Is There A New Role For Government? - Civil Service College

Is There A New Role For Government?9adventurous in the face of an innovative idea,think in terms of “Why not?”, and spend the timeworking out how to manage the risk rather thanto kill the idea? One problem, of course, is thatthe agency which benefits from the risk-taking isoften not the agency which takes the risk (e.g.allowing in visitors who might end up overstayingas illegal immigrants means a risk taken by theImmigration and Checkpoint Authority but abenefit gleaned by the Singapore Tourism Board).We must be prepared to think “whole ofgovernment” rather than “bits of government”.foreigners, but also because of its role in buildingSingapore. The opportunity to be the best theycan be is what gives Singaporeans hope; it is whatroots them here and bonds them emotionally toSingapore. Seeing Singapore as Opportunitydrives excellence in all that we do, but more thanthat, it is what holds us together as a people, whatconnects us as citizens, and ultimately, whatsustains us as a nation.ConclusionWhat I have tried to do is to explain thestrategic context for embarking on theexercise to search out what we can doand ought to do to make Singapore is Opportunityreal for all. This is something critical, and somethingwe need to handle with a sense of much urgency.Too often we wait for someone else to do things,maybe in New York or London or KL or Bangkokor Hong Kong or Shanghai, and then lament weare too late, or we have to think of somethingdifferent, and then enter into another cycle tryingto find someone else who has tried it. Too oftenwe find ourselves playing catch up and copycat.The spirit of adventure and of risk-taking issubdued. I remember a quotation by Dr Goh KengSwee which, at one time, was plastered all overthe SAF—“The only way to avoid making mistakesis to do nothing, and that, in the final analysis,will be the ultimate mistake.”So let me go back to the title of my talk: Is therea new role for government? My answer is a clear‘No!’ Successful government has always beenabout creating hope and opportunity for thepeople. But what hope and opportunity arechanges with the times, and can only be understoodby looking at things from the standpoint of thepeople—or, more correctly, the standpoint ofdifferent groups of people—and not from thestandpoint of ministries and statutory boards.Singapore is Opportunity is not a cute theme, buta strategic paradigm for building hope for all. Itis important not only because of the economicedge it gives us by building new businesses,welcoming diversity and enterprise and attracting