Editor's note: The cultivation and introduction of talents can be said to be a key part of Singapore's rapid and stable development, and Lee Kuan Yew's talent ideas have a profound impact on it. Vigorously develop the economy through the introduction of foreign talents, cultivate new forces politically, and pave the way for future leadership.
Affected by the epidemic, Singapore has lost a lot of foreign talents during the tightening of immigration measures, and Finance Minister Huang Xuncai said that there will be a certain talent problem in 2020, and if the economy is developed in Asia, the flow of people is very important.
Today, what role does the idea of talent play more than half a century ago? After reading this article, I believe I will find some answers.
Singapore gained autonomous status in 1959, merged with Malaysia in 1963, and withdrew from the Federation of Malaysia in 1965 to become an independent country. As a small country with scarce natural resources, how to survive and develop in the world is a key issue for nation-building leaders.
In June 1959, Lee Kuan Yew became the first Prime Minister of Singapore's Autonomous Government, and for more than 50 years since then, his ideas and vision have played a decisive role in the formulation and implementation of Singapore's policies.
Since Singapore's autonomy, Lee Kuan Yew has argued that the most important issues in Singapore are economic development and political stability, both of which require talent. Therefore, the emphasis on talents and the introduction of foreign talents have become the core of Lee Kuan Yew's talent thinking.
This article will analyze Lee Kuan Yew's talent ideas and their impact and effectiveness on the formulation and implementation of Singapore's talent policy and development strategy over the years.
First, Lee Kuan Yew's talent thinking
Singapore re-emerged as a British colony after the war, and unlike before the war, the people of Singapore began to demand a greater voice in the government. In 1963, Singapore, together with the Malaysian Union State, Sarawak and Sabah, formed the Federation of Malaysia and withdrew from British rule.
After the establishment of the Federation, the development of the economy has become the top priority, and talent is the foundation for the development of the economy. Lee Kuan Yew's talent ideology has three main cores, namely, the development of higher education, the selection of leadership, and the attraction of foreign talents.
Higher education is a necessary condition for cultivating talents, so Lee Kuan Yew first focused on higher education and tried to cultivate talents in all aspects of economic development through education. At the Annual Dinner of the University of Singapore Students' Union in 1962, Lee Kuan Yew stressed:
1. Institutions of higher learning must be established to cultivate New Malaysian talents in order to achieve the goal of an industrialized society.
2. To complement the development plan of Jurong Industrial Estate, the University of Singapore and the University of Nanyang have undertaken a large-scale expansion plan.
3. A correct judgement must be made as to which type of institutions to expand in order to absorb our youth over the next 12 years and to train them so that they can later help us build an industrial society, as every emerging country hopes to do.
Singapore joined Malaysia only for a short period of two years, and due to economic and political contradictions, Singapore had to secede from the autonomous state in 1965 and become an independent country. At this time, Singapore was facing a more severe test, and the shortage of housing, the lack of natural resources, and the high unemployment rate were all difficulties at that time.
In order to survive and develop, the Singapore government has taken a series of measures to develop higher education, cultivate talents, and reorganize the Economic Development Board, establish the Jurong Town Authority and the Singapore Development Bank, etc., which have effectively promoted the rapid development of the economy.
Singapore's rapid economic development made it one of the four Asian tigers second only to Japan in the 1960s and 1970s.
In the period of economic development in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, stable politics was the necessary foundation. Lee Kuan Yew also noted the close relationship between talent and politics, and at the 1966 Bayele District By-Election Mass Conference in Paya Lebar District, he proposed a plan for the implementation of capable talents, arguing:
1. The PAP should not relent in the collapse of the opposition, promising to draw on more able personnel to assist in the implementation of the Government's plans.
2. A long-term political movement cannot rely on one or two people alone, but must find as many able people as possible to assist in the implementation of the government's plan, and this must also run through the elections, hoping that there will be better talents to represent the compatriots in the constituencies, so that Singapore's politics will have new blood and the political struggle will not be abruptly interrupted by any accident.
Lee Kuan Yew's philosophy has also been reflected in his guiding principles for the PAP in recruiting talent.
