During a dialogue with about 300 youths, Senior Minister (SM) Lee Hsien Loong called on Singaporeans to be given opportunities to get to know and understand each other and further noted that Singaporeans must adopt an open attitude towards particularly sensitive topics, such as race, and not be “overly sensitive”.
He also said that while Singapore requires a certain number of foreign workers for economic reasons, there is a controlled flow of migration and that they have to know what Singapore is like if they come here to work.
On Saturday (3 Aug), SM Lee attended a dialogue at the HarmonyWorks! Conference 2024 seminar where he engaged in discussions on racial issues with about 300 young people.
“It takes a certain comfort level and willingness to open up and talk candidly, and to listen with an open mind. Unless we can do that, it will be difficult to discuss these subjects and make any progress. We’ll all fall back on saying standard things and sound as if we’re all very happy, but we all have various qualms and have not been able to share them.”
He further called for more opportunities for people to interact beyond discussing these topics.
“You must also have opportunities to have people interact more intensively and not necessarily discussing these kinds of subjects but interacting with each other and becoming comfortable knowing each other’s values, and perspectives, and therefore after that I can come and talk about more difficult subjects.”
While speaking on being sensitised to racial matters, SM Lee at the same time warned against being “hypersensitive”.
“…We should not become hypersensitive. Because if you look at what is happening in Western countries, there is a mood now where you are so careful about not doing anything which may cause offence to anybody,” he said.
“And sometimes they even say I am going to say something which you may be unhappy, so if you do not want to hear me, please leave the room before I say it. And then life becomes very tiring, and I think it is not an adult nor a mature and practical way to get on together with one another.”
“With give and take with understanding, I am tolerant, but I am also respectful…fundamentally, we believe that we are Singaporeans. I think we should take that kind of approach,” SM Lee noted.
Though he expressed that the problem may “never go away”, he said we should continue to keep working at it regardless.
SM Lee touched on the issue of social media and its impact on Singapore society as well.
He said that education is key in helping Singaporeans face challenges, including clarifying misinformation.
Further, mutual tolerance between new immigrants and Singaporeans is critical as bringing in foreign workers is necessary for economic development.
“There is a job to be done, we cannot find enough Singaporeans or suitable Singaporeans to do it — we bring them in,” he noted.
“And the way we design our policies is to allow in the workers where we most need them. For example, construction workers — we have hundreds of thousands of foreign construction workers because we just cannot get those people in Singapore.”
He added that Singapore has to “take from all over the world” when it comes to diverse skills and experiences. If a professional has a certain level of experience, it is presumed they’d be bringing their skills over and then they can work in Singapore.
To maximise the chances of Singaporeans to have work, SM Lee said the answer is to allow a controlled flow.
At the same time, he said migrants “must know that this is Singapore, and this is how you are supposed to behave in Singapore”.
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Featured image adapted from Prime Minister’s Office on YouTube.
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