Mr Speaker, Sir, I would like, first of all, to commend the Minister and his Committee for having completed such a comprehensive, well-written and visionary report. Back in 1997, when the Prime Minister first launched the Singapore 21 Committee to look into the five apparent dilemmas, my intuitive reaction was that the Committee was endeavouring into areas which are philosophical in nature and very broad in scope. Many lay people may find it difficult to understand and appreciate. And I personally have expected the five subject committees to come up with five different reports after holding separate meetings, forums, interviews and surveys. But I must say that I was pleasantly surprised to receive the final report in a form that integrates the derived wisdom of the five dilemmas and successfully translate them into five easily understood headings and expressed in such an easy language. The report, without being dry and stuffy, tells a story to our Singaporeans, like what the parents do to their children, how as a united people we can strive towards achieving our dreams while strengthening the social cohesion, political stability and the collective will, values and attitudes of our people. This is an important story. Like any well-run corporation, a country needs a mission statement, a vision, so that it can galvanise its people's energy to constructively achieve its goals. The S21 report, in my opinion, is the mission statement. Frankly speaking, the contents of the S21 report, although initiated by the Government, do not suggest that it comes from the Government alone. The 6,000 people involved over the 1 1/2 years have contributed to create a dream state, an utopia in a modern form for Singapore. If we achieve it, we would likely have a socially and economically advanced nation where individuals, whether local or foreign, will be pursuing goals in life without undue stress. The families and communities are closely-knit together to provide a strong emotional and moral platform. The people in the private and public sectors will work and support one another as if they are merged together. As the Minister stated yesterday, we do not know how long it will take. But until this happens, we will continue to hear people lamenting that life in Singapore is too stressful. People still cannot get away from their stereotype aims - the 5Cs. And very few would aspire to become artists, musicians, sportsmen, or even entrepreneurs because there is either no money in these professions or too much risks in them. In the meantime, everybody will be chasing after higher paying jobs, speculating in shares and properties, like what they have been doing in the last two days. And many have taken for granted that life is a rose garden. Then suddenly, two years ago, the Asian financial crisis hit us. Things changed drastically. It makes many to rethink about the value of keeping a job, about getting help from the family and community, about what businesses we should be in and how Singapore can survive and prosper in the face of new challenges in this fast changing world. The timing to have this S21 Committee to study the dilemmas cannot be more perfect. The crisis environment has made everyone dig deeper into their soul to reflect and search for solution. The impact of this report will be far less, if it were presented in better economic times. A good part of this report is devoted to the strengthening of family ties and community bonding. When one faces difficulties in terms of employment and business operation, all these become apparent and important. I can guess now that more Singaporeans have realised Singapore's ability to sail through this crisis better than others because we could act as a people to resolve difficult problems. We could cut CPF and pay, reduce taxes and fees. We have built up a strong foundation in family ties, community bonding and a strong reserve with good fiscal policies that we now have time and energy to utilise this window of opportunities to launch a new direction and platform to move to the next level of prosperity. Many westerners have argued that the Asian culture tends to be too selfish and too family-oriented. It only takes care of the interest of the family members and ignores the societal issues evolving around them. Well, Singapore has proved them wrong. By adhering to our culture of having strong extended families with Government policies constantly calling for and reinforcing these values, our society is relatively more peaceful, self-enhancing and supportive. Asians tend to care for their elders more partly because of the culture of respecting the elders, and also because they realise how much the elders have sacrificed to provide shelter, good education and opportunities to the younger ones. The desire to bring honour to their family also provides the impetus to compete and excel. These cultural values, as can be easily seen, have driven the Asian economy well. We are in the middle of these cultural settings, and we probably do not feel the merits just as much. Recently, I chanced upon talking to a Singapore lady residing in USA. She cherished the extended family support she used to get, particularly during her confinement period, that is, within one month after giving birth to a baby. In Singapore, many mothers will enjoy the close attention of their family members during the confinement period. They are served with tonics and special food. They are given massages. And many do not even have to leave the house for the whole month. In the USA, many mothers would have to do all the household chores immediately after being discharged from the hospital. And they all have to bring their barely one-week old baby to the supermarket. I wonder how many of our women would like to choose the American way of life over Singapore's. Next, let me speak on the topic of an aging population. There is no escape that Singapore has one of the