The Straits Times has been known to be used by the Government to
prepare the ground before action is taken - (if we read the
Government's habit of preparing the ground before the release of
any statistic or data - see the recent reply from Minister Lim Hng
Kiang posted in "One set of data - Two Interpretations" ) .
Read the following article that has compared PM Goh as a "silver
backed" gorilla leader of a pack of gorillas that continuously seek
directions and security from its leader:
Are Singaporeans similar to this
species of apes ?
INSIGHT: Workers need protection, not
just direction
By Chua Mui Hoong
THINKING ALOUD
GORILLAS in Central Africa live in small bands that revolve around
a dominant male called a silverback because of the silver hair on
his back and neck.
The silverback provides the focal point that keeps others in line
when the group forages for food. He travels in front, and protects
the group from predators. In times of distress, others look to
him.
Human societies are of course far more complex than gorilla
communities. But the basic primate need for direction, protection
and a sense of order cuts across species.
In Singapore, these are unsettling times for all. Workers face job
loss and wage cuts. An impending 'retuning' of the Central
Provident Fund rates is likely. Wage reform means some workers will
end up with less pay.
For companies and employers in Singapore, the environment is also
unsettling, as the entry of India and China into the global market
system brings in new, low-cost, medium-skill competitors.
In these times, people look to leaders for direction, order and
protection.
Singapore's leaders do provide a clear sense of the first two.
Those who follow public discussions on economic restructuring know
the direction ahead: To get more jobs, Singapore needs more
flexible labour markets and workers need to retrain.
The message has been driven home. The results are not in yet, but
there is a sense of coherence in the restructuring that is under
way.
Each major group - workers, unions, employers, government officials
- knows its part in the overall scheme of things, and leaders in
each of these groups understand, at least at the conceptual level,
what needs to be done.
The trouble is that the changes necessary require more than just
leaders to make the changes.
The real work of change is adaptive, requiring individuals involved
to change the way they live and work and understand the
world.
To do so, people need to buy into the vision articulated by
leaders. But to buy into the vision, they need first of all to feel
secure and protected in the group.
Imagine the silverback telling his band of gorillas: 'We need to
get to a new feeding ground. This area is now too arid for our
food.
'I don't know where the new ground is, except that it's in this
general direction and that we will get there. The journey will be
long and hard. Some of us will end up worse off. Some may even die
on the journey. We'll face many dangers along the way.'
Gorillas will clamour: Do we really need a new ground? Can't we
make do with what we have?
The Singaporean equivalent: What's wrong with the past high-wage,
high-growth strategy? Why can't Singapore continue with its
exports-led model of growth? Why must companies retrench when
they're still profitable? Why don't we all just settle for being
less profitable, less attractive as an investment destination, a
less dynamic economy?
If gorillas overcome this first resistance, and see that they do
need a new feeding ground, their next concerns will be: Where are
we going and how do you know that's the right place?
The Singaporean equivalent: Must we restructure the economy? Do
wages really have to be made more flexible? Must we retune the CPF?
What's the assurance that after all the pain of the journey,
there'll be a new and better feeding ground at the end of it?
On this, the People's Action Party government has a sterling track
record and will be able to command the trust of people that indeed
there'll be a fresh, more abundant feeding ground ahead.
After buying into this vision of a brighter future, gorillas will
want to know: What are you, silverback, doing to protect us on the
journey? What do you mean, some of us may die, when it's your job
to protect us? Why should we agree to go on the journey in the
first place, unless you can guarantee our security?
The Singaporean equivalent: Okay, we realise we may need to make
all those changes. But those changes are painful and come at a
cost. What are you doing to cushion us from the pain?
We want job protection for Singaporeans. We want unions to prevent
companies from retrenching. We want you to promise to keep costs of
Housing Board flats, bus and train fares and health-care costs
down. If you don't promise us these, we won't go along.
This dramatisation of the gorilla-Singapore conflict is not meant
to be frivolous or disrespectful. It aims to throw into sharper
relief the underlying conflict that has emerged in public
discussion about economic and wage restructuring.
The silverback and other leaders know what needs to be done. But
the change that is needed requires effort from every single one in
the team: every gorilla must go on the journey.
Contrast this with the situation if the silverback were to say:
'This feeding ground is getting fallow. But I have the solution: I
know a place where I can get a magic fertiliser that will turn this
ground into a fertile feeding ground again.'
This requires no change from others: the leader diagnoses the
problem and provides the solution.
Harvard leadership guru Ronald Heifetz distinguishes between
technical leadership where the leader provides the answer, and
adaptive leadership, where the leader has to mobilise everyone to
make the change.
Adaptive leadership requires more than just the ability to diagnose
the problem and point to the solution. It requires leaders to
regulate the level of distress felt by those undergoing change and
to respect their pain.
Prof Heifetz wrote: 'The pains of change deserve respect. People
can only sustain so much loss at any one time. Leadership demands
respect for people's basic need for direction, protection and order
in times of distress. Leadership requires compassion for the
distress of adaptive change, both because compassion is its own
value, and because it can improve one's sense of timing. Knowing
how hard to push and when to let up are central to
leadership.'
In today's context, workers are feeling real pain and anxieties.
They are adjusting as best they can. People like computer operator
Katherine Chow (on facing page) are tightening their belts in case
they're laid off. This newspaper has featured graduates who became
hawkers or waiters because white-collar jobs are scarce, and
twenty-somethings reconciled to a decade of slow growth.
Leaders must and can do more to acknowledge the pain felt and give
people a sense of protection and security. Without giving false
cheer, they must instil confidence.
More effort must be put into creating systems that protect people
while change is under way.
Even as ministers talk about wage reform, which gives relief to
employers, workers want social reform, which will mend the existing
glaring holes in the social safety net and help them through
periods of unemployment.
To help workers focus on the journey to the new feeding ground,
leaders have to meet workers' emotional need for protection.
It may well be that no leader can guarantee security against global
economic realities. In that case, workers need to feel a sense of
confidence that they can make it.
When the nation listens to
Singapore's silverback - Prime Minister Goh Chok
Tong - deliver his National Day Rally speech tomorrow, it will be
looking not only for a sense of direction and order, but also to
feel secure and protected.
The writer is a senior correspondent on The Straits Times Political
Desk.
