51 young Singaporeans voice their views on the next big thing for the country in book

Last year, Singapore turned 50 years old. To celebrate this milestone and to also look forward to what the country's future holds, a new book of essays titled The Birthday Book was launched recently.

It contains essays from 51 young Singaporeans, on what they think would be Singapore's next big thing.

The book was launched on Aug 27, soon after the Republic's 51st birthday celebrations. Edited by the associate director of Public Affairs and Communication at The Head Foundation Malminderjit Singh, the book puts forward thoughts and arguments on various opportunities and challenges the country is likely to face going into the future.

The contributors to the book include entrepreneurs, literary personalities, academics, journalists, civil servants, a stand-up comedian and many others.

The essays cover a diverse range of topics from sports to economics, racial harmony to international law and government policy to arts and theatre.

The voices in the book lend varied tones to it. Some essays are formal, discussing technological futures and economic advancements. Others feature the recipe of a local dish, a letter from the future, a design brief and a fictional newspaper story.

Mr Singh conceptualised the book together with Mr Aaron Maniam, director of industry division, in the Ministry of Trade. Mr Singh said that on the country's 50th birthday, the nation took stock of the past and celebrated many of its successes. He felt the need to look forward was equally important, which he wanted the book to do.

He said: "In reflecting on our achievements and celebrating an improbable journey, a strong sense of national pride was created, fostering a collective identity and a sense of belonging. But, what next? That was the question I asked myself."

Around the same time as the idea for the book was taking shape in his head, his first child, a girl, was born. He calls it "parental instinct, paranoia about her future" because suddenly the urge to think deeper about Singapore's future and to act on it, became stronger.

The idea took its final shape in a taxi he shared with Mr Maniam after a dinner party. He discussed the ideas and questions with Mr Maniam. The two thought a book like this could be a useful platform for "young voices in Singapore to share their thoughts about the country and be a vehicle to catalyse a wider civic movement."

Happy with the final product, Mr Maniam told tabla! that the book gives both hindsight on the past and insight to the future.

"Hindsight because these are stories that capture part of the national imagination at this point in time - just after SG50. It is a point of reference to which we can look back as we take stock of our evolution as a country, economy and society.

"But the essays also look forward, providing insights into possible futures for Singapore. There are ideas about how we can try to create the future we want, and hopefully avoid the future we don't," he said.

The running theme of the book is Singapore's next big thing, keeping true to the narrative that was forward-looking.

Mr Singh explained that this theme would provide a glimpse into the minds of young leaders in the nation on "what they envisioned a driver of the Singapore of the future would be."

Besides stimulating intellectual discussions and arguments, Mr Singh and Mr Maniam hope the book brings together young Singaporeans who identify with a particular thread or cause highlighted in it.

"The Birthday Book will aim to catalyse movements and additional ground-up projects around these causes," Mr Singh said.

Mr Maniam said he has been encouraged by the positive reactions to both the print version and online shares of the book.

"Some of the writers are meeting in smaller groups to discuss collaborations and how to take their ideas further. There have already been volunteers to write for the 2017 edition. This is all very much part of the aim to have the book as a nucleus around which a community develops and thrives," he said.

The book is going to be published each year around National Day, with the number of contributors intentionally congruent to Singapore's age (51 this year, 52 next year, and so on).

The book was put together in three months, with work on it starting in May this year.

Mr Singh said: "All the contributors played a key role in ensuring that we met this tight timeline and achieve a difficult task. Firstly, they all agreed to write, which made it easier for us. In fact, out of the 53 potential contributors, 51 accepted our invitation. The two who declined only did so because of work commitments and they promised to contribute next year."

The book is published by Ethos Books and available in bookstores like Times, Kinokuniya and MPH.

The essays

Mr Singh and Mr Maniam are among the 51 contributors.

Mr Singh has written his essay as a fictional newspaper article from the future where he speaks about education being the soft power tool for Singapore.

It highlights a trend for government leaders in Asia to be educated within the continent, rather than going to the US/UK to study. He sees Singapore playing the role of "regional educator and capacity builder" in the future.

