPORE — SingTel has launched its first-ever scholarship for polytechnic students, at a time when the Government is pushing to de-emphasise the obsession with getting a university degree.

The 90 scholarships — worth more than S$2 million and handed out each year — will include internships, employment and development opportunities such as on-the-job-training.

Such industry-relevant training is similar to the recommendations made by the Applied Study in Polytechnics and ITE Review (ASPIRE) committee to improve the prospects of poly and Institute of Technical Education graduates.

The SingTel Cadet Scholarship Programme, which was officially open for applications yesterday, will be available to top students pursuing diplomas in computer engineering and infocomm security management at Singapore Polytechnic (SP), and the diploma in customer relationship and service management in Republic Polytechnic (RP).

Upon graduation, scholars will also secure jobs in cybersecurity, network engineering and customer experience management as they serve a one-year bond with SingTel. Depending on their work performance, they will be offered a part-time or full-time university scholarship after completing their bond.

Speaking at the launch yesterday, Education Minister Heng Swee Keat lauded the SingTel move for being closely aligned to SkillsFuture and recognising that its principles can be replicated in many industries. He urged more employers to step forward to develop programmes to best suit their needs.