What will you defend?

I'm supposed to be sleeping but the coffee I took for the driving lesson hasn't worn off and my hair hasn't dried either. While surfing around to kill time, I chanced upon "Dr Allan Ooi’s farewell letter and last words before his death: Questions for SAF to answer.

The letter makes for a chilling read: the composure, tone, regretfulness, yet unrelenting indignation. For those who aren't aware, Dr Allan was an RSAF doctor and SAF scholar who "suddenly" went AWOL only to be found after he had taken his life in Australia, at the young age of 27. It's a heart wrenching story—even for a heartless beast like me—much like the recent German school shootings or the NTU stabbing incident. I often tell people, that it's easy to get killed (all you have to do is be unlucky, stupid, or careless), but it takes great resolve to take your own life, violently or otherwise.

And as the ads for this national education competition flash all over adspace, I think to myself, what a wonderful world what is it we are defending anyway?

$11.45 billion, sophisticated weapon systems, integrated arms... Sure they have answered the question "can Singapore defend itself from her primary aggressor(s)?" since the only war we will ever fight would be to protect our only resources: infrastructure and human "talent". But what the real threat lay within Troy's walls, in the "brilliant" systems that we have set up? The kinds of systems that get international acclaim because they look fantastic on paper or because we've chosen the most handsome ambassador.

I've blogged about this before and I think I will do so again. We have taken meritocracy too far, too subtly, such that it has been embedded in our thinking. From young, we fight for good grades at school, to move on to a better school, to move on to a better job, a better salary... a better life. Once upon a time this kind of competition may have been ideal, when society was simpler, more homogenous, and more hungry. It may well be that this mentality is what propelled us to the comfortable life most of us experience today.

But if we carry on like this, always fighting over known resources instead of finding new ones, creating opportunities out of nowhere, filling niches that were previously unthinkable, we will just be setting ourselves up for demise. We think Singapore is crowded and too populated and it's hard to succeed against so many people. Wait till more Chinese immigrants start flooding in after the acquire the simple skills that are required for our so-called sophisticated white-collar jobs. Your straight As, experience, or loyalty summed up will not be able to best their ultra low price-tag. (10% of your wages?)

If there's anything I want to defend, I want to defend a society that is increasingly cooperative. We've got the bit about the economy right. We've got an arguable clean, habitable—even enjoyable—city to live in. Now let's get the next bits right. We must stop destroying ourselves from the inside out. We must stop forcing the best talents among us to other places. We must change the economics of our country.

It's a dangerous idea. But the pie really can be big enough for all of us, and then some.