In 1984, at a congress of DAP cadres, he stated that it was not a matter of luck to find a leader: "Once the DAP stops attracting talent, it will become vulnerable, and capable people will exoduse or challenge the DAP's political power." ”
If we don't pick the most capable and dedicated people, if we fill Congress with only the people we like or the people who go with the flow, we will fail.
We bring in the best talent, so that the opposition cannot find outstanding talent, and those who are wise and intelligent can be added even if they do not agree with our policy, and he can persuade us to revise the policy and do good for the people.
Attracting and attracting talent is important, but it is equally important to define talent. In 1988, in a speech to students at the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Polytechnic, Lee Kuan Yew discussed the types of talent needed:
"What we need is people who are more capable than turning a company into a profit. You must be able to feel the emotions, feelings and aspirations of the people; you must be able to mobilize the people so that they can fight with you for the life they demand. ”
In order to help the government win the right talent, Lee Kuan Yew even offered to compete with the private sector for talent. Lee Kuan Yew, in his 1989 Parliamentary Debate Statement on Salary Adjustments for Statutory Posts, explained the reasons why the Minister should receive a salary increase, stating:
"It is important to continue to enjoy stable, good government, good policies and economic growth, which requires the government to absorb at least 30 of the 100 best students each year into various sectors of civil service, whether administrative, engineering, mapping, accounting or legal, etc. If this is not possible, the government will not be able to provide conditions for the growth of private enterprises."
The government has always been the largest employer of college graduates and workers. In the 1950s, 50% of the people were employed. Today, the private sector is taking the lead. If we don't pay the wages we pay in comparison with the private sector, what we get will be what someone else has left. ”
While attracting outstanding talents to work in government departments, it is also necessary to complete a smooth transition of leaders to succeed them, so that young professionals can play their greatest role.
Singapore's second generation of leaders began in the early 1980s, and in 1982, Lee Kuan Yew, explaining the progress of the baton relay at the People's Action Party's cadre conference, said: "The older generation is still in their posts, and the young people learn from the experience first." ”
Lee Kuan Yew explains this: "In a world that has changed completely – in Singapore, which has undergone tremendous changes – our exceptional talent must be put to the test and learn from experience in order for the leadership to develop effective and practical solutions to almost insoluble problems." We must identify more leaders who can solve problems, who have the ability to communicate the solutions they have developed, as well as to call on and mobilize people to support their solutions. ”
Talent absorption is important, but Singapore has a limited land area, only a few million people, and faces the problem of a declining birth rate year by year. Relying on local talents alone is far from meeting the needs of social development.
As Lee Kuan Yew once pointed out vividly: "There are about 300 people who can be called the mainstay of society." They take on the burden of planning and implementing policies. If the 300-person Jumbo passenger plane falls, Singaporean society will collapse. This shows that the talent of local leaders is very limited. ”
For the shortage of talents, Lee Kuan Yew is also very forward-looking. As early as the 1980s, Lee Kuan Yew realized the importance of attracting a global elite. On 20 May 1980, before Nanyang University and the University of Singapore merged to form the National University of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew addressed the faculty and staff of the two universities, talking in depth about the future level and development direction of NUS.
He stressed the need to hire more qualified and better lecturers to improve the quality of universities in order to train better graduates. "In government, there are a lot of sensitive jobs that need to be done by Singaporeans; for universities, it doesn't matter whether the teaching staff are white, black, yellow, brown or mixed," he said. The important thing is whether he is competent, is he enthusiastic? Whether it can arouse the interest of students. ”
After that, he repeatedly affirmed the contribution of foreign talents and proposed to attract foreign talents. On 12 August 1982, in a dedication to the NFTU's "Building on the Past" essay album, Lee Kuan Yew pointed out: "Without these outstanding foreign-born talents who are responsible for taking charge of the main government departments and statutory bodies, Singapore would not be where it is today. ”
At the National Day Mass Conference on 20 August 1989, Lee Kuan Yew pointed out that the government's absorption of foreign immigrants, including Hong Kong immigrants, is for our economic, social and political interests, and that no Singaporean will suffer losses in climbing the social ladder.