Singapore's universities like National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University are among the best in the world. Mr Singh told tabla!: "With the global centre of power shifting towards Asia, students from the region may find a declining lure from the West and so look within their region for other sources of education.

"Singapore, with its unique blend of Asian roots and Western influences, provides a good alternative to those who want to stay in an emerging region. "As more young people come here to study, including emerging leaders, Singapore's appeal to people and governments of Asia is likely to increase."

In Mr Maniam's essay, which is a letter from his future self, he speaks about the importance of moving beyond the scarcity mindset and living in an age where "resources like data, networks and relationships are generative rather than scarce".

He told tabla!: "Not all resources are generative, but many of the most important ones in the future will be: Data and knowledge in a digitalized economy; social capital and trust in a hyper-connected world. Singapore is well-placed to harness the potential of both, given the growing drive towards digitalization and technology adoption, which build on many of our existing strengths as a global hub and integrated economic ecosystem."

In another essay titled 21st Century Girls: Cultivating Creative Confidence with Tech, Ms Ayesha Khanna, an innovation and technology expert who has served on the Ministry of Education's ASPIRE steering committee, writes about "girl power" in technology being the next big thing.

Ms Khanna runs a non-profit organisation called 21C Girls, which teaches technology to girls in relevant ways. The 21C Girls programmes are run in various schools and universities in Singapore.

Ms Khanna wants to change the perception, more prevalent in Asia, that engineering and technology are male professions.

"This thought stems from the early days when engineering involved working with construction companies and factories. But in an age where every industry, even the world's largest manufacturing companies like ABB and GE, are becoming more digital in nature, society can start afresh and not have old biases associated with physical engineering extend to digital engineering," she told tabla!.

However, change is happening around the world.

"More and more women are entering the digital workforce, but we still have a long way to go," said Ms Khanna.

Her belief is that young women, equipped with right technology tools, have the power to be Singapore's next big thing and have the potential to empower others.

Another essayist in the book, Mr Veerappan Swaminathan, speaks about the Maker Movement being the next big thing for Singapore.

The movement focuses on enabling individuals and societies with knowledge and tools to solve their own problems. It is about changing the consumption-minded society to one of production-minded.

Mr Swaminathan is the co-founder of the Sustainable Living Lab (SL2), a social enterprise. He says the Maker Movement gained a foothold in Singapore in 2011 and since then he has seen many encouraging changes.

He told tabla!: "The biggest changes I have seen are in two areas - startups and education. SPRING Singapore launched a $1 million tender for a Prototyping Lab at the National Design Centre in 2014 and in the same year Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) launched the IDA Labs, both aiming to promote hardware startups in an ecosystem that was largely focused on software/Internet innovation.

"Now NUS and NTU are following suit along with some private companies coming in with huge amount of investments for similar setups."

Civil servant Sheila Pakir in her essay focuses on setting the communication gap between government and public right. In her essay titled Speaking To One Another, she writes about the imperativeness of having citizens understand the big moves and policy of the government and how it affects them. She said the "small-seeming act of simply having more people talk to fellow citizens about policies and benefits available to them could end up being a rather big thing indeed".

She told tabla!: "I think such a gap is only natural, and occurs between every government and electorate in the world. Part of the reason for this is that policies are usually complex, because they have to cater to so many different types of people in different situations."

She stressed that personalisation is key to making communication more effective.

Stand-up comedian Rishi Budhrani in his essay stresses the importance of the role art plays in a society.

Mr Budhrani, who has performed in comedy shows in New York, Los Angeles, Sydney and India among other places, believes that open discussion and debate without the risk of regulation and control could be the way forward for the country.

He said Singapore is in a good position to start an open discussion about "issues such as politics, race, gender and sexuality among others".

He added: "The Internet and social media have already begun providing a platform for discussions like these, so rather than fight the free platform, we might be better off educating society on the value of ethics and responsibility in structured discussion on these once 'taboo' topics, as opposed to ignoring these topics in the mainstream media. These conversations ARE being had, so why don't we make it part of our national conversation."

These and many such riveting reads make up The Birthday Book.

tabla@sph.com.sg

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