fastest aging populations. This is a demographic fact. Fortunately, Singapore has a policy of making everyone to save for his or her own old age. The savings through the CPF scheme will make our old age relatively comfortable. But I wish to share with this House that, according to the latest studies by scientists, modern science would prolong our lives substantially. Many of us may have the chance to live up to the 80s, 90s, or even 100. If we retire at 55 or 60 years old, we would have many years to enjoy if we have sufficient savings, or we will suffer if we have not enough savings. Hence, we should all expect the pattern of life to change. The retirement age will be pushed further because of relatively good health. But for one to be useful beyond 55 or 60 years old, we have to train and re-train several times over. Therefore, I support the concept of life-long learning, as suggested in the report and I strongly endorse that Singaporeans of all ages must be given opportunities to upgrade and to renew their knowledge and skills. A long time ago, most of our forefathers came to Singapore in search of opportunities. They were pushed out of their homeland for one reason or another. They also brought along their skills and talents. Through hard work and thrift, many managed to seize the opportunities and they prospered. Now, the stage is different. Our people face a lot of external competition because of globalisation. Hard work and thrift are necessary but they are not sufficient to succeed. We need more education, more ideas to create more opportunities, and more synergies to create wealth. Hence, we need the foreign talent policy. With a small population, Singapore cannot generate enough talents to achieve the economies of scale. We need talents, and we need them badly. Everyone knows USA is a world leader in technology. But if USA had not opened its doors to talents from Germany, Russia and Asia, it may not do as well as it is doing now. However, America has now reached a stage where it has become the world's most powerful magnet, attracting talents from all over the world with the possibility of fulfilling an unlimited dream. And that is the American heartbeat to the world. Therefore, while we talk about attracting foreign talents, we need to ensure that our own talents will not be attracted away and eventually abandon us. There is no denial that we expect our local and foreign talents to shuttle between Singapore and a country like USA. To make them feel attached to Singapore and continue to contribute to Singapore will be quite a tall order. Not only do we need to let these talents feel the Singapore heartbeat, we may have to make our own heartbeat louder than others. That leads me to argue that we have to change some of the social order here. The Singapore 21 Report calls for opportunities for all and for the more successful to help the less successful. On this point, in my opinion, we have a long way to go. There are, I think, some emotional and moral issues we have not addressed, that is, the way people are treated. The people will always feel attached if they are treated fairly and with compassion. It is difficult to cultivate loyalty if the relationships are not fair. The relationships here may refer to contractual relationships between big companies and small companies, between banks and their customers, between the employers and employees, etc. In numerous instances, there exists a situation of the big bullying the small, and the powerful bullying the weak. There are hundreds of thousands of Singaporeans out there who do not have much education and they do not know very well about the legal aspects. But they still need to enter into contracts if they want to make a living. With contracts written in fine prints and biased terms, their lives can be crippled easily. Even for those who can read, the situation is not much better because the big boys will always draft such contracts that the risks and rewards are not appropriately distributed. The law and order situation in Singapore has, in some ways, given the advantage to the big boys. To attain the goal of making every Singaporean counts and opportunities for all, we as a people should strive towards a fair and just society, which will in turn bring out the best of each person. To this end, I am glad that Singapore has moved in the right direction. It adopted the UK's Fair Contract Term Act 1977 to protect the consumers. If we can implement this concept more pervasively and extend to all aspects of life, we may become one of the fairest and most just societies in the world. This will add a lot to the reputation of Singapore as a global centre and will enhance our heartbeat substantially. In another matter related to fairness, I think the relatively high percentage of people surveyed who feel that they are second-class citizens could be a true reflection of the real feelings of our people. They probably harbour such feelings even before the foreign talent policy was introduced. Manifested in various forms in the past, our society is often said to be pro-foreign. Many contracts go to foreigners. Sometimes, foreign products and services are preferred to the local ones at a higher cost. So, when it comes to jobs, the natural mindset is that they will go to the foreigners too. Yes, many locals might not have been as good as the foreigners. Many foreign companies are bigger in size or older than our whole nation. Naturally, they will have the products and services to beat us. If we do not give opportunities to the locals, then effectively, we have no self-pride that we can do equally well. Therefore, I hope the Government will remove the "Buy IBM" mentality to allay the fear that Singaporeans have for foreign talent. The "Buy IBM" mentality refers to the situation where the data processing managers would always choose big names like IBM because it is well-known. If something goes wrong, it