Lee Kuan Yew's series of talent ideas have had a profound impact on the formulation of the Singapore Government's talent strategy and development strategy over the past 50 years, and some of the relevant policies implemented by the Singapore Government are the embodiment of its talent ideas.
2. Singapore's international talent development strategy
Under the guidance of Lee Kuan Yew's talent thought, Singapore has established a development strategy focusing on the establishment of a country with talents, and the talent policy implemented by the Singapore government is also carried out around this focus, which has played a pivotal role in Singapore's economic and social development.
The emphasis on higher education has led the Singapore government to vigorously develop tertiary education in the country for many years and strive to improve the overall level of education. Following the three government public universities of the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University and Singapore Management University, the government decided to establish a fourth university in 2010, the Singapore University of Science and Technology and Design.
Subsequently, the Singapore Institute of Technology and New Leap University were transformed into the fifth and sixth government-assisted schools in the region. In a speech in 2013, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong mentioned: "China has actively expanded the field of tertiary education in recent years, with the transformation of singapore institute of science and technology and New Leap University into the fifth and sixth local government-assisted universities, the government aims to increase the number of university seats receiving government subsidies to 40% of the number of students in the same class by 2020." ”
In addition, singapore has a number of polytechnics and technical schools, ensuring that most students can receive higher education or professional and technical education, learn a skill, and cope with the needs of the future work.
While vigorously developing higher education, Singapore also provides government scholarships to support outstanding students to further their studies or study abroad. Most of these scholarship winners enter government service after completing their studies, becoming a new force in the future leadership.
At the same time, the Singapore government also provides generous salaries to attract talents, train successors, and ensure a smooth transition of future leadership. In a 2011 speech on the theme of "Leadership Renewal: Leadership generations for the fourth generation and beyond", Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong mentioned that he had assembled a young A team for the future of Singapore.
However, as a small country that lacks any natural resources and domestic market, Singapore's international talent strategy, which is to attract foreign talent, is a crucial part of the overall national development strategy. This policy was created and implemented primarily to cope with the pressure of population shortages due to the decline in the birth rate and to adapt to the economic transformation of the country.
Unlike its Southeast Asian neighbors, singapore's post-independence government in 1965 adopted a multi-racial and cultural policy, which helped it promote and implement an open immigration policy.
(Lee Kuan Yew at Cambridge University Library, Credit: Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore)
Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew made it clear that "Singapore wants to build a multi-racial state." We will set an example. This is not a Malay country, this is not a Chinese country, it is not an Indian country. Let us truly Singaporeans, regardless of race, language, culture or religion, unite as one. ”
In the early post-independence period, Singapore implemented a "two is enough" fertility policy; at the same time, more and more women entered the workforce, and the fertility rate decreased year by year: from 4.93 (1960–65), to 2.62 (1970–75) and 1.57 (1995–2000). Despite a series of measures to reward fertility, the situation has not improved. Singapore's fertility rate in 2010 was 1.15 children per female resident (well below the population replacement rate of 2.1).
From the perspective of macroeconomic policies and processes, the pace of economic globalization in Singapore has accelerated significantly after the 1970s, and it is very dependent on the world market as well as on foreign investment. For example, manufacturing typically contributes 25 per cent of Singapore's GDP and employs around 20 per cent of the total job market. Of the manufacturing investment commitments, overseas investment accounted for 78% and local investment accounted for only 22%.
After the end of the twentieth century, Singapore's economy underwent significant structural changes; labor-intensive manufacturing could no longer be a bright spot in economic growth, and only a new economy that relied on high value-added and high technology content could become the driving force of Singapore's increasingly regionalized and globalized economy.
For these reasons, coupled with Singapore's multicultural and multi-racial traditions, the International Talent Strategy has become one of the most important public policies of the Singapore government and forms a core element of immigration policy. In my opinion, this strategy has the following four important characteristics:
(1) Directly promoted by the highest leadership of the government as a national strategy;
(2) Targeted and strategic introduction of foreign talents, and timely adjustments around the economic development strategy in different periods;
(3) Government guidance and close integration with the market;
(4) Establish relevant policy supporting mechanisms to effectively identify and manage talents.
