‘My fear is, as in the past, that our bickering will cause us to miss the boat (again) unless we come together and resolve to do today what we should have done decades ago.’
FOR the first time in two years, I was able to escape the territorial limits of the Philippines, traveling to the Republic of Singapore, aka the “red dot,” for two days of intense presentations to investment/fund managers. The company I work for, Nickel Asia Corporation (NAC), via its renewable energy arm (Emerging Power, Inc. or EPI), entered into a joint venture agreement last July 1 with Shell to establish a renewable energy operation focused on solar, wind and battery storage, with a 1 GW target, or more.
We spent Monday and Tuesday presenting our company investment story to fund managers on a “non-deal” basis, some of whom were hearing about NAC for the first time but many of whom were interested, if not in fact eager, to get into the act.
The last time I was in Singapore was in 2019, I think, using it as a stopover on the way to and from Bali for the Christmas holidays. Nothing much has changed for the island-state, except for new buildings, more construction sites and, well, Singapore being more of Singapore.
One of my friends remarked that Singapore is like BGC (Bonifacio Global City) on an island-state scale, and in many ways he was correct, except for the fact that even by ratio and proportion there are not enough trees at BGC.
My late aunt Gloria in the 1970s actually stayed in Singapore for some time, having had an engagement with the RELC (Regional English Language Center). I took her back to Singapore in the 1990s, and despite her poorer eyesight was looking around upon our arrival before asking me, “Where are we?” Who could blame her, when the change in Singapore from the 1970s to the 1990s was phenomenal? They even cleaned up the Singapore River and turned the water from what I call “Pasig River black” to the healthy green now.
In the same period, we stalled.
But, as the President said in his inaugural, “we do not look back.” So maybe we can look forward and ask ourselves if Singapore can be what we could be.
Just as “freedom is not free,” as renowned journalist Vergel Santos says in a book, development is not free as well. Singaporeans have had to pay for the life they enjoy now in other ways, from high tax rates to governments less tolerant of critics than many of its neighbors. The question for us, as it has always been, is what are we willing to “pay” (or give up?) for a much better life? And when do we make a go for it?
Maybe if you ask the 31 million, they’ll say this is the time; but maybe if you ask the 19 million, they’ll say this is the worst possible time.
My fear is, as in the past, that our bickering will cause us to miss the boat (again) unless we come together and resolve to do today what we should have done decades ago.
Only this time we have a “proof point” in the island-state acting as a model of how things could be done.
Indeed, Singapore may be a mere red dot on any map but is very clearly a country that punches above its weight.