is not the fault of the manager. This mentality has helped to build up risk-aversion and it permeates throughout the whole society. Coupled with unfair terms of contracts, as mentioned earlier, the whole process has created a "Head, I win, tail, you lose" situation. In a society laden with these shortcomings, you can expect the social and economic costs to be high. Therefore, I strongly support the Singapore 21 recommendation that we should overcome our kiasu attitude and give everyone a fair chance. On the topic of active citizens, I wish to relate one incident I encountered recently. A very prominent local businessman discussed with me about the experience of being an NMP. In his opinion, being an NMP could be a burden to the conduct of business because NMPs could offend the civil servants in the course of parliamentary debates. I do not think so personally and, so far, it does not seem to be so. I think the civil service is mature enough to accept constructive criticisms. They are able to make a differentiation between official and personal business. In Chinese, we call it dui shi bu dui ren. The Singapore 21 report also aptly says, "There should be no loss of face by the public sector if good ideas come from the people." As a matter of fact, I am quite satisfied with the response from the politicians and the civil servants to the issues I have brought up and debated in this House so far. Hence, based on my experience as an NMP, I do not hesitate to echo the call of the S21 Committee to get more active citizens to participate in the civic life of Singapore so as to have a dynamic people sector to complement the private and public sectors. Today, there may not be enough Singaporeans who can be classified as active citizens. With clearer OB lines and encouragement, I am sure more and more Singaporeans will realise that they have a stake in our nation and by getting involved and making their contributions, they can make the nation prosper and they will be the ones who have it all. Lastly, I wish to request the Minister to look into producing the report in other languages with equal quality and substance. Sir, I support the motion. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and Minister for Community Development (Mr Chan Soo Sen) (In Mandarin): Sir, I strongly agree and fully support the motion standing in the name of the Minister for Education. This Singapore 21 Vision has already been set out very clearly in the book and I do not wish to waste the precious time of this House to deal with the materials in this book itself. I would like to just raise a point of emphasis and a point of reminder. Firstly, a point of emphasis: If we want to achieve the S21 vision, we must ask what we can do for S21 and not what S21 can do for us. In other words, we must be pro-active. We must ask ourselves what we must do to achieve Vision 21 and should not confine ourselves to just wishing the realisation of S21. Some people commented that the five ideas in the S21 Vision were obvious and there was no need to take such a long time of one and a half years and involve over 6,000 people and many working hours to churn out these apparently obvious proposals. A few days ago, I met a friend who said that the time that the Committee and the 6,000 Singaporeans had spent, if calculated in terms of dollars and cents, would be a gigantic sum. But I feel that the people who advance this kind of argument just do not understand. Yes, if we only talk and never do anything about it, then this argument may be valid. If we talk and just stop there, it would have been a waste of time. But this is only a beginning. This process of the 1 1/2 years of talk was to reach a consensus to facilitate future action. We do need to spend time and energy to obtain this consensus. As a matter of fact, all the members, including myself, of the S21 Committee and all those Singaporeans who have participated in these meetings, unanimously agree that the S21 Vision is something that we must translate into action. It is not something that we just talk about and forget about it. The point is: what can we do and what action can we take to translate the vision into a reality? What efforts must we make to achieve this? This is the question that we should ask ourselves. Of course, if we want to achieve our vision, we must practise what we preach and strive for positive results in whatever we do. If we do not do anything, if you just doubt the sincerity, shun your responsibilities and just indulge in empty talks, big things you cannot do and small things you do not want to do, then we will be losing the golden opportunities available to us. Therefore, I hope that we will not just sit tight, talk and do nothing. We should stand up and think about what to do, what action to take to realise our vision, our ideal. That being the case, let us prepare ourselves to take up the challenge, and put the theories into action. I think our responsibility can be summed up in these words: "Be a good man/woman. Set up a good family. Serve the community. Be passionate about the nation." So start with yourself and your family. Set it right. Let our children have a good foundation, a good learning environment and a good model to emulate to build up good character and conduct. It is only then that we will be able to reduce social problems correspondingly. A knowledge-based economy and good work attitude would then have a chance to take roots. If you extrapolate this kind of good conduct, good character to others, you will have the mood, ability, passion and heartware to think about how to look after the less successful people in society so that we can build up a caring and gracious society. We must remember that we are young and energetic - but fortune may change. There may come a day when you and I may need the help of others. If we can take the necessary action in our early days to build a gracious society and