Since the late 1980s, government leaders have repeatedly emphasized the importance of foreign talent. Premier Wu Zuodong pointed out at the 1999 National Day mass meeting, "The most important thing is talent. Without talent, we would not have been able to become a first-world economy and a world-class home. We must bring in talent from overseas to support local talent."
Cabinet Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew made it clear in 2009 that "if we can't reach a population replacement rate of 2.1, we will be in trouble". "Singapore needs a steady stream of smart and dynamic new immigrants from China, India and Southeast Asia," he stressed. With the addition of new immigrants, Singapore can continue to maintain its momentum and vitality, and can continue to climb the peak in various fields. ”
Singapore's talent policy has specific connotations and definitions. Prime Minister Goh Chok Tung announced the Foreign Talent Policy at the 1997 National Day Mass Conference, emphasizing that foreign talent can contribute to Singapore's economy at three different levels. They include: first, top talents, such as company presidents, scientists, scholars, artists; second, professionals, such as engineers, accountants, information personnel, teachers, administrators; third, skilled workers, such as bus drivers, mechanics, etc.
As can be seen from the above, the leaders of the Singapore government have listed the International Talent Strategy as a national strategy, positioning and promoting the strategy from the highest level. Singapore's one-party political structure and meritocracy enabled this strategy to be rapidly and effectively replicated and achieved immediate results in the island nation. One of its clear signs is the rapid growth of Singapore's expat population (permanent residents and foreigners) in the nearly decade before 2010 (see Table 1).
Table 1: Singapore's Population Growth (1980–2010)
There is no doubt that the "foreign talents" that Singapore wants to strive for include outstanding people from all over the world, but due to historical, ethnic and cultural factors, coupled with the increasingly close economic relations between China and the new economy in the past two decades (China has become one of Singapore's largest trading partners and investment targets), it is an indisputable fact that new immigrants from Chinese mainland have become the majority of local new immigrants.
It is estimated that at least Chinese mainland 500,000 new immigrants (citizens, permanent residents and visa holders for more than one year) are currently in Singapore. Many of them belong to high-tech talents. Taking the National University of Singapore as an example, there were 1,671 full-time teaching staff in 2001, of whom 887 (53%) were Singapore citizens and the remaining 784 were expatriates (46.9%). Of the latter, 110 (14%) are Chinese citizens, many of whom are Singapore permanent residents. Of the 842 full-time researchers at the UNIVERSITY, 221 (26%) are Singapore citizens and the remaining 621 (73.7%) are foreigners, of which 329 (39%) are Chinese.
Singapore's demand for new immigrants is mainly focused on two levels: professional and skilled immigrants with "portable skills" and labour (the latter is usually introduced as contract workers, but generally does not have permanent residency).
In 2007, the government wanted to change the pattern of the immigrant population and attract more educated immigrants to fill jobs in service sectors such as private banking and finance, biotechnology and education.
The government wants many of them to become Singapore citizens or permanent residents, with the goal of 240,000 of them obtaining these statuses over the next 5 years. The introduction of talents in Singapore is carried out around the goal of national economic development, so it is constantly adjusting with the changes of the times and the environment.
Since 1999, the Government has been committed to creating conditions to encourage high-tech development in order to eventually transform the economy into a knowledge-based economy and complement it in manufacturing and services. Under the guidance of this policy, more than 20 specific measures and a large number of financial assistance plans have been introduced to encourage the development of technology entrepreneurs in finance, information, technology, business innovation, human resources and other aspects.
A number of newcomers also received SEED, Start-up Enterprise Development Scheme, which amounted to S$13 million. The total number of high-tech start-ups has increased from 326 in 2001 to 762 in 2002, a growth rate of 134%. Of the 60 companies from China, 8 of them, or about 13 percent, have received funding from the fund.
