Here's Why I Will be Proud to Call Myself a Singaporean in a Post-COVID19 World

Firstly, allow me to admit how strange it is, for me to be writing an article like this. Honestly, I'm usually more of a technical person, and every now and then, you will find me writing something tech/business related (from 60,000 feet) as a thought-leader. But tonight, I felt inspired to talk about what I'm feeling at this very moment as well as what I think about our future as a country.

Looking Back on 2020...

By now, I am pretty sure most folks will agree that it has been a really strange year. For many families, COVID-19 has created devastating loss as well. I think that it's a clear understatement to say that COVID19 has changed our lives forever, and nobody has been spared from it.

While I won't try to get into all the numbers and figures (we already have credible news outlets to remind us of that on a daily basis), I do want to take a moment to acknowledge that COVID19 has impacted so many of us in ways that it's probably impossible for others to comprehend.

I think in all honesty, 2020 has shown me that human life is incredibly fragile. And that's something that we never ever want to take for granted.

Overall, we are 11 months into this pandemic and roughly 7-8 months into the worse global recession that the world has ever faced. At this very point, I highly doubt anybody can say with 100% certainty what the future is going to look like, or when we can ultimately resume some of the normalcy that we had experienced pre-COVID19. In fact, I think we're all just holding our breath and waiting to see what the new normal is going to be (things are still evolving, adapting as the pandemic drags on).

[Takes a break to sip my milo drink]

Right now, with new cases of coronavirus infections emerging in huge numbers all across the northern hemisphere (due to cooler/colder weather), more and more nations are starting to reimpose lock-downs (or measures close to that) to help curb the spread of the virus infections.

While Singapore is mostly a tropical climate (we have a joke/saying whenever we're asked what Singapore's climate is like, we often reply, "Hot...Hotter...Hottest" :P), year-end is when we often experience the monsoon season and weather usually gets a little cooler than the rest of the year. It is also the same time of the year when we would have our flu season as well. But likely not as bad as the nations in the northern hemisphere. But still, we really need to be careful.

Personal Experience

My mother recently had a cold/flu herself. She was experiencing a running nose, coughing, the usual symptoms of flu. But with COVID19, it added to that anxiety somewhat. Frankly, when she told me about her visit to the doctor, I was kinda worried/concerned about it on the inside, but I didn't want to show it. I didn't want to overreact. I experienced a sigh of relief when her COVID19 test result came back negative.

Personally, I have also learned to become more self-aware of my own health, and I'm glad that so far, 2020 has been the 1st year in a very long time, that I haven't had the flu (touch wood). I intend on continuing to take care of my health, continue with the Vitamin C supplements on a daily basis, getting sufficient rest, and maintaining a regular workout regime.

1. I'm Proud of Our Government Leaders

Let me just set the record straight here. Having followed the news from all over the world (yeap, I honestly can't remember when was the last time I actually did something like that...almost every day), I will say that I think no government, or government leaders all over the world, have been perfect when it comes to the handling of the coronavirus outbreaks and economic recession. Okay, except maybe for Taiwan and New Zealand. They are probably the only 2 exceptions that I can think of. Every other country (including our own), has room for improvement and even our leaders were honest and humble enough to admit that about themselves. So it's not all praises from me when it comes to our government. But I will give credit when credit is due.

When I try to look at our government's actions and decisions through the lens of a leader, I understood that it's never easy for them to make those decisions when they did during the course of this year (e.g. Imposing the circuit breaker in April, and then extending it for another month in May). When faced with a virus that we do not know a lot about, it's like facing a challenge with very limited information. Leaders have to be able to make incredibly hard (and sometimes extremely risky) decisions in the face of that challenge. Reality is, we can never expect them to get it right all of the time. They won't. Chances are, some of those actions/decisions will also generate unpleasantness among some of the citizens/residents.

