Dr Tan Cheng Bock’s Progress Singapore Party (PSP) has invited veteran architect Tay Kheng Soon to speak at the party’s second ‘PSP TALKS’ forum, which will focus on politics and planning with regards to the future of Singapore.
Earlier this year, the PSP announced that it is initiating a new event series called ‘PSP TALKS’. These events would see the party invite thought leaders and subject experts to share their insights and ideas about important national issues. The PSP’s forums are aimed at generating robust discussions on issues that impact the lives of Singaporeans.
Ex-GIC chief economist Yeoh Lam Keong spoke at the first PSP TALKS event in September that had focused on poverty in Singapore and the policy gaps in Singapore’s social safety nets. Mr Yeoh, an independent, non-partisan social policy analyst, later said that the PSP TALKS forum was “an open, balanced, evidence-based public discussion on key policy issues.”
Mr Tay, the architect behind iconic structures in Singapore like KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Golden Mile Complex and the People’s Park Complex, has accepted the opposition party’s invitation to speak at the second forum in the PSP TALKS series. The forum is set to take place at the Village Hotel Katong from 7.30pm to 9.30pm on Monday, 16 Dec.
According to the PSP, Mr Tay will trace Singapore’s formative politics from the Cold War period right up to the present and will discuss how “meritocracy morphed into elitism” and how the nation’s social values and education system has caused Singapore to descend into “a slow motion self-destruct mode”. The architect will propose ideas on how to overcome this challenge and how Singapore and its people can move towards the future.
The event synopsis on PSP’s event registration page states:
“Tay Kheng Soon will trace Singapore’s formative politics from the Cold War period in which independence was predicated on alignment with the consolidating Anglo-American global order while tackling the local Hard Left by the Soft Left resulting in the establishment of the train of events that leads right up to the present.
“In the process, Meritocracy morphed into Elitism augmented by education via the Stick and the Carrot. Social values were thus constructed and education confined to skill and competency. Courage and creativity languished as Singapore is being forced by rapidly changing global conditions.
“Many standardised methods of governance and planning resist change so Singapore is in a slow motion self-destruct mode. Tay Kheng Soon urges that we challenge this situation by thinking beyond the limits of current imagination. He suggests that we can become the “Boston of Asia” by being the education centre for the region’s best and brightest to live and learn with ours, thus forming friendships for life and the future.
“Only then can this little red dot cast its glow to benefit the region and also itself. Casting aside the minority complex, Singaporeans will thus regain our authentic selves to make use of all our strengths, financially, scientifically, educationally innovative, compassionately to make a brand new world all around us. As an Educator and Innovative Thinker, Tay Kheng Soon will challenge our thinking.”
Revealing that he will “talk about transformative ideas in the context of Politics and Urbanisation,” at the PSP TALKS event, Mr Tay said on his personal Facebook page:
“When I talked about turning Singapore into the Boston of Asia to bring the best and brightest in Asean to live and learn with our best and brightest, it is a vision of building upon but going beyond the self imposed constraints of this little red dot.
When we become a Campus City the friendships formed between the students and between teachers will be for life and this will naturally be the basis for Singapore’s future relations with our neighbours. A huge regional economy comes out from this.
“Sijori was a begining, the institutional basis is there. We can grow the concept into Singmalindo, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia that integrates the three economies into the core of Asean. This little red dot will cast its glow over the region and invigorate it. Floating a giant Green Bond in Singapore, the Green New Deal will transform the landscape totally and the lives of everyone.
“I will be elaborating on these ideas on 16th December at an event organised by PSP. I accepted their invitation and I will talk about transformative ideas in the context of Politics and Urbanisation.”
While the event is open to all and free to attend, those who are interested will only be granted admission if they register for the event since seats are limited. Seats can be reserved HERE.
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