a society with care and compassion, then with this kind of ethos in place, it will be easier for us to get help. Also, since we have already given, when we want to take something in the give-and-take spirit, we will be able to take without having to feel embarrassed. So, you have a sense of security, it is a good home that we want to build. The family, of course, is a key cornerstone of society. This is undoubtedly so. In the Confucian teaching, the five relationships, ie, the King and the subjects, the parents and children, brothers and sisters, husband and wife, and friends, three of these five relationships involve the family. Our Malay and Indian compatriots also have similar emphasis on the family. In fact, I note that the Malay and Indian friends are even stronger in their family cohesion. That being so, there is no need for me to emphasise more on the importance of the family. However, I wish to point out the potential of the concept of Tri-generation Network in the 21st century. At the present moment, it is not easy to have three generations under one roof. The success of our home ownership scheme has enabled our young people to build their own families once they get married. However, even if the three generations do not stay together, the Tri-generation Network should still be maintained. The Network has great potential and importance in our society in the 21st century. Yesterday, Mr Peh Chin Hua also referred to this point. In the 21st century, we would have this "sandwiched generation", whose ages are in the 30s and 40s. They have, on the one hand, to be filial to their parents and, on the other hand, to bring up their children, while simultaneously building up their business and career. These people are facing tremendous pressure. Without proper support, I think this "sandwiched generation" would become a "besieged generation". But if the grandparents can chip in to take the role of looking after their grandchildren, then the pressure of the sandwiched generation can be alleviated. At the same time, we have tri-generation cooperation - grandparents help look after the grandchildren, thus playing a key role which help gain the appreciation of their children in the "sandwiched generation". If we have this kind of strong three-generation ties, then family cohesion can be strengthened. 30 years from now, when I am in my 70s, with Tri-generation Network, I would command better respect as an old man in the family. If I just sit down at home and do nothing, I think my children will not respect me. They would then not be filial to me. I feel that in the 21st century, we must reiterate the important status of the grandparents. In this connection, I have suggested to the Ministry of Community Development and the People's Association that we should promote Grandparents' Day celebration to more grassroots organisations during this year's Senior Citizens Week. We have Father's Day and Mother's Day. Why can we not have a Grandparents' Day? Mr Loh Meng See did this in his community centre last year. I think this is an excellent idea. We should extend this Grandparents' Day to other grassroots organisations. Once Grandparents' Day is established, more people will better appreciate the importance of grandparents, and the grandparents in the 21st century will be able to play a greater role and get greater respect from their children and grandchildren. If we can all play our roles and do what I have just set out earlier, I believe we will be able to move forward with peace of mind, with the knowledge that whenever we encounter any setbacks, we will be able to fall back on our gracious social environment, whether at home or in society, to take a break and recover from the setbacks. We will then be able to make a come back from our setback, create another tomorrow, and become a great hero again. If we can do this, we will be able to attack as we advance and defend as we retreat. This will be of great help and it will give us great confidence in realising our vision. The concerns raised by Mr Chuang Shaw Peng can also be solved. Since we are confident we can attack as we advance and defend as we retreat, we will have greater confidence and lesser worries. We will not worry unnecessarily and will not be so kiasu. We will have greater spirit of enterprise and broader vision. We will be more prepared and able to realise the vision of S21. Now, a reminder. We must always remember that we are a multi-racial society. We must seek strength through diversity. Why do I want to bring up this diversity and multi-racialism? Recent discussions about SAP schools, language policies, and employment criteria gave me mixed feelings. I think the most important point here is that all these talks and arguments remind us that if we want to realise the five ideas in the S21 vision, we must never forget that Singapore is a multi-racial and multi-cultural society. This fact is so today and it will remain so tomorrow. In the 21st century and even in the 22nd century and beyond, it will remain the same - multi-cultural and multi-racial. Since nation building, we have done a great deal to achieve racial harmony. Our multi-racial people have already benefitted much from the heritage and wisdom in our multi-racial society. This is in fact the strong point that we have for nation building. In future years, we must also continue to take advantage of this heritage. We can all see that the five ideas in our S21 vision are founded on multi-racialism and multi-culturalism. We must continue to strengthen and preserve this heritage. If we cannot do so, how can we say that every Singaporean count? If there is no racial harmony, how can we have a strong social foundation? How are we going to create opportunities for all? And how are we going to have a Singapore heartbeat? How are we going to have active citizens making a difference to society? Therefore, I must reiterate and remind our