Let's go back to history when Singapore was kicked out of the federation of Malaysia in 1965.
One country which had no resources started thinking that the Kiasu spirit will strengthen the people's competitiveness. They then worked hard and turned a strategic weakness into a strength: thus the emergence of a developed kiasuland with the highest GDP per capita in Asia (US$35,445 versus Japan's US$34,678 and nearly five times larger than Malaysia's US$7,522 based on 2007 nominal GDP data).
The other country which had plenty of resources, timber, rubber, palm oil, petrol, gas, etc found that it could afford to be a bit complacent and lepak. Thus the bolehlah attitude pervaded the whole civil service and infected the corporate and personal culture of the people.
So when Tun Dr Mahathir made mocking remarks about Singapore Mentor Minister Lee Kuan Yew's visit to Malaysia, I think TDM should realise this twist of destiny:
One country which had no resources started thinking that the Kiasu spirit will strengthen the people's competitiveness. They then worked hard and turned a strategic weakness into a strength: thus the emergence of a developed kiasuland with the highest GDP per capita in Asia (US$35,445 versus Japan's US$34,678 and nearly five times larger than Malaysia's US$7,522 based on 2007 nominal GDP data).
The other country which had plenty of resources, timber, rubber, palm oil, petrol, gas, etc found that it could afford to be a bit complacent and lepak. Thus the bolehlah attitude pervaded the whole civil service and infected the corporate and personal culture of the people.
So when Tun Dr Mahathir made mocking remarks about Singapore Mentor Minister Lee Kuan Yew's visit to Malaysia, I think TDM should realise this twist of destiny:
The morale of these two countries is that bolehland will always be lagging behind kiasuland merely because of different attitudes of mind and spirit. Nothing to do with physical resources or whether water was transacted at 3 sen per 1,000 gallons (made under two agreements in the 1960s).
The other good thing about the kiasu spirit is that it is not arrogant. Who would like to be called kiasu champions?
ReplyDeleteThe flip side of the kiasu spirit is the kia si spirit (fear of dying). That explains why the PAP is so paranoid about the opposition and encouraging people to choose alternative parties.