As of January 2011, a total of 157 Chinese companies were listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange with a market capitalisation of S$54 billion. Shi Xu, a chinese newcomer entrepreneur, said, "If Chinese entrepreneurs want capital, new technologies, partners, or a platform to go to the world market, then Singapore is naturally a place where Chinese companies can transition and gradually go international." Singapore's world-class facilities and lower costs of technology development than many others make start-ups more competitive. ”
(Source: roots.gov.sg)
In addition to bringing in innovative talent from the business community, Singapore also focuses on nurturing and reserving talent for the country through the implementation of relevant incentives in the education sector. In a speech at the Senior Minister's Forum in 2001, Lee Kuan Yew revealed, "In order to better understand Chinese, I decided to recruit smart Chinese to work and study in Singapore so that they could get to know Singaporeans and become part of Singapore".
The Singapore Ministry of Education has launched a series of scholarship schemes in China since 1992, mainly divided into three categories, SM1, SM2 and SM3 (SM is the abbreviation of Sensor Middle School). The students enrolled in these three types of programs are junior high school graduates, high school sophomores, and freshmen.
SM1 students come from some specific key middle schools in various provinces and cities across the country. SM2 is aimed at Chinese high school sophomore science graduates, and it is also a key high school enrollment in various provinces and cities. SM2 students are charged S$6,000 per annum, excluding tuition, accommodation and food, and SM2 students are required to serve a Singapore company or institution for six years after graduating from university. SM3 recruits freshmen from some famous universities in China (basically science students).
According to a sample survey, 74% of students participating in the SM3 program have become permanent residents of Singapore after graduation. This plan, which kills two birds with one stone, will help to increase Singapore's population and enhance its technological and economic competitiveness.
The most important feature of Singapore's international talent policy is the effective combination of government policies and market mechanisms, the government provides policy preferences and guiding principles, but it does not do everything, but through a set of corresponding systems and measures, to attract talents from all over the world.
Contact Singapore, a joint venture between the Singapore Economic Development Board and the Ministry of Manpower, can be seen as Singapore's national headhunting company, which aims to attract international talent to work, invest and live in Singapore.
With offices in Asia (including Beijing and Shanghai), Europe and North America, it provides a one-stop shop for global elites interested in exploring career development opportunities in Singapore, as well as individuals and entrepreneurs who are investing in Singapore or pioneering new business activities. The agency also works with private sectors in Singapore to help people interested in investing in Singapore.
Contact Singapore provides up-to-date information on employment opportunities and industry developments in Singapore and actively establishes a platform to connect global talent and Singaporean employers. For example, Ke Zhisheng, director of the Greater China region of "Contact Singapore", introduced in 2010, "The upcoming special recruitment activity is to match the outstanding talents of China's electronics industry with well-known enterprises in Singapore, and provide an international career development platform for China's elites." ”
Participating in the special recruitment are all internationally renowned semiconductor companies, recruiting positions including integrated circuit designers, packaging engineers, application engineers, etc. Other positions include cleantech, biopharmaceuticals, finance, healthcare, and more.
It also offers targeted measures for different types of talent. For example, "Careers@Singapore" is aimed at people with work experience, while "Experience@Singapore" is mainly for graduating college students; including the "Electronics Industry Experience Tour".
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Establish a coordinated policy supporting mechanism to carry out efficient screening and management of foreign talents
The introduction and management of international talent must have a set of supporting administrative mechanisms to play an effective role. The Singapore Government's definition, screening, reward and management of talent has its distinctive characteristics. Although the channels for talent introduction are diversified, they have both division of labor and coordination.
The Ministry of Manpower has set up the "International Bureau of Human Resources" (now renamed the International Bureau of Human Resources) to attract professional and technical talents, which is responsible for global talent recruitment. The Ministry of Manpower is responsible for developing and updating the "Strategic and Skills-in-Demand List" every year according to the needs of Singapore's economic development, for example, banking and finance, biomedicine, chemicals, electronic instrument manufacturing, health care services, information and communication industry, interactive digital media, legal industry, maritime transport, tourism are all industries in Singapore that need to introduce professional and technical personnel.
