Ethan Lee Yee Chien

Singapore in the 21st Century: Addressing the Unique Challenges of My Homeland

Singapore is my homeland, an island-state borne from the political turmoils of the 20th century — colonialism and communism. The prosperity enjoyed by Singaporeans is a product of economic prosperity and political stability. This is fascinating to many, given Singapore’s adoption of a free-market model yet with government-linked-corporations, or its unitary dominant-party nature. Nevertheless, any nuanced insight and academic scholarship on Singapore recognises the tradeoffs that have come with this success. In order to build a more prosperous society, where prosperity goes beyond material success to include economic well-being, issues from social, political and economic realms need to be addressed. This essay will examine the issues of freedom of speech, economic inequality and education, highlighting certain areas of concern and propose solutions. The issues were selected for their relevance and their nature in spanning across fields.