Dr Balakrishnan made the point as he spoke on how young Singaporeans believe there should be equal opportunities for all.
This is one of three attributes that make them different from their peers elsewhere, he said. The other two are a strong sense of national identity and having a real stake in Singapore’s future.
Dr Balakrishnan said that though young people sometimes disagree on issues, each and every one of them instinctively feels Singaporean and shares a “sense of collective destiny and sense of being masters of our own future”.
With the Government having built a “stake-holding society”, such as through the HDB scheme that has ensured high rates of home ownership, young people here also recognise they have a stake in Singapore’s success and progress, he added.
“But going beyond bricks and mortar is this sense that we’re in it together and that if we take liberties with our own future, we have real stakes to lose,” he said when elaborating on how young Singaporeans differ from those elsewhere.
“Without naming names, this question has become even more salient in recent times,” he added.
Young people here have been compared by some commentators to those in Hong Kong, who are the force driving the pro-democracy demonstrations that have roiled the territory for three months.
At the dinner, Dr Balakrishnan also touched on the history of NUS.
Its predecessor, the University of Malaya, was formed when the King Edward VII College of Medicine and Raffles College merged.
Both the medical school and NUS were set up in part to give Singaporeans an equal opportunity in education because the British, as Singapore’s colonial masters, had treated locals as second class, he said .
And as Singapore marks its bicentennial this year, it is important to know the history and context of developments here, he added.
