By Rachel Chang
THE drive to be a Global City has come at a price for
Singaporeans and their quality of life, said three prominent
figures, including Workers' Party chairman Sylvia Lim, on
Monday.
And while Singapore may have first-world infrastructure, it
suffers from a lack of creativity and intellectual freedom of the
sort found in other Global Cities, they argued during a panel at
the annual Singapore Perspectives seminar.
Noting that she found the terms Global City and Endearing Home a
contradiction, Ms Lim said that there has been a 'palpable sense of
loss of identity' among Singaporeans due to the pace of change over
the last few years.
She said that the change in population mix in particular - in
1990, 86 per cent of the population were local; this fell to 63 per
cent in 2010 - has had an adverse impact on Singaporeans and their
sense of security
In fact, she noted that she has heard from some who have
emigrated elsewhere that they believed they would be better taken
care of as permanent residents in other countries, than as citizens
in their own.
This perennial tension between the frenetic pace of a Global
City and the sheltering stability of a Nation-State was singled out
by author Derek Da Cunha, a fellow panellist, as an issue that will
prove critical in the forthcoming General Election.