people that we must have pride in our own culture, and we must also respect the cultures of others. This is the essence of a multi-racial society and country. It is also the cornerstone for our future regionalisation, globalisation and networking strategy. If we cannot even handle our own multi-culturalism today, how are we going to globalise, regionalise and to face more cultures and more ways of doing things in the world outside? I think this is a very basic issue. This is not something that we have discovered only today. But it is always the magnanimity that we have seen and observed over the years. From my own personal experience, I would like to throw more light on this issue. Mr Speaker, Sir, I was educated in the Chinese stream in my younger days. The Chinese school at that time was different from the present Chinese school. In the old Chinese school, there were no Indian or Malay students. We were all Chinese speaking and our English was not very good, and we could not even read the English newspapers properly at that time. In spite of all that, at that time, I had a lot of opportunities to read the writings of the writers and scholars of Singapore and Malaysia in Chinese. Through their works, I was able to understand and respect the cultures of other races. For example, I do not know whether hon. Members of this House are aware that one Prof. Hsu Yun Chiaw had compiled and translated the Malay classic Sejarah Melayu or Malay Annals. I still have a copy of the Chinese translation. This book tells us about Malay history from Sri Vijaya to the Malacca Kingdom. Through this book, I was able to understand the Malay culture, its progress and advancement. At that time, we were able to read fables of Sang Kancil, the mouse-deer. Sang Kancil is very intelligent, very alert, but is very small and will not harm others. Though it is not big enough to attack others, others will find it difficult to bully the mouse-deer because it is very alert. So it is able to start up good schemes to extricate itself from situations and run away from its predators. Having read these fables, I think I learnt a lot of lessons. From the Chinese version, I have also read about the epics of Mahabarata and the Ramayana. I do not know who were the Chinese writers in Malaysia and Singapore who translated these into the Chinese language. In an episode in Ramayana, Lord Rama's wife was abducted by a demon. In order to save his wife, he had to leave his country. At that time, he was the King. Before he left his country, he asked his younger brother to look after the country. He said that he would return after rescuing his wife. His younger brother said, "I do not have the wisdom and ability to rule the country on your behalf. But I know, brother, this is something that you must do. So I will just do my best. I will sit beside your throne and put your sandals on the throne. You remain the person who is ruling the country. I am only your agent, your servant, acting on your behalf." That is what the younger brother said to Ramayana. You must have respect for the elders, you must have shame, you must have a sense of right and wrong. So this is a story that portrays all these values. It is a very useful and meaningful lesson for us to learn. When you do not have the legitimacy, you cannot have the moral ground, and you cannot succeed. Reading these, one realises the many parallels between the cultures and teachings of our ethnic communities. Being in SAP schools will not stop students from learning about the Malay and Indian cultures if there is a will to learn. We must know more about one another and we must strengthen our solidarity and through different ways and means, we must promulgate the values which are common in all of us, so that we will not lose our direction in future. When I was young, the influence that I had was very useful to me when I grew up. When I was older, I went overseas, I met foreign friends. Because I have always lived and grown up in a multi-racial society, when I meet foreign friends, whether they are from Africa, Asia, America, Europe, I am able to mix well with them. Because I come from a multi-racial society, I am interested and respectful of other cultures. So when my friends talk about their countries and their history, I listened with respect, with curiosity, and with the desire to understand more. So we can talk well, we can mix well, and we can interact well. I learn from them and learn a lot of good things and benefit a great deal. At the same time, I also gain some understanding and knowledge about their history and culture. And this proves to be helpful to me when I handle overseas projects. It is very easy for me to communicate with them. If you do not understand a certain country, and you need to talk to their businessmen, to the clients, it will be difficult. But, if you understand the country and its culture, it will be easier for you to communicate with the people from the country. So we must always remember that we have a multi-racial and multi-cultural society. This is a great cornerstone, a great advantage, and a strong point. We must do all we can to preserve this advantage, this strong point, so that we can achieve even greater success in future. In short, when we talk about the S21 Vision, we must build on what we have achieved. We must have self-cultivation, family cohesion, service to society and loyalty to nation. We must continue to enhance our multi-racial harmony and social cohesion. It is only then that we are able to lay down a very strong foundation for our society and country. We will be able to strengthen our family, so that we can attack as we advance, and defend as we retreat. We will have greater confidence in our action. All our people are more united together in realising the challenge and ambition of S21. Therefore, I wholeheartedly support the motion in the name of the Minister for Education on the S21 Vision.