But I'm proud of our Government Leaders not because I am a supporter of the PAP (People Action's Party), but because of what they have done during the course of the pandemic. I praise them for their humility, responsibility, and honesty when it comes to presenting the facts of the pandemic & economic situation. The things that they have to tell us aren't necessarily things we want to hear (honestly, sometimes it's depressing as hell), but the truth also enabled us to act accordingly in our own capacity. Not to get too political about it, when I look at the way the leaders in some countries, like Brazil, or the US, have handled the pandemic, I count my blessings that we didn't have leaders like that running our nation.

I'm very sure that when this is all over, we'll all be sitting down (I mean them) to look over what has happened, and we can inspect everything with a fine toothbrush to see how we can respond and make better decisions when the next pandemic/crisis hits.

But right now, I am proud to say that I have leaders in my country that are willing to put their people first before their own self-interests.

2. 99.9997% Buy In..Okay, Maybe Not 99.9997, But You Get My Point

One of the most important things when facing a crisis/problem (especially when it involves many different parties) is to ensure that the challenge we're facing collectively has been well communicated, and also to make sure that there's a buy-in with all those involved. Without a high percentage of buy-in from every single stakeholder, it would be very hard to push certain policies ahead.

Rowing in the Same Direction

I think the simplest analogy I can come up with is rowing a boat. If you have a boat with multiple crew on it, and say, some of them don't buy-in to the vision/direction of where the boat is going, you will find yourself rowing in circles and not get anywhere anytime soon.

When it comes to Singapore...more accurately, Singaporeans (generally across the board), I am confident to say that we, as Singaporeans have proven to the world that when we face a challenge, we are all in it together (except maybe for a few covidiots).

But in order for there to be a good percentage of people to buy-in to the different policies, the government has to do its part to battle misinformation along the way, while at the same time ensure that the right messaging is disseminated to every individual across the country (especially those that are digitally disconnected). It is amazing to see what we have achieved so far as a nation, thanks to our Smart Nation Initiative with Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan at the helm. But there's more work to do on the ground though, and I get the sense that our leaders have their ears to the ground right now, and that's a good thing.

Overall, we are all rowing in the right direction and that to me is pretty amazing!

3. A Strong Kampong Spirit

There's simply no way for me to ignore this about our tiny little red dot on the map. As a leader, I have experienced & observed this over the years. When faced with a challenge/crisis, some teams/companies would end up banding together to face the crisis together and overcoming it together. Everybody stayed in the fight no matter how inconvenient it was for some that needed to step up and help each other. On the other hand, I have also witness teams/companies that kept on pointing fingers at each other, pushing blame, and eventually that team/company will fall apart.

Solidarity

One of the most invaluable qualities that I've witnessed and seen from our fellow Singaporeans is our solidarity as ONE PEOPLE. Sure, again, as I said before, there are always a small handful of folks that don't like to go along, and they would want to just do things their way (usually the ones breaking the rules/law). But overall, I saw a nation of individuals with different backgrounds, races, religions, and yet in times of crisis, we would pull together like one massive kampong family. It's seeing and reading about stories like these on a weekly basis that continues to give me hope in the face of an ongoing crisis. It gives me hope to know that no matter how difficult things may be, or however long this might drag on, that we always have each other's backs. That to me is what it means to be a Singaporean. It's our inherent kindness and compassion towards one another that shines through during times of crisis.

So YES, I am SUPER PROUD of our KAMPONG SPIRIT!

4. The "GRIT" of Our People

Being someone that's very close to the ground, I've had the privilege of observing, and listening to folks that have been struggling and overcoming various challenges during this economic recession. Almost every week, I would be speaking to someone (either a graduate, or working professionals) that's worried about their job prospects, or seeking advice on what to do next (after losing their jobs).

As terrified as most of them would be, one thing remains common among all of us, our resilience. Change is always scary at first. It's even scarier when the change comes so suddenly without any warning. Human beings in general, are resistant to changes. That's part of human nature. But I'm always pleased to see how so many people are willing to embrace the new change (in some cases, reinventing themselves).

As a leader, I always believe that you don't necessarily have to like change (I don't sometimes), but you do need to have the right attitude towards it if you want to be successful in life. For me, I see a nation of people that are filled with GRIT.

