'I become a mystery shopper': SM Lee reveals his personal approach to improving govt services

Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong has shared how he regularly looks out for ways to improve the interface of the websites of various government services.

Speaking to 800 students and academics during the Kent Ridge Ministerial Forum on Tuesday (Sept 9), SM Lee said that he becomes a “mystery shopper on behalf of the government” when “getting things done”.

“I need to go to MOM (Ministry of Manpower) to do something on their website [and] CPF to check my account,” he said at the University Cultural Centre in the National University of Singapore. “And I look at the interface and say, ‘Surely we can do better’.”

”So I send them a suggestion and tell them, ‘This is just a suggestion. Please take it seriously, but think about the best way to make things better’.”

SM Lee said government services will improve when Singapore has a more involved and engaged population who would feel that “if they think something can be better, they can do something about it”.

“The most Singaporean thing about you SM,” quipped the forum’s moderator, NUS Associate Professor Leong Ching, “is that you complain to the different agencies.”

”No No, I encourage. We can always do better,” replied SM Lee.

Not necessary to recite pledge every day: SM Lee

During the forum on Singapore’s national identity, SM Lee said that the sense of “Singaporean-ness”, or shared national identity, has strengthened after the country navigated through different crises. This includes the Asian Financial Crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic.

But he acknowledged that there are other aspects, such as race and religion, sexual orientation as well as political views, that may be more important for some Singaporeans.

“I think I can say that the national identity is stronger, but at the same time, it is not the only tribe which we belong to,” he said.

“We have to accept that this is the way people are… and so you do not necessarily wake up every day and say, well — just as I say my daily prayers or mantra, every morning, I stand up and recite the pledge to myself.”

A recent survey by the Institute of Policy Studies found that a growing number of Singaporeans view religion as a very important part of their lives and overall sense of identity.

“So, these are all other aspects, and we must know that we are one people. But we are not all identical. And there are fault lines which we have to guard,” said SM Lee.

SM Lee was also asked by Assoc Prof Leong if he views globalisation or Singaporeans “fighting among ourselves and fractured along fault lines” as more of a greater challenge to the sense of national identity in Singapore.

To that, SM Lee said that global developments, such as the Israel-Hamas war, as well as “powerful external forces” from the likes of China and India will pull Singaporeans “from time to time in very different directions”.

“Our job is to resist that and to remember, ‘Yes, I am Muslim, or I am Chinese, or I am Indian, but I am also Singaporean, and I do hold something here, and I belong here and I should look at the world, starting from here’”.

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Chingshijie@asiaone.com