SINGAPORE: Madam Ho Ching, the wife of Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong and chairperson of Temasek Trust, weighed in on education and foreigners coming to Singapore in a Facebook post on Tuesday morning (May 21).
Mdm Ho’s commentary was in the context of an article she posted about how plans to open a medical course at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) to all Malaysians received backlash.
The university’s original mission was to “empower the Bumiputera”, and UiTM’s student council protested against allowing non-Bumiputera students to enrol in a postgraduate cardiothoracic surgery program.
“Bumi students should not be afraid of competition, they say,” the article stated.
Taking off from there, Mdm Ho wrote:
“Likewise, we shouldn’t be afraid of having the best and brightest join our schools and universities. Competition is a way to set higher standards, and push ourselves to be the best that we can be.
Why else would our athletes go to compete overseas as part of the preparation to take on world championships and the Olympics? Same for our schools and universities.”
She noted that many of Singapore’s graduates go overseas to pursue further studies and repeated that “the best and brightest” students from other countries should be welcomed in Singapore “for their studies and for work.”
Doing otherwise could cause Singapore to “lose our hunger, our competitive edge, and our dare to take on the world.”
Mdm Ho added that this type of openness “is crucial in the new economy space where knowledge can be gotten at the tip of fingers” and “will make us a more capable person, than to remain mollycoddled at the bottom of a well.”
It is also a sign of having “a kinder and more generous heart” and would “help us be the best versions of ourselves.”
Many in the government have often underlined the importance of staying open to foreign talent, saying they are necessary to complement the local workforce while acknowledging Singaporeans’ concerns over their jobs.
In 2021, Mr Edwin Tong, the country’s Minister for Culture, Community, and Youth, underlined the need for Singapore to remain competitive and said that the country’s ageing population, with its implications of a shrinking workforce, is also another factor to consider.
The following year, Mr Chee Hong Tat, Senior Minister of State for Finance and Transport, stressed that opening up to foreign talent helps ensure long-term economic growth.
As for Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, he has cautioned that Singapore must not be perceived to be unwelcoming to foreigners, as this would discourage foreign investments from coming in.
“If global investors conclude that this is so, Singapore will become less attractive to them, and it will be ordinary Singaporeans who suffer the most,” he said.
“We must never let anti-foreigner sentiments take root here or give the impression that we are becoming more inward-looking.” /TISG
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