Preference will be given to foreigners with the above key skills when applying for the Employment Pass (P-pass) and S Pass. The Ministry of Manpower has also launched the Employment Pass Self-Assessment System, a free online assessment tool that aims to enable employers in Singapore, including applicants, to know whether the Employment Pass they are applying for will be approved.
The Ministry of Finance is responsible for implementing preferential measures such as tax rebates. In order to encourage enterprises to recruit foreign talents, the government stipulates that enterprises can enjoy tax reductions and exemptions for expenditure on recruiting and training foreign talents, as well as on providing welfare benefits such as high salaries and housing for foreign talents.
As the leading institution of the national economic development direction, the Economic Development Bureau (EDB) is responsible for determining strategic industries and directions, promoting the combination of industry, education and research, and providing strategic guidance for the introduction of international talents.
After bringing in foreign talents, the government also focused on their social integration and tried to make them loyal to Singapore by changing their political loyalty so that they could become part of the nation-building project. In 2007, the Office of Citizenship and Population was established within the Prime Minister's Office to integrate and contribute to the integration of new immigrants into Singaporean society.
In September 2009, the National Integration Council, which was formed by the government, private enterprises and civil society organizations, put forward the slogan of "open doors, open minds and open minds" to help new immigrants integrate into local society in different aspects and promote mutual trust among various communities. The government also allocated S$10 million to set up a "Community Integration Fund".
3. The status of Lee Kuan Yew's talent ideology and the effectiveness of Singapore's talent development strategy
Needless to say, lee kuan yew has been a key figure in the formulation of the Singapore Government's policies and development strategies for 50 years, and his ideas have a guiding influence. From the early days of the Founding of the People's Republic of China, Lee Kuan Yew clearly understood that the problem facing Singapore was the lack of natural resources, so it needed to vigorously develop its economy. To develop the economy in the absence of resources, it is necessary to develop a development strategy focusing on the establishment of a country with qualified personnel.
Lee Kuan Yew has been advocating the development of higher education from the beginning, which has been a major project of the Singapore government for decades. From Nanyang University in 1955, Singapore University in 1962, National University of Singapore in 1980, Nanyang Technological University in 1991, Singapore Management University gradually established since 1999 and Singapore University of Science and Technology and Design, which was officially launched in 2012. There is also Singapore Polytechnic (1954), Ngee Ann Polytechnic (1963), Temasek Polytechnic (1990), Nanyang Polytechnic (1992), Republic Polytechnic (2007), which has gradually improved and diversified higher education in Singapore over the past 50 years, and students' opportunities for students have increased.
When Lee Kuan Yew first started leading the team, he had a very long-term vision and realized the need to continuously attract able talents and new forces for the government. It can be said that since then, he has considered the smooth transition and smooth succession of the second generation of leadership, the third generation of leadership and even further afield to the new leadership.
So during Lee Kuan Yew's long tenure, he and the government continued to implement this philosophy. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Lee Kuan Yew's leadership group included a number of elite elements such as Raja Renan, Dr. Wu Qingrui, and Lin Jinshan. After Lee Kuan Yew stepped down in 1990, Goh Zuo Dong took over as Prime Minister, and for 14 years from 1990 to 2004, he and the leadership team continued to lead Singapore forward, while following Lee Kuan Yew's lead in laying the groundwork for leadership renewal.
Shortly after the 2001 election, when he indicated that he was ready to step down, Lee Kuan Yew told him that he did not need to be in such a hurry, but explained that "the then Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was almost 50 years old, and I hope to give him enough time to lead and train the fourth generation of leadership." ”
There are also many outstanding talents in the leadership team of the current Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, such as Vice Premier Cheung Chi Yin and Shantaman. Lee Kuan Yew believes that the ruling party should continue to introduce young, reliable and serious talents to voters, and extend tentacles to a new generation of voters to win trust.
The Papa introduced several outstanding candidates in 2011 and has since entered the cabinet. Among them, Wang Ruijie, minister of education, is the best chief secretary-general in history. In addition, it also includes Chen Zhensheng, Chen Chuanren, Huang Xuncai and so on.
