Arrogance Breeds Complacency

Singapore needs to be careful. As a country that is in a relatively unique position of being the regional leader in terms of quite a few fields it runs the risk of becoming complacent. The people believe they are superior to their regional neighbours and the government seems convinced that the country is heading in the right direction. Both might well be right, but what if they aren’t?

The problem with many western countries has been that they believed the same thing for a very long time. Now quite a few are discovering, or should be discovering, that they’ve lost out. They are no longer the most advanced, the most gifted or the most impressive.

Singapore runs the risk of heading down the same path and the problem is that they don’t have centuries of success to fall back upon. Centuries of success make a difference. It makes people more robust, it gives them the confidence to succeed again even after many failures. There is something to be said for previous progress, in that it seems to encourage future progress simply by its presence.

Singapore doesn’t have this advantage and it runs the risk of becoming complacent. It shouldn’t compare itself with its neighbours, instead it should compare itself with the world leaders and realise what it lacks there.

It lacks an independently minded enough people to push the country forward when (not if) the government fails. It lacks an open enough society to try to understand, rather than challenge, any criticisms that are made against it and it lacks the confidence to give its individual people enough power to decide for themselves what direction the country should take.

So I say again, watch out Singapore and make sure your dream isn’t built on quicksand.