Many of us have lost our jobs this year. With the continuous digital transformation and the financial support for employers/employees coming to an end, I foresee more job losses happening in the first half 2021. This is a time when many companies are restructuring so that they can channel their resources & funds into various digital-related initiatives. This is also why we are witnessing a huge growing demand in fields like Automation, AI, Robotics, Data Science, E-commerce, and more.

What that means is that more folks will have to be "forced" to reinvent themselves if they want to remain relevant and increase their chances of being hired. It's also the main reason why our government is currently encouraging so much buy-in and involvement when it comes to our traineeship program. Plus encouraging those that have been retrenched to upskill/reskill themselves so that they can increase their chances of staying hired (reshuffled to a different role within the same company perhaps), or to be hired by other companies.

In some other cases, folks like myself, have resorted to taking on jobs that are totally unrelated to our past experiences in the interim while we wait for better job opportunities to open up. It's not ideal. In most cases, many of us would have to experience a significant pay cut as a result. But staying afloat financially during this season is way more important than being picky with our choices.

In so many ways, I am glad to know that I am not alone in this.

5. WE [as a Nation] Were Much More Prepared

When I look at everything that our nation has been through this year together, I find myself arriving at this simple conclusion - as a nation, we were much better prepared for what was going to happen than many others around the world. I'm not talking about the pandemic itself because the novel coronavirus was something new, and it's something that every nation has to learn to manage with time.

But a nation, I am grateful that we have been preparing for this rainy season (largely thanks to our forefathers and their sacrifices). When our government rolled out the budgets this year, it was immediately clear to me that our forefathers have been preparing the nation for this day. Many of them might not have lived long enough to see the fruits of their labor, but I am very sure we are all grateful for it.

When I think about my own generation now, and the upcoming generation of Singaporeans, I felt really inspired to want to do the same, just as our forefathers did. We need to do everything we can to prepare our future generations for the crisis that they might be facing. It's not a matter of if, but a matter of when that might happen. Personally, I like to think that before I leave this world (assuming I get to live until I am 90 [and healthy]), I foresee that as a nation, we will have to weather at least another 1 or 2 more major crisis. Regardless of what the severity of that future crisis might be, I think it's important that we start preparing ourselves early.

Progressiveness

One thing that I felt allowed Singapore (Singaporeans in general) to stand out among the rest of the world, is our progressiveness as a nation. This is not just on the part of our government's leadership, but also with the shared involvement from the private sector and every single individual citizen.

When COVID19 struck Singapore, and we needed to initiate the circuit breaker and a whole slew of other lifestyle changes (like working from home), we began to realize that as a nation, we were much better prepared for these new changes than we realized. Like I mentioned before, it doesn't mean that we are perfect. We still need to improve on the accessibility (inclusiveness) when it comes to technology as a nation.

But thanks to the shared vision/plans that we had over the years, we were ready.

But here's the most important lesson of all, we cannot become complacent, and we must continue to innovate (quite frankly, I think the pandemic has given us no reason to stop). As a nation, we need to continue building our vision for the future. We need to think ahead and begin setting ourselves up for whatever we might need to face in the near future. Ideally, we would love to be fully prepared for the next major crisis that we will face as a nation, but that's usually not realistic. But my hope is that we will learn from this pandemic that we need to embrace this innovative culture as a nation and make it more widespread.

Closing Thoughts

To sum it all up, in spite of everything that we are facing as a nation today, I am proud & grateful that I am a Singaporean, born and bred. I'm thankful that we have leaders in our government that are humble, honest, and willing to put our citizens before themselves. I am grateful that we have a nation with a strong "Kampong Spirit". It gives me hope to know that no matter how tough it gets, we will always have each other's backs. Finally, I am proud (and I say it with a deep sense of pride), that as a nation, we are one of the most progressive nations on earth. We might be small, tiny even. But we are mighty in what we can achieve when we put our minds together.

That...people, is why I am proud to be a Singaporean.

(Share with me in the comments below why you are proud to be a Singaporean. Or maybe if you're working/living in Singapore right now, why that is. I love to read about it!)