Guided by Lee Kuan Yew's idea of meritocracy and leadership renewal, the second and third generations of the Singapore government have achieved a smooth transition, while more young new faces have joined as candidates for future leadership.
The introduction of foreign talents is a concept put forward by Lee Kuan Yew very early, under this concept, the Singapore government's immigration policy is relatively relaxed and simple. For example, the Government has been offering generous scholarships to attract outstanding foreign students to study in Singapore, and some of the scholarship recipients are required to stay in service for six years after graduation to retain talent.
Most of them decide to stay in the area after six years and become permanent residents or citizens. Until 2010, the Immigration and Checkpoints Bureau of Singapore issued permanent resident (PR) invitation letters to international students studying at local universities and polytechnics every year, inviting them to apply to become permanent residents after starting work.
In addition, Singapore's threshold requirements for investment immigration are also low compared to other countries. Through this series of incentives, Singapore has successfully attracted a large number of outstanding talents from all over the world. Singapore's clean, safe living environment and bilingual education model in Both Chinese and English also make it the most popular country for immigrants. In 2007, Jim Rogers, an internationally renowned investor, also chose to settle in Singapore.
Of course, the implementation of any policy cannot be perfect. Due to the large number of new immigrants, many local Singaporeans believe that there are significant social and cultural differences between the new immigrants (including from Chinese mainland) and them, and their large number of arrivals has made the whole society more competitive for limited resources (work, housing, transportation, schools, health care); they also question the loyalty of the new immigrants to Singapore.
Immigration was a major topic in the May 2011 parliamentary and August presidential elections, and dissatisfaction with the government's immigration and foreign talent policy was the main reason why the Papa party won only 60% of the vote (the lowest since independence) and the opposition party won 40% popular support.
Similarly, in the presidential election, former Vice Premier Chen Qingyan narrowly defeated his rivals by just over 7,000 votes. Since then, the government has introduced a "Singaporean first" policy, slowing down the pace of foreign talent introduction while raising immigration thresholds. Since 2011, the Singapore government has begun to tighten immigration policies, such as reducing the number of new permanent residents who join each year, increasing the application conditions for work permits, and the Immigration and Checkpoints Bureau no longer issuing invitation letters to international students. These measures led to a slowdown or even decline in the growth rate of permanent residents and foreigners from 2011 to 2014.
In the face of the negative effects of the introduction of immigrants, Lee Kuan Yew has a clear understanding, but still believes that it is necessary to consider this problem from the perspective of practical difficulties and seek solutions. "While the limitations of immigration policy are clearly in front of us, we must understand that there is no other viable option in the short term," he said. We must look at the diversity that new immigrants bring with an open mind. If we can handle this pluralistic relationship well in our studies and in the workplace, it will help us broaden our horizons and promote the exchange of ideas. Permanent residents may become citizens, but at this stage, perhaps our country or themselves have not yet made a final decision on whether to become a citizen or not. We should gradually help them integrate, make them identify with our values and social norms, and make them potential citizens. ”
IV. Conclusion
Singapore has made today's achievements, and Lee Kuan Yew has made a great contribution. His vision and extraordinary leadership have made Singapore one of the most developed countries in higher education, attracting international students from all over the world; for fifty years there has been no political turmoil, people living and working in peace; and becoming a hub of international talent and the most popular country for immigrants.
While not all policies have a positive effect, it is a choice he must make in a particular historical period and when faced with difficulties. History cannot be repeated, and there can be no more Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore.
Today, what we can do is to put Lee Kuan Yew back into his specific era, think about his ideas, and learn from and reflect on it, and find a direction that is more in line with the requirements of the times for future development. As Lee Kuan Yew said: "I have built a clean and open system, meritocratic and open, and my task has been accomplished." "The future belongs to a new generation of leaders.
(Author: Liu Hong, Zhang Huimei)
◇ Liu Hong: Tan Kah Kee Chair Professor, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dean of nanyang graduate school of public administration, Nanyang University of Public Administration, Singapore.
◇ Zhang Huimei: Researcher of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University.
This article is included in the book "Scholars on Lee Kuan Yew", written by Liu Hong and Zhang Huimei.
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