Why Aren't We Like Singapore?

Why Aren't We Like Singapore?
July 29, 2006

Philippine Free Press

I RECENTLY visited Singapore with a group of engineers from the Lyceum of Aparri led by our executive vice president, Fr. Joel Reyes. We wanted to take pictures of architectural designs of skyscrapers and schoolbuildings in Singapore that we thought would be useful in putting up a new and modern high school building and a library on the Lyceum of Aparri campus and we wanted to find out what had made Singapore a highly developed country.

I learned that Singapore is only about the size of Makati City, but this has not been a hindrance to its economic progress and national greatness. Singapore is growing and growing at an explosive rate. It is a dynamic nation, with a kind and generous people and immaculately clean surroundings. Children are in schools and there are no street children, no scavengers and mendicants in the streets. I could go on reciting endless facts about this beautiful Asian country. I heard that it was Lee Kwan Yew's enlightened leadership that brought Singapore to where it is today. Yet I did not see any poster of Lee anywhere in Singapore.

I paused to reflect. Why can't the Philippines be as progressive as Singapore?

At this stage in our history, we Filipinos are struggling every day just to survive. It's a brutal struggle for a decent and respectable life. We wallow in poverty in a society beset by crime, vice, graft and corruption. Worse, we are roaming like sheep without a shepherd because our national leaders are preoccupied with politics.

Our hosts in Singapore told us that of late, government budget surplus is being given to state employes. Singaporeans can also suggest to the government how services can be better delivered to the public. I lament that we Filipinos cannot do that. We could be accused of being destabilizers.

On Monday, President Arroyo will address a joint session of Congress again. I will be happy, as others surely will, to listen to her tell the truth in the State of the Nation that our country is not faring like Singapore.

Reginald B. Tamayo
member, sangguniang Bayan
Aparri, Cagayan
20 Ballesteros Street
